The Lodge at Ashford Castle

I liked so much this place

Réception couldn’t make a reservation for five o’clock tea or for the dinner at the Ashford Castle. We didn’t know that booking like this had to be done in advance, even for customers of The Lodge at Ashford Castle.

Just perfect in every way

We had a wonderful 2 night visit to the lodge and we enjoyed the activities available to us -- a tour of the outdoor movie scenes from the Quiet Man movie, which was filmed in Cong, and a boat trip to the island where we heard about the banishment of St. Patrick to the island by pagans.

I guess the only thing that could have been better is if we could have had a round of golf but some of the facilities were off limits due to a company booking the entire castle, which was understandable but unfortunate.

The man who helped with the luggage and showed us the rooms who also transported us down to the castle. Unfortunately I did not get his name, the lodge need more staff like him. You could tell he loved doing a good job and pleasing people. The dinner is George V at the castle was nice with very good friendly staff. Very expensive though so be prepared if want to dine there.

The reception staff were not helpful or polite as you would expect them to be at this level of accommodation. The breakfast staff, the first morning we were never told about how the restaurant worked, just sat down. Had to ask several times for orders to be taken. They never cleaned your dishes before other dishes were placed down which left no room on the table. The dirty dishes were left there the whole sitting even though it was completely obvious they were finished with. Did not seem to have any management there over seeing a very young group of staff.