Escape to Eire - Friday

Other parts of this series:
Escape to Eire - the beginning
Escape to Eire - Monday
Escape to Eire - Tuesday
Escape to Eire - Wednesday
Escape to Eire - Thursday  
Escape to Eire - Friday (this post)
Escape to Eire - Saturday


As I mentioned in the first post of this series, the whole reason C, D and I even met is that we are fans of the 1980s TV show Remington Steele.  In the final season of that series Mr. Steele inherits an Irish Castle. Ashford Castle was used for the exterior shots of Mr. Steele's castle (also called Ashford) though the interiors were filmed elsewhere.

We'd thought Ashford was out of our reach when we looked at the giant map of Ireland we'd bought in Dublin.  But what we finally realized when plotting courses on the GPS was that although the physical map of Ireland is as big as many physical maps of the US, it's only about 3 hours on the motorway to get from its west coast back to Dublin.  A bit giddy at the thought, and with nothing left to see in Doolin, we got up early and got on the road north to Ashford.

There was some road construction but we made it to Ashford in about two hours.  It's now a hotel so we had to buy tickets which allowed us to roam the grounds and garden. After taking photos from all kinds of different angles, we asked the doorman if it would be possible to go in the hotel.  We were thrilled to learn that was not an issue.  After all, how could we peruse the gift shop if we weren't allowed inside?



Ashford Castle from Loch Corrib

We dutifully bought our souvenirs and decided we had time for a pot of tea. It was very relaxing to sip our tea while looking out at the grounds and Loch Corrib.  We also managed to take home the wrap for the teapot's handle which prevents the person pouring from burning their fingers.  As it has the Ashford Crest it made a unique (and cheap) souvenir.

Then it was time to drive back to the Dublin area for our final night in the country. Fortunately most of the drive was on the motorway and we arrived around 5 pm at our hotel just outside of town, the Ritz-Carlton Powerscourt (now part of Marriott's Autograph Collection).  We may never stay in a hotel this nice again.

For some reason we were upgraded to a room with a (huge) patio.  We think the bellman enjoyed our enthusiasm as we were obviously not accustomed to such niceties. He placed our bags in the walk-in closet.  It was massive, with five doors on each side for us to store our clothes.  We kinda felt bad we weren't even going to bother to unpack since we'd only be there for one night.

In the bathroom was a huge soaking tub, a separate shower with rainforest showerhead and separate toilet stall. The double vanity had a large mirror over it with a TV embedded in it.  We were thrilled to see we'd each have a king bed.  Those twin beds get smaller each day!  On the nightstand between the beds was a touchpad that controlled the lights, curtain, thermostat and do-not-disturb sign on the door.



Ritz-Carlton Powerscourt

We toured the grounds a bit, needing to inspect the giant chess set up close and in person.  Unfortunately the door we exited locked behind us.  We walked to the side of the hotel intending to go back to the front entrance but were blocked by a gate.  We walked to the other side of the hotel and found a back entrance through the pub.  Since we were there we decided to go ahead and have dinner, which was quite tasty.

A bit later we went back downstairs to enjoy dessert at the main (aka expensive) restaurant, Gordon Ramsey at Powerscourt.  C enjoyed several raspberry desserts while I had an ice cream sampler.

Then it was time to go enjoy the traditional Irish music in the pub.  The two gents were quite good at the singing & playing part of the program though we had a bit of trouble understanding them when they spoke.  We were able to sing along with the crowd to Sweet Molly Malone, that traditional Irish favorite, as well as Friends in Low Places and hum along with the Love Theme from The Godfather.

It was great fun but we knew we had a flight to catch the next day and we were really excited to try out those giant, fluffy beds!