After leaving Kilkea Castle, we hit the road heading south. I had pre-booked a tour of Johnstown Gardens and Castle but first, we visited the Irish National Heritage Centre in Co. Waterford. The Heritage Centre has recreations of ring forts, crannógs, a flour mill and several other recreations of an Ireland long gone. There’s also plenty of stuff for kids and this big kid had a go at some archery. It’s not one of the bigger attractions but you can easily knock about two hours out of it. There’s an on-site café which we did not try as our plan was to grab lunch at Johnstown.
Simpler times 
Straw beds 
Archery 
High Cross
We arrived at Johnstown about 45 minutes before our tour so we had enough time to grab a bite to eat. Now I’d like to put it down to the current climate, but something tells me that’s just the way it is, the choices on offer were pretty poor.
This was as good as lunch got in the Johnstown café…..
Mural inside the café, could not be more wrong….
Once done with lunch, we headed through to the agriculture museum section for a quick look around. Then we met our guide outside the main door of the castle. As it turned out they only started running tours last year and just re-opened two weeks earlier.
The history of the house was interesting, our guide was very informative and had an answer for most questions. Renovations are ongoing and only 11 rooms are currently free to visit, with the rest planned in the near future all based on how much money they can raise with people through the door, fund raising and sponsorship.
The tour lasted just over an hour and once done we walked around the gardens for about a half hour, then it was back into the car and onto our accommodation for the night.
Dunbrody House is owned by celebrity chef Kevin Dundon along with his wife. They purchased the property about 18 years ago offering accommodation and food.
There’s a short drive once off the main road up to the house with parking pretty much outside the main door. Once parked we grabbed the bags, checked in and made our way to our room. Our room is a suite and to say it was interesting would be an understatement. All the furniture is pretty old, there’s antique dressers, tables, some delph and the like and a very old shabby couch, which looked uncomfortable to sit in – and it was. C described it as shabby chic, me, shabby cheap.
That aside, the place appears clean and has a separate shower and bathtub in the ensuite, there’s also a view out to the garden. We dropped the bags and went for a walk around the surrounding area and the gardens. There’s also a “local pub” on the grounds but is closed due to Covid-19.
With not a whole lot else to do we grabbed a drink back in the house, which was served to us in one of the small lounges as we were not allowed to sit in the bar, which was fine. It’s actually called the seafood and champagne bar, where we’ll be dining for dinner.
After our drink we went back to our room watched some TV and got ready for dinner. Dinner was booked for 8:30 in the seafood and champagne bar. Slots in the dining room were full so this was our only option unless we fancied an early dinner at 6:00pm which is way too early for us.
We were seated in what’s called the private dining room which is basically a small lounge area, it was roomy with only three other tables set up for dinner. We were asked if we’d like a drink to start so we went with our usual choice kir royals. The barman was very pleasant and helpful offering additional information about the wines on offer by the glass.
We got our menus and as we figured, seafood featured a lot on the menu, we were also informed about the special of the evening which was lobster. C decided to go with the lobster as her mains and gravadlax to start, I went with the crab cocktail to get things going and although tempted with a fish dish I went with the striploin steak, not my favourite cut of meat but not my least either.
The gravadlax was very tasty and served with some pickled cucumber, leaves and some soda bread. My crab was very plentiful and tasty and the dressing on the salad was delightfully sweet and worked perfect with the tartness of the Marie rose sauce. A good start.
Mains arrived, the lobster was served with lots and lots of butter and a lemon sauce along with buttery mash and more dressed leaves. It was fantastic and well presented as all the lobster had been de-shelled and all you had to do was dive in.
My steak came with fries and fried onions. The onions were proper onions, none of that bought in frozen mush so many places serve. They were crisp, sweet and tasty, the fries were also decent and the béarnaise sauce was delicious and well balanced. Both dishes were really well executed and really tasty.
For dessert and just for kicks we kept it simple and shared a slice of apple pie which was served with a very tasty elderflower ice cream. The only criticism was the apples needed to be cooked down a little more, but overall it was tasty.
We had one final drink before calling it a night.
The following morning and due to restrictions the only slot we could get for breakfast was 11:00am, a tad late, but we made it work, we put the bags in the car, went for a walk then returned. Breakfast was nothing to write home about but they had all the bases covered. I went with the full Irish, C opted for an omelette. The coffee was ok as was the brown soda bread which we had the night before, although the toasted white soda bread was very tasty, once breakfast was done all that we’d left to do was check out and hit the road.
Overall we enjoyed our stay at Dunbrody House, I had my suspicions that perhaps the food would not be up to par, but it was – it was tasty and well cooked with very little pretentiousness going on. The staff were also friendly and polite, especially the barman, very professional.
Our room and overall look of the place is another story. Like our room, the rest of the house in parts really could do with a bit of investment and a good freshen up, yes sometimes this is an attraction, but for us and given the price you pay, you should feel comfortable and shabby just won’t cut it. Places like Dunbrody are a destination in their own right as they are usually a distance from the nearest village or town which is of course part of the attraction. A few more on-site activities would not have gone astray.
However we would certainly consider staying there again next time we’re travelling around that part of the country.
Until next time,
C&J
cjfoodandtravel 