After our grand arrival by helicopter...
... we checked in...
... took a wee tour and had lunch, whilst our rooms were being prepared.
The bar...
To Drawing Room for lunch and our first encounter with a service-challenged staff.
Nice view though.
... absolutely horrid food. Despite numerous RESERVED tables, without any guests the entire time we were there, we were seated at corner tables near the piano. Our surly waiter snapped at one of our friends when she questioned the lack of a table cloth on their adjacent table. We ordered lunch and wine, and this same waiter proceeded to empty the entire contents of our bottle of wine into our four glasses. Huh? No idea why or to where he disappeared, but fortunately he was replaced by a better waiter who knew how to pour wine properly, and did so on our second bottle. As for lunch, it was virtually inedible.
The chicken noodle soup was awful. Campbell's would have been better.
But worst was the inedible tuna salad sandwich.
Which was mostly mayonnaise.
OK, not a good start. Our rooms were now ready so we headed upstairs to unpack and relax a bit.
Pleasant room with strong period decor. Nothing subtle here, but it works in a 13th century castle.
Nice view of the lake.
When we checked into our room, we were greeted with numerous embarrassing cards and notes addressing us as "Mr. SFO777 and Mrs. SoCal Friends", apparently assuming that we were swapping spouses this weekend.
Nice enough room, but the more time you spend, the more you notice. Like closet for hanging things but no drawers for clothes. Our fireplace looked nice but didn't work. I called the front desk and a guy from maintenance eventually came to check but was unable to get it working. He said he needed to confer with colleagues and return later. He never came back.
After my tour of the grounds and power nap, still no maintenance on the fireplace. I called the front desk and the staff person assured me that she would send someone to fix it. Not surprisingly, no one ever showed up that day.
Drinks in the bar before dinner...
And then across the bridge to Cullen's at the Cottage for dinner.
Dinner and in particular the service were quite good despite the constant menu references to and shilling for Ashford owner Bea Tollman, who seems quite full of herself.
After dinner and an Irish Coffee in the bar, we headed up to our room at around 10:30pm to find that no one had been in our room for turn down service or to fix the fireplace. Apparently I had inadvertently pushed the small electronic Do Not Disturb button, which had letters too small for a normal person to read. If the chap that showed us to our suite had explained this feature to us and that the traditional physical Do Not Disturb sign hanging on the door knob was only for show, perhaps I would have known. I called the front desk to ask about turn down and was advised that housekeeping had gone home for the evening. At 10:40pm? While the front desk clerk valiantly attempted turn down, he admitted that he really didn't know what should be done. So we were left on our own to turn down including figuring out how to close all the blinds and shutters, one of which was missing a knob, and had been for quite some time considering that the knob screw was painted over. LOL.
The next morning, we ordered room service which, while delivered promptly, was missing an orange juice and a spoon for the cereal. Also, the bathroom TV did not work.
At my request from the night before, the duty manager Michael called me around 9:30am. I detailed all of the above problems and he assured me that they would be fixed and that "we'll be speaking later in the day". I never heard from him again.
Our first stop this morning was clay shooting.
Mrs. SFO777, who honed her skills trimming the rabbit population in our back yard in Denver, was really good at this.
Back to castle...
For coffee...
And a pit stop.
Yet another example of spotty service.
Before heading out to the highlight of our stay, Falconry.
Our wonderful Falconry trainer/guide with one of our two beautiful Harris Hawks. There are absolutely wonderful creatures and guide docile, although he advised us to lose if we got into a staring contest. LOL. They will sit quietly on a glove on your left arm and are trained to return as soon as you stretch out your arm. Of course, the fact that they get food when they return trumps any affection they have for you.
And the main meal at the end of the walk... a baby chick.
The Quiet Man house, featured in the 1952 movie with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, which was filmed at Ashford Castle and adjacent town of Cong.
What a treat to spend an hour with the beautiful and fun creatures.
Over to lunch at the Cottage.
We returned later in the day to find that while the room had been properly cleaned by housekeeping, they forgot to leave wash cloths. The TV was now functioning but the fireplace still didn't work. I called the front desk to complain about the fireplace, and I was told that there was "miscommunication in the maintenance staff" but they would send someone again.
And dinner later that evening in the Dungeon. Wagyu corned beef was sensational.
We returned after dinner to a properly turned down room and a roaring fireplace. However, the fireplace once again failed to turn on the next morning.
While we enjoyed the activities at the castle, the multiple and continuing service failures during our stay were simply unacceptable, as was the distressing lack of responsiveness or even concern by managers on duty. Based on our experience, both of us would be hard pressed to recommend Ashford Castle to anyone, especially at the rates they charge.
