Go Ireland:Want to pamper your mum on March 22nd but not sure where to take her? How about following DEIRDRE FALVEY to Barberstown Castle or taking up one of SANDRA O'CONNELL's ideas?
WHAT KIND of mother do you call yourself? Some of us love a shopping splurge, especially one involving the odd bargain. Others might prefer to get down and dirty riding a large beast. Some civilised relaxation and yummy food in lovely surrounds always sounds good, whatever kind of mammy you are. And sometimes the idea of jumping on planes at unpleasant airports, or even a long drive, seems like just too much work.
With these thoughts in mind we travelled not far at all, to Barberstown Castle, near Straffan in Co Kildare, for a weekend treat. The 13th-century castle battlement, with Victorian and Elizabethan extensions, has been a hotel since 1971; the present owner, Ken Healy, bought it from Eric Clapton as a 10-bedroom guest house. Two extensions later it’s a 60-bedroom country-house hotel with a lovely glassy tea room overlooking a garden with tinkles on the grand piano of an afternoon.
It’s a gracious sort of place, with elegant and friendly service and a gentle pace that makes it a rather nice, and accessible, world apart for a bit of a treat.
The bedrooms – with the names of previous owners of the castle scripted on the doors – are generously proportioned and comfortably luxurious, furnished with antiques and reproductions.
Dinner at the castle’s fine- dining restaurant (generally it’s open from Wednesday to Saturday) was excellent. It included glazed oysters in hollandaise sauce, a ham-hock roulade intriguingly encased in a black pudding, sea bass paired with red mullet, and beef fillet served with oxtail and horseradish ravioli. (Dinner is €65 for five courses; the six-course tasting menu is €75.)
The Tea Rooms have a more casual menu (try the gorgeous slow-cooked pork belly), including afternoon tea: sandwiches, scones and cream, dinky chocolate cakes on tiered serving plates. It may seem pricey, at €22.50 a head, but the portions are generous, and the waitress insisted that one afternoon tea for two people would be lots – and it was.
Barberstown has eschewed the ubiquitous pool-spa route and gone for old-fashioned refinement. We visited with our five-year-old, and were made very welcome, though the hotel is probably more of an adult retreat than a family destination – a lovely setting for a short break with the mammy in your life, or afternoon tea on a day’s outing to Kildare.
And there’s lots to do nearby. Being Kildare, there are horses everywhere. We visited the Irish National Stud (see panel, right, for details), 20 minutes away, which is a well-run attraction for a couple of hours’ visit, particularly with children. The guided tour shows you the birthing stables, which have cameras monitoring events, and the far more luxuriously appointed bachelor-pad stables for the equine gigolos who can command up to €60,000 a performance, but, probably thankfully, not the honeymoon suite.
The attractive Japanese Gardens, part of the stud, have a 20-point trail that follows the path of life, including stepping stones, bridges and tunnels.
Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, we reckoned, and, not having done so for years, decided to go horse riding the next morning at Abbeyfield Farm: five minutes from the hotel, €40 for an hour’s ride. We sent our wee boy off on a pony while we, ahem, trotted through the surrounding fields (and how the legs ached for days afterwards).
Sadly, we missed the butterfly farm at Straffan, as its opening is tied to butterfly seasons, but I have very fond memories of it from the past. And although I am not that kind of mammy, we did venture to the outlet shopping centre outside the nice village that is Kildare town – the outlets seemed to be doing good business. There was fashion and shoes and kitchenware and jeans and sports stuff and homeware – and an exhibition of John Minihan’s photographs and a playground to boot.
All in all, a couple of days felt as if we were away for longer, and the whole thing was so easy and stress-free. A fine Mother’s Day treat.
DF
**Barberstown Castle, Straffan, Co Kildare, 01-6288157 www.barberstowncastle.ie. Its Mother's Day package of a night's stay, five-course dinner and afternoon tea for two costs €171.50 per person sharing. Afternoon tea (3-5pm) costs €22.50; pink champagne is €12 a glass
From gardens to gourmet meals: where else to spoil your mammy
IS THERE ANYTHING more hideous than the term “Mothering Sunday”? It’s way too close to smothering for comfort. Thankfully, that’s only what they call it across the water. Over here it’s a much healthier-sounding Mother’s Day, and this year it takes place a fortnight tomorrow. Whether you want to bring Mum out for some family fun or for afternoon tea à deux, or send her off on a jaunt with Dad, we’ve an option to suit.
Wicklow wonders
It’s a fact of life that all mothers love gardens, and of all the gardens to be found in the Garden of Ireland, those at Mount Usher (Ashford, 0404-40205/ 40116, www.mountusher gardens.ie; admission €7.50) are among the loveliest. By Mother’s Day its famous rhododendrons should be in full bloom.
Alternatively, drive to Kilmacurragh Arboretum, just off the N11 at the Beehive pub, for a free rhododendron fest; it’s part of the National Botanic Gardens. After tramping the grounds here it’s time to drop Mum (and Dad) to nearby Hunter’s Hotel (Newrath Bridge, Rathnew, 0404-40106, www.hunters.ie; rooms from €95pps) for an atmospheric treat. This gem of a hotel is a favoured haunt of low-key celebs and Swedish royalty. If the weather’s nice, make sure Mum gets afternoon tea in the garden: nobody does it better.
Girlie in Galway
For total girlie sparkle you can’t beat the five-star style of the G Hotel (Wellpark, 091- 865200, www.theghotel.ie). It is offering overnight accommodation with full Irish breakfast and a perfectly pink afternoon tea – pink champagne, pink food, pink furniture – in the hotel’s Barbie-pink salon. Well, it’s not Father’s Day, is it? The package also includes a stint in the hotel’s spa for Mum, to keep her in the pink, too. It costs €145 per person sharing, so I guess you’ll just have to go with her.
Break for the Border
Mothers are nothing if not practical, so how about combining a celebration of your oul’ ma with a trip to Newry, in Co Down, in search of cheap groceries? Once you’ve loaded the boot, bring her to gorgeous Tollymore Forest Park (048-43722428, www.discover northernireland.com/Tollymore-Forest-Park-Newcastle-P2888) for a walk along the riverside, enjoying the Gothic follies the estate is famous for along the way.
Finish with a Mother’s Day meal at the Slieve Donard Hotel, in the seaside town of Newcastle (Downs Road, 048-43721066, www.hastings hotels.com/slievedonard), where a buffet lunch costs £45 (€50). You could stay over, with singles starting at £80 (€90), but then what would you do with all the shopping in the boot?
City chic
If heading to Dublin seems like a capital idea, check out the Shelbourne Hotel (St Stephen's Green, 01-6634500, www.theshelbourne.ie). It has a three-course Mother's Day lunch for €49.50 per person, which is better value than it sounds, particularly if you're looking to make it a family affair, as under-10s eat for free.
Alternatively, book a table for two and treat Mum to the hotel’s famous afternoon tea, which costs €33 per person. Or surprise her by taking the elevator home: the hotel is running a Mother Daughter shopping package for €122pps, including soothing foot lotion and fluffy slippers to repair your pins after a day on Grafton Street.
Gorgeous gardens
Visitors to Brigit’s Garden, in Galway (Roscahill, 091-550905, www.brigits garden.ie) will receive flowers to mark the occasion. There’s no better place to be, either: the name Brigit means “exalted one”, and who is more exalted than the mammy? Spread over four hectares, Brigit’s Garden includes a native woodland, wild-flower meadows, a nature trail and a fairy fort. The Garden Cafe has terrific vegetarian cuisine made with organic ingredients, many fresh from the garden.
If you’re looking to make a weekend of it, check into Renvyle House Hotel (095-43511, www.renvyle.com), just over an hour’s drive away in Connemara. It has a two-night package for €195pps that includes a murder-mystery performance entitled The Godmother. Perfect.
Girlie golf
The Ice House Hotel, overlooking the River Moy at Ballina, in Co Mayo (the Quay, 096-23500, www.icehouse hotel.ie), has a two-night special for Mother’s Day, including chocolates and bubbly on arrival, for €250pps. Much of the appeal is the opportunity to relax in its Chill Spa – manicures and pedicures cost from €65 each.
If you want to do something a little sportier, top it off with a ticket to the hotel’s Ladies’ Golf School, which combines the basics of the game with a lot of pampering. The three-day package costs €485; tee time for the first one is on March 23rd.
Queen of the castle
If it’s an old fashioned knees-up you’re after, Clontarf Castle, in Dublin (01-8332321, www.clontarfcastle.ie), has both an afternoon and an evening show to choose from. The afternoon event kicks off at 1pm with a three-course lunch and entertainment from Ronan Collins (of RTÉ) and the singer Sonny Knowles. MC for the day is Ray Shah, and there’ll be spot prizes galore. Tickets cost €69.
Alternatively, make a night of it with the evening show instead. Doors open at 8.30pm, and the big pull here is Dickie Rock. Tickets cost €45; book five or more for a 15 per cent discount. Accommodation starts at €108 per room. (Michael Parsons reviews the hotel on page 16.)
Island escapes
Located in a sheltered harbour in Bantry Bay, in Co Cork, 15-hectare Garnish Island (027-63040, www.heritage ireland.ie) is the subtropical love child of owner Anna Bryce and garden designer Harold Peto, born some 70 years ago and given over to the care of the State in 1953. If there is a more romantic spot in Ireland, or off it, let us know. Even getting there is an adventure, with a ferry journey (€12) past rocky outcrops teeming with lolling seals.
And when you’ve drunk your fill of its floral displays it’s about half an hour’s drive to Sheen Falls Lodge hotel (Kenmare, Co Kerry, 064-6641600, www.sheen fallslodge.ie). It is celebrating Mother’s Day with a two-night package, including lunch, for €260 per person sharing. Lunch on its own is €45.
Galloping gourmets
The Irish National Stud (Tully, Co Kildare, 045-521251, www.irish-national-stud.ie; admission €11) is a great way to spend a few hours with Mum, even if she wouldn’t know a fetlock from a forelock. The horse museum is fascinating, and the stallions are magnificent, but the 400 hectares also includes the Japanese Gardens,
St Fiachra’s Garden – built for the millennium – woodland walks and monastic cells. There’s a coffee shop, too.
Just don’t eat too much, because after that it’s on to nearby Rathsallagh House (Dunlavin, 045-403112, www.rathsallagh.com) for a Mother’s Day roast-beef lunch. There’s champagne and chocolates on arrival, plus the option of a round of golf or a beauty treatment, for €189. The overnight deal includes afternoon tea and a smoked- salmon supper, followed next morning by a full breakfast. Mum also gets a voucher for 10 per cent off any purchases at Kildare Village outlet centre. So you know what you’ll be doing the next day, too.
New mums go too
Finally, mums-to-be need a little pampering, too. Lough Erne Golf Resort, in the lake lands of Co Fermanagh (Belleek Road, Enniskillen, 048-66323230, www.lough ernegolfresort.com), has just the thing, with packages for both expectant and new mums in its Thai Spa. Treatments are designed to relieve fatigue, alleviate fluid retention and prevent stretch marks. The Great Expectations package costs €205; for new mums there is a Special Delivery package for €200. Both also include full use of steam rooms, sauna, infinity pool and, if you’re up for it, fitness room.
If you decide to stay over, a room, including breakfast, either spa package and lunch, costs €276 pps.
SO’C