Right folks, need to find some corner of Ireland for a few days break after the June bank holiday. Was thinking Belfast (somewhere close to the heart of the action) and the Glens of Antrim for a change. Need the extra bit of comfort for Mrs Blast. Any tips re accommodation, things to see and do much appreciated ?
Cheers
Not well known as holiday venue but Naas is a great town. The Osprey Hotel & Spa is a class spot, town has some great pubs (Kavanaghs is probably the best) and some good restaurants too (The thai at the church end of the town is very good).
If you are into the racing I think there are meetings in Naas or the Curragh around then
Durrow,Co.Laois ;)
Here have a look at our great village
http://www.durrowvillage.com/ (http://www.durrowvillage.com/)
Stayed up in the Antrim on the recommendation of Baile an Thuaige on Paddys weekend, I loved it up there, deffo best scenery I have seen in this country. Try this place http://www.mcshaneglen.com/
Stayed in the wee bothy its right beside the cliffs, twas a lovely wee place, unreal view and its fairly central between the rope bridge and the causeway and close to the beaches
Get yourself down to Kinsale
Horse holiday farm in Sligo (should have a website).
Bed and Breaksfast, great wee town nearby for drinking, horse riding through some fantastic scenery and along the beach. Great value, comfort and food.
Check it out sure - you never know, its something different and might go down a treat.
Breaffy House Hotel & Spa, great deal in the Irish News, not a bad spot this Castlebar (for Mayo! ;))
If your looking for somewhere in Ulster then Gaoth Dobhair is your only spot, Seaview Hotel or the Ostan Gaoth Dobhair, the Courthouse at Gaoth Dobhair station is supposed to be nice as well.
You can then enjoy Errigal, Dunlewey, Ionad Cois Locha, Glenveagh National Park, Dungloe, boats to Tory (would highly recommend) from Bunbeg harbour, or Arranmore from Burtonport. Ah the list is endless...!
Many a summer spent in Dunlewey, one of the nicest spots I have ever been in the World.
Quote from: Gaoth Dobhair Abu on May 23, 2007, 01:10:23 PM
Breaffy House Hotel & Spa, great deal in the Irish News, not a bad spot this Castlebar (for Mayo! ;))
If your looking for somewhere in Ulster then Gaoth Dobhair is your only spot, Seaview Hotel or the Ostan Gaoth Dobhair, the Courthouse at Gaoth Dobhair station is supposed to be nice as well.
You can then enjoy Errigal, Dunlewey, Ionad Cois Locha, Glenveagh National Park, Dungloe, boats to Tory (would highly recommend) from Bunbeg harbour, or Arranmore from Burtonport. Ah the list is endless...!
Where did you head out last friday & saturday night Gaoth Dobhair, just wondering did we cross paths, ha ha, I suppose ya came in to watch Enda Kennys Rally ;D
Other than Castlebar obviously, I have found the following good, Westport, Galway City, Kilkenny, Killarney. Thought Belfast good until I realised that the clubs stop serving drink at about 12.30 or 1.00 am, Jaz I was shocked, on the first night we had only headed out at 11.30 so that was crap.
Quote from: Fishead_Sam on May 23, 2007, 01:44:05 PM
Quote from: Gaoth Dobhair Abu on May 23, 2007, 01:10:23 PM
Breaffy House Hotel & Spa, great deal in the Irish News, not a bad spot this Castlebar (for Mayo! ;))
If your looking for somewhere in Ulster then Gaoth Dobhair is your only spot, Seaview Hotel or the Ostan Gaoth Dobhair, the Courthouse at Gaoth Dobhair station is supposed to be nice as well.
You can then enjoy Errigal, Dunlewey, Ionad Cois Locha, Glenveagh National Park, Dungloe, boats to Tory (would highly recommend) from Bunbeg harbour, or Arranmore from Burtonport. Ah the list is endless...!
Where did you head out last friday & saturday night Gaoth Dobhair, just wondering did we cross paths, ha ha, I suppose ya came in to watch Enda Kennys Rally ;D
Other than Castlebar obviously, I have found the following good, Westport, Galway City, Kilkenny, Killarney. Thought Belfast good until I realised that the clubs stop serving drink at about 12.30 or 1.00 am, Jaz I was shocked, on the first night we had only headed out at 11.30 so that was crap.
Id hate that!
An Creagán Visitor Centre, half way between Omagh and Cookstown is a good wee point. You can stay in old traditional style Irish houses.
www.an-creagan.com (http://www.an-creagan.com)
Blast is from Mayo so I would imagine he'd prefer to be heading somewhere a bit more exotic.
Most counties would have decent urban towns that offer a good night life, restaurants etc. with a range of daytime activities not too far away. Letterkenny not a bad spot, and plenty of nice scenic drives etc. in it's surrounding area, same for Killarney, Galway, Cork, Ennis, Belfast, Kilkeny etc.
I found that Ennis was a good spot, but Dingle was just as good. Depends on what activities you want to do during the day, bit of research on that front, narrow it down to two or three and pick the best county town
Can I put in a word for Drumsnot?
(by Brian O'Rourke).
Oh come all ye pleasant fellow peasants
and listen to my song
It has twenty verses and what's far worse is,
it's three times as bad as its long
Oh lend me your ears while I spill the beans
about the place where I was got
For it's likely that you haven't much of a clue,
about the place they call Drumsnot
Where my birthplace lies beneath Irish skies
isn't easy to explain
Its not in the Pale or the Golden Vale,
nor yet in the Central Plain
It affords no view of mountains blue
and it sure is no beauty spot
And to date no county has claimed the bounty
for admitting it owns Drumsnot
Oh, on Inishcarra and Gougane Barra,
on Macroom and on Omagh Town
God poured out air of a fragrance rare
that gained them high renown
On King Williamstown He showered sweetness down,
on Lough Neagh and Glanlee and the lot
But those rare perfumes were all well consumed
by the time that he reached Drumsnot
Ah but savage Nature, that lavish creature,
Drumsnot did not neglect
For its stony fields with hoary weeds
are gaudily bedecked
Them thistles, thorns and buachalláns
would be an ugly blot
Upon the face of any place –
excepting dire Drumsnot
And all around wildlife abounds
and leaps and creeps and crawls
And prowls and scowls and growls and howls,
and fights and bites and bawls
And shrieks and yells and reeks and smells
and kills and the devil knows what
And the ould triangle goes strangle-mangle,
in the jungle around Drumsnot.
Now to sing of the birds, sure I have no words
to express just how I feel
For the sweetest notes in their cheeky throats
are the five pound notes that they steal
The sly magpie he rules the sky
and ruins every garden and plot
And every songster is a fully-fledged gangster
on the rampage around Drumsnot
Oh, we have no fleadh, we've no cine-mah
for to goggle at spectacles lewd
And Tim Lyons couldn't grouse about our eating-house
that never heard tell of fast food
We've two broken down bridges infested by midges –
and a gaming machine with no slot
And the meanest street between Kansas and Crete
is the main street of Drumsnot.
Oh now you might guess that Drumsnot's a place
where old customs are held dear
And you'd be right for our faction-fights
halve our numbers every year.
But our Gaelic tongue you'll as soon hear sung
as the speech of the Hottentot
In fact we're distinguished for unspeakable English
in the backwaters of Drumsnot.
Oh in Ireland's fight for her birthright
we had no glorious share
For the Black and Tans with their trucks and guns
never knew that we were there
Now they've gone away and 'tis sad to say,
things haven't changed a jot
For in Leinster House neither Minister nor mouse,
gives a sugar about Drumsnot.
Our hedge-master died in eighteen-o-five
and since then we have had no school
And for all we see of C.I.E.
we might as well be in Kabul
Ah but soon we might get th'oul electric light –
and then again we might not
And the Christmas mail arrives without fail –
around Easter in Drumsnot.
Oh a telephone kiosk or a Shi'ite mosque
would be equal novelties there
So our smoky signals and dopey pigeons
our urgent messages bear
And no motor car has yet got that far
for the Spring Show could justly allot
For sheer scope and size a major prize
to each pothole around Drumsnot.
We've no B & B's, no facilities
for the stranger touring round
No Cead Mile Failte in your tracks will halt you
if you tread on our tainted ground
If you're tracing your ancestors in parish registers,
I'm afraid you won't here find a lot
Ah sure jayses we barely can point out our parents
in the shambles they call Drumsnot.
If you've a low opinion of our dominion,
please don't broadcast your point of view
For although the locals are yobs and yokels,
they have their fine feelings too
A bass-baritone weighing twenty-two stone
dropped a hint that we weren't too hot
Well, he sang falsetto as he left our ghetto
and staggered away from Drumsnot.
Oh 'twas in Drumsnot I was begot
and there I squandered my boyhood days
And my youthful deeds they now recede
in an alcoholic haze
When I grew a man, I drew up a plan
and teamed up with a well-endowed mot
Her father owns the Rag and Bones –
that's the only pub in Drumsnot.
By the effluent pump near the rubbish dump,
I courted her right well
And we got engaged within seven days
for she couldn't stand the smell
Then came the day in the month of May
when we tied the fatal knot
And the wedding do was crubeens for two
in the eating-house of Drumsnot
Now we live in a cabin with the thatch in ribbons
and the rent we can barely pay
And all the roses around the door
won't keep the wolf away
And all my dreams of pints so creamy,
alas they have come to naught
For supplies of stout they did soon run out
in the only pub in Drumsnot
Oh I wish I was far from the Shamrock Shore
in some place where I might find work
And I tried of late for to emigrate –
but I missed my lift to Cork
So to settle down in my native town
has become my doleful lot
And to sink my roots and my hobnail boots
in this dungheap they call Drumsnot
Now as you all know, some years ago,
big blundering Uncle Sam
Tried to lift fifty-one of his native sons
held hostage inside Iran
Ah but isn't it strange when 'twas all the rage,
that the whole bloody world forgot
To break in and let loose us hundred and two poor hoors,
marooned inside in Drumsnot.
Now, at last I must conclude, arrest
and terminate this desperate ditty
And I hope you, good people true
by now feel for me some pity
And when at last my life is past
and my bones have to moulder and rot
I pray God on high they won't have to lie
in the cemetery of Drumsnot.
Just the two of ye?
http://www.irishlandmark.com/properties/barbican-gatelodge-antrim.asp (http://www.irishlandmark.com/properties/barbican-gatelodge-antrim.asp)
Kinsale is lovely as Supersub said, but also either the Iveragh Peninsula (South Kerry) or the Dingle Penninsula are fabulous parts of the country.
Well folks, it ended up being FaithLegg House Hotel on its golf estate in Waterford for a couple of days - http://www.faithlegg.com (http://www.faithlegg.com) Got a mid week deal of 2 nights B&B plus 1 dinner. Seriously impressive joint and got a "complimentary upgrade" to one of the 4 the King rooms - so bloody big i nearly needed a microphone to shout to Mrs Blast when she was at the other end of it - http://www.portalin1.com/movie/images/rooms/FHH_20021216153220390.jpg (http://www.portalin1.com/movie/images/rooms/FHH_20021216153220390.jpg).
Dinner seperate to the deal would have been €52 for the 3 course meal per person .... and yet the whole deal was 'only' €278 for the lot for the 2 of us (weekend rate with no deal would have been about €700 for the room) - and breakfast was superb !!
Dunmore East is a lovely little village with good restaurants for grub for dinner on the 2nd night
All in all, serious brownie points gained ... or rather the overdraft has now been cleared ;)