Veering off the N61 Galway to Clifden road onto the R371, the road meanders through some typical Connemara scenery before turning into the entrance to the castle proper, with its impressive gate lodge, like a small castle in it’s own rights.
On arrival we were informed our room would be ready shortly and if we’d like to have a seat in the bar and have a coffee, which we did and grabbed lunch. Lunch was very enjoyable, the menu read well, soup, chowder, a few open sandwiches along with fish “n” chips, chicken curry a burger and the like. After an hour, our room was finally ready.
The room was a nice size, with a great view onto the river and a small patio area with outside seating, which on a warmer day would be delightful to sit outside and take in the splendid view of the river.
For the rest of the afternoon we took the short drive to the nearby fishing village of Roundstone, although in late Spring, the tourist season has not really kicked off just yet, so for the most part, the village is very quiet. After stopping to take in some of the views, we continued to the even smaller village of Cashel before continuing back to Ballynahinch. After our drive, we went for a walk around the grounds, there are several walks to choose from, we opted for the river walk.
The walk leads towards the old Ballynahinch railway station, now a private house and leads onto the main road which leads to the back entrance of the hotel, the weather up to this point was delightful, cool, dry and sunny, it only started to rain as we got back to the castle.
On returning, we decided to relax in one of the rooms, the library on this occasion, enjoy a drink by the blazing fire before returning to our room to get ready for dinner.
The dining room like most of the castle has an old world look to it, some of the decor is new but a lot of the original furniture and light fittings are still there. We had a wait of about 10 minutes before our table was ready.
The menu was short, simple and nothing amazing, but read well nonetheless. Starter choices were ceviche, venison, chicken confit to name three out of the five choices. Mains had a choice of cod, monkfish, venison and a vegetarian option.
For our starter we both went for chicken, I fancied the venison but was planning on having it for my mains. The starters were nothing special, the confit chicken, some wild ceps, a hummus-type dip and some micro greens. It was a fresh tasting dish, but lacked flavour overall.
Mains were a much better affair, my venison was very tasty, served with a celeriac puree, kale, red wine jus and some very tasty mini parsnips. C’s main of monkfish was served on a bed of lentils cooked with bacon, although she only managed to find one piece of bacon. The monkfish was well seasoned and cooked, however the lentils were a tad bland but the dish for the most part worked ok.
Service throughout was friendly and polite, the pace of the meal was very slow, maybe a tad too slow, but better slow than too fast.
For dessert, we opted for a chocolate fondant and a tiramisu. The fondant was gooey inside as it should be, served with coconut ice cream which worked pretty well, but would not have been my first choice for an accompanying ice cream.
The tiramisu however was nothing special, lacking any real punch of flavour and looked and tasted like a bought in dessert rather than made in-house although the accompanying strawberry ice cream was ok.
Breakfast the following morning was typical of these type of establishments, cold meat selection with scones, pastries cereals etc. I have to say the baked ham was very good. The breakfast menu, had eggs benedict, pancakes and the like. I opted for the full Irish, C went for the eggs benedict. Nothing special with my full Irish but the eggs benedict were tasty.
However it was all a tad rushed with our menu choices arriving before we got to visit the buffet selection and the wait of almost 30 minutes to get a table did not help things.
To finish, an enjoyable stay overall and we would perhaps return at a later date. Ballynahinch could be a real go-to place to stay, but some areas need improvement, especially the food served in the main restaurant. However the location is fantastic and the overall experience would be best described as relaxing.
Bye for now
C&J
cjfoodandtravel 