My wife and I spent one night at Ashford Castle Oct 5th. We were looking for a 'castle experience' and found one of DavidO's reviews (David thx for the report!) and booked it over the phone. David's report can be found hereand he will do a much better job describing the hotel than you will find in the following.

Location

We drove a rental car from Dublin to Cong with a lunch stop in Gatwick. It was a bit out of the way but worth the stop. Total drive time for us was about 2 hours and 45 min but my wife was driving and we were moving at leisurely pace. The main highways were great and the smaller roads to the caste were manageable for any driver.

The castle is on a huge property between Lake Lough Corrib and the town of Cong. During our stay we spent a little over 3 hours walking the grounds. Very much like visiting several different parks and gardens on the same trip.

There is a 9 - hole golf course on the grounds which is free for any of the guest to play on. I just paid a rental fee for the clubs. Course was very open but very pretty and well worth the time spent.

Room

We were given the 'John Wayne' room, so name because it seemed he stayed there once and the staff called it that ever since. It was very large for our standards (350 sq feet) with fantastic views of the lake and grounds. The room included a large flat screen TV, desk and sitting area complete with a bottle of brandy :).

Dining

Breakfast

Full hot and cold buffet and al a carte menu breakfast in the main dining room was included with our room rate. Breakfast was wonderful and I couldn't recommend it more. Staff was very genuine and made sure we were completely comfortable through out the meal.

Dinner

We made a reservation for dinner when we booked the room and were notified that a coat was required for the men and no jeans was allowed. They did not require a tie and I felt comfortable when I didn't wear one :). They did have a tasting menu with a wine pairing but we opted of for al a carte options. The meal was nice. I think we both enjoyed it for the atmosphere and fantastic service but I wouldn't put the food in our 'top ten'.

Service

Everyone working at the casle was increadly friendly. I think the goal was to make the experience a blend between luxury and a 'make yourself at home' feeling. While at times it may have felt a little overwhleming I think they tried very hard to make our stay as pleasnt as possible. Any requests we had were accomidated quickly.

The conciage was very helpfull and made several helpful suggestions. My wife was introduced to Falconing and I was set up with a set of golf clubs to play the 9 hole course.

Overall

We had a wonderfull time and would highly reccomend it. I would recommend a longer stay than one night. There were a lot of activity we would have tried with a longer stay in particular fly fishing in the river, horse backriding on the grounds and trap shooting.