COLM KEENAand his family were made to feel right at home at one of Ireland's iconic hotels
ASHFORD CASTLE, near Cong in Co Mayo, has a reputation as one of the best luxury hotels in the State, but it doesn’t quite feel like that.
In a way, it doesn’t feel like a hotel at all. Rather, it’s as if you have been invited to stay at a very rich family’s country home for some reason or other. When you arrive, they tell you that something has come up and they’re busy, but you are to make yourself at home. And so you do.
You check out your lovely bedrooms, and then go down and explore the drawing room, the dining room and the lobby, all with Waterford Crystal chandeliers, wood panelling and oil paintings. Then you go out for a wander around the extensive grounds, pinching yourself and feeling pleased.
Your hosts are so rich they have staff, and when you bump into them you find they are mostly local people who have been employed at the house for years and seem as pleased as you are to have ended up here.
And no wonder, because the castle is not just luxurious and staffed by people who have learned to be efficient without suppressing their personalities; it is also located on the shores of Lough Corrib and on the edge of Connemara. Words like magical, and even mystical, are brought to mind.
“It’s like Hogwarts,” the children chorused from the back seat of the car as we crested a hill on the estate’s long driveway and got our first view of where we were going to stay. If it wasn’t for the golf course it could well be a set in a Harry Potter movie. The stone bridge over the Cong river that you cross to get to the castle has castellated walls and towers. On the lake side of the bridge there are tall rushes and you see how the full, wide river flows into the huge, calm lake just past one corner of the castle. Inside the main entrance to the hotel, a knight’s suit of armour stands guard.
Much to our delight we got adjoining rooms with connecting double doors, just like in the movies. The children got their own large room, complete with bathroom, wardrobe and large flatscreen TV; they immediately and simultaneously began unpacking, checking out the bathroom, flicking through the TV channels and bouncing on the beds.
Soon after our arrival, Ashford Castle’s Paula Carroll told us how much the hotel loved having children come to stay and that everything was allowed, bar swinging from the chandeliers. We half believed her.
In fact, one of the things I was struck by was the number of families staying at the not-inexpensive hotel (we were there as guests of the hotel). There were Irish and foreign families, children and teenagers walking around the grounds or sitting in the drawing room reading, or walking into Cong to hang out in one of its cafes. On the second day, a large family group from the US, numbering more than 20, arrived for a month-long stay, like something out of a Henry James novel, though with the young men wearing half-length pants and chunky runners.
On our first night we sat on a comfortable sofa in the drawing room and ate sandwiches and pasta opposite the large windows “as the swan in the evening, moved over the lake”. When it came to eight o’clock the males in the group retired to watch a soccer match – a reminder of why we don’t have Sky Sports at home. The ladies sat around a bit longer and then went for a walk around the gardens and along by the side of the lake. When they came back they reported that they had come upon a box by the door on the way out, and a sign encouraging them to make use of the pashminas in it, as the air around the lake in the evenings could be chilly.
After breakfast the next day, the rest of the family went for a boat ride around the lake while I met some of the hotel’s staff. Pat Kavanagh, the Irish-speaking head groundskeeper from nearby Cornamona, Co Galway, has worked there for 23 years. “There’s a bit of magic about the place,” he says by way of part explanation.
Bernie O’Brien from nearby Kilmaine, who has been working in the castle for 14 years, has a similar explanation. “I love the place. I came here to do rooms for a short while, and I’m still here.”
Martin Gibbons, the maître d’, is from Cong and his grandfather worked on the estate and rented his home from the estate’s then owners, the Guinness family. Prior to being appointed maître d’, he was the sommelier. When he started, he said, the wine list was predominantly French and he can remember when Californian wine first appeared. Of Ashford, he says that despite his years working there “it is still the mystical, magical place it was on the first day I came to work here”.
“Ashford is a unique spot,” says operations manager Michael Duggan, a 25-year veteran with the hotel. He remembers the time Ronald Reagan came to stay, and the White House moved to Ashford. There was a secret-service agent positioned on each of Lough Corrib’s 365 islands. Noli Aingohuro, originally from the Philippines, has been working at the hotel for eight years and says he has long overcome his initial feelings of homesickness.
In the afternoon, we visited the hotel's falconry school, despite the steady drizzle. Our guide, Aurelia O'Sullivan, brought us for a walk through the woods accompanied by a harris hawk called Killary. This was a truly magical Harry Pottermoment for children and adults alike.
The hawk would fly off into the trees but when you held out your arm with the leather glove on your clenched fist, he would come swooping through the branches and land on you, snatching the meat you were holding. While we were all cautious about going near the beast at the outset, by the end of the walk everyone was keeping a hawk eye on whose turn it was next.
Dinner that night was in the large George V dining room. Men are obliged to wear a jacket and are requested to wear a tie. It was a pleasant experience, though we considered the food to be nothing exceptional, particularly given the prices, and it was slow to arrive. Although we sat down at 7.30pm, it was near 10pm by the time we were finishing dessert. By then, one of our number was asleep on my lap. The same person, however, having expressed an interest in strawberries during the dinner, came down for breakfast the next day to find a bowl of them awaiting him and his brother.
Ashford Castle opened as a hotel 70 years ago this year and has been the largest employer in south Mayo ever since. It has had a number of owners over the years and last year was bought by Galway hotelier and businessman Gerry Barrett. A large proportion of its customers come from the US and 40 per cent of its guests are repeat visitors. The global downturn has hit the hotel sector hard and late last year Ashford Castle saw its numbers drop drastically. It decided to temporarily reduce its rates while maintaining its standards, and as a result has had the busiest first four months of the year that it has ever had.
While we were there, quite a few of the guests were Irish, including some who arrived by helicopter from Dublin. Whether you leave by helicopter, or in an unfashionable family saloon car, it’s hard not to look back over your shoulder at the castle and the lake, and experience regret.
Colm Keena and family were guests of Ashford Castle
Go there
The best way to check the cost of staying at Ashford Castle is on its website, www.ashford.ie. At the time of writing, the rate for two nights’ BB and one night’s dinner in the George V for two people sharing was €700 for a standard room and €780 for a deluxe. Two adults and two children can stay in a deluxe family room, have one night’s dinner, and do horse riding and falconry, for €1,400.