For this trip, we booked a visit to the Newgrange experience. You can only book a month in advance and booking is strongly advised. Despite having visited many major attractions around the country, we never visited Newgrange so we were really looking forward to it.
We’ve booked ourselves into the nearby Johnstown Estate which is a short drive from Newgrange near the town of Enfield in Co. Meath. We had heard decent things about Johnstown Estate, which is one of the better places to stay in this part of the world. Getting here was a breeze as it’s just off the M4 motorway which connects the west of the country with the east.
We arrived into Johnstown just after 6:00 p.m. in the evening, parked up and made our way inside. There’s a small reception area and once checked in, we made our way to our room. We booked a suite as at the time of booking there was an offer for an upgraded room, which we took. Interesting to note though, as we made our way down the corridor to our room, there was a really bad smell – we have no idea what it was. Thankfully, though, once in our room there was no bad smell.
The room was very well appointed, it had a living room area with television, dining table and a minibar. The main bedroom was spotlessly clean and it had a really good-sized bathroom with a large walk-in shower and a bathtub. After checking out the room, we went for a wander around the hotel to check out some of the amenities. There’s a good-sized gym area with a large pool and you can wander around some of the grounds and grab some bikes if you so desire. The house is much bigger than I originally thought and can cater to large crowds – as it turns out, it’s busy, really busy, plus, there’s a wedding on so there’s that to contend with.
As the evening was rolling in, our plan for dinner was to grab food in the hotel, they have two main dining options, the bar, which serves more casual grub and their main restaurant called Fire and Salt which is considered the ‘fancier’ option. Given the location, we had booked our dining options for both nights, for the Friday we were dining in the bar and Saturday night, in the ‘fancy’ restaurant.
Before dinner in the bar, we grabbed a drink and sat out in the main lounge area, which thankfully was quiet and comfortable. After our drink, we made our way back into the bar for dinner. The menu consisted of the usual suspects you would expect – burger, chicken Kiev, pasta, Caesar salad and so forth. The bar is spread out over two floors and we were seated upstairs which was the better option as it was quieter and there were no television screens. For dinner, I ordered the seafood chowder to start, followed by the burger, C opted for the smoked salmon salad to start and pasta for her mains.
The chowder, while nothing special, was not too bad, the burger though was like eating a hockey puck – not that I actually ever ate a hockey puck, but you get the idea. The smoked salmon salad was decent, although the quality of the smoked salmon was not the best, not bad, but not great. The pasta dish was over-cooked and there’s nothing worse than mushy pasta – the accompanying garlic bread was actually ok. Overall the bar food was pretty poor – it did not bode well for eating in the ‘fancy’ restaurant.
Of course, the warning signs were in plain sight when we were brought to our table, as soon as you see a bowl of these on the table, you know it’s not going to be good……
The following morning, we made our way to the breakfast room, which is in the Fire and Salt restaurant. There’s no table service, it’s the classic buffet approach which is never very good. Surprisingly though, the coffee from the vending machines was not bad. However, having to wait in line to toast a piece of bread with just one toaster, is a complete joke. Add to that, the ‘hot’ food was nothing special and pretty much the same stuff you get in most hotels that fit this category.
After breakfast, we hit the road for Newgrange. There were a few different booking options depending on what you wanted to see, we booked the biggest tour as it incorporates several attractions. Once inside, you have about 45 minutes before boarding the bus to bring you to the first site – this is part of your tour as there is a small exhibit where you can read all about the history and the excavation of the site. After checking out the exhibit and grabbing a coffee in the most disorganised coffee dock we’ve ever seen, we hopped on the bus to the first site, Knowth.
Once there, you have a guide who gives you loads of insight and history about the site. While you cannot go inside the tomb, you can climb to the top to get amazing views of the surrounding area. Once finished with this part of the tour, you make your way over to an old farmhouse that has been converted into a small museum to watch a short movie all about Newgrange. Once done with the movie, we got back on the bus and headed in the direction of the main Newgrange attraction.
For this part of the tour, you get to go inside the famous tomb and they re-create what it’s like during the winter solstice. The guide also gives you plenty of interesting facts about the history of the place. Once done, we had some time to walk around the site before getting back on the bus and making our way back to the main visitor centre.
Once done, we hopped back into the car and made our way back towards the hotel taking a more scenic route back to Johnstown. Once back, it was late in the evening so we watched some television before getting ready for dinner in the Fire and Salt restaurant. We didn’t have high hopes for dinner given the mediocre food from the previous night.
The menu is much shorter than the bar food menu, but looked ok, despite being a tad limited. To start, I ordered the pork belly, C went with the roast cauliflower option. Thankfully, my pork belly was tasty, it had a nice sweet jus along with some really smooth sweet potato purée. The roast cauliflower was nothing special and a tad bland but not the worst thing we ever tasted. For mains, C opted for the cod, I kept it simple with roast chicken. The cod was not very good and the freshness was ‘questionable’ – the roast chicken was actually decent and the accompanying potatoes and carrots were really nice. For dessert we shared a cream brûlée which not was not very good and tasted so aritficial. Overall, while the food in the Fire and Salt restaurant won’t be changing the world any time soon, it was better than the bar food from the previous night.
To finish, it was nice to get away for a short break and Newgrange is most definitely worth visiting. Johnstown Estate is certainly not a bad place to base yourself if visiting this part of the world, the food was more of a miss rather than a hit and given the price, it should and could have been better, but, again, not a bad place to stay – although a return stay, for us, won’t be on the cards.
As always, hope you enjoyed reading along,
Until next time,
Bye for now,
C&J
cjfoodandtravel 