dromoland castle

The next stop on our honeymoon was the Dromoland Castle. We weren’t really sure what exactly we were going to do while in Ireland and I definitely wasn’t planning on staying in a castle but then one day, while I was researching, this one randomly popped up so I decided to take a look at it.

The Dromoland Castle is everything you think of when you think royalty, from the valet parking to the turn down service before you go to bed, they don’t let you lift a finger while you’re there. It’s cool but also really weird to have someone waiting on you hand and foot.

The castle grounds are huge, they have a golf course, a lake, a garden, walking paths, bike paths, pretty much anything you could think of. They also offer so many activities! You can golf, fish, bike, picnic throughout the grounds, spend a day at the spa, take a hawk walk, go clay shooting, play tennis, go horseback riding, and the list goes on and on. Trust me, you will not be bored.

When we got there I couldn’t stop taking photos and videos, in true tourist fashion. It’s gorgeous. We were greeted at the front gate by a man with a list, he asked for our names and examined his list, he stopped about half way down—there we were. He then pointed us towards the front entrance, where we were then greeted by a valet and a bellhop who literally would not let either of us lift a finger. They brought all of our bags right to our room and I’m convinced if he had extra hands they would have carried us to our room as well.

While we were getting settled in I discovered that the castle and I were meant to be when I found that each room came with a Nespresso Machine all to yourself, complete with a few different coffee selections and some espresso.

Our specific room also came with a gorgeous lake view, a clawfoot tub (aaaaaahhhh) and the biggest shower I’d ever seen with a huge shower head that just poured water down, don’t act like you’re not obsessed with a nice shower.

For the first few hours (after I was done obsessing over the Nespresso Machine of course) we spent a lot of time exploring and just getting a feel for it. We wandered as much as we could inside and outside the castle, it’s huge and you’re free to go pretty much anywhere. There’s a bunch of entrances and exits all around that have cute little sitting areas or activities, like giant chess. We had so much fun just walking around and looking, if you saw us we probably looked like idiots stopping randomly and just staring.

We signed up for a few things during our visit at the castle—our favorite being the picnic we had together in the castle garden. You can pick from a variety of picnic “baskets” that have different food (and price) options. When you sign up for the picnic the staff gives you a map with a bunch of different places marked that they feel like are the best spots for you to picnic. You can pick between those or you can pick your own, then they escort you to that spot. It was really windy out when we had our picnic so we chose the garden and sat by a nice wind block. The plus side of it being windy (more like breezy when you were in the garden) was that there wasn’t anyone in the garden during our picnic! We had the place to ourselves for most of the time and it was awesome.

The basket we chose came with a meat platter, a cheese platter, grapes, seafood, salad, bread, crackers, a box of chocolates, half a bottle of wine, and two waters. The food was very different but really good. I tried a bunch of new things and only spit one out (shrimp… puke). Dylan was a fan of more of the food than I was, especially the seafood—I am not a fan of seafood at all and this whole trip just proved it (and yes I tried some while we were on the coast so location isn’t the reason why). It was a fun experience and a cool way to try different foods, we didn’t even come close to eating all of it either, we probably could have had two more people join us and we would have all been full. The chocolates by the way… TO DIE FOR. If anyone ever tells you that the Irish don’t know chocolate, they’re wrong.

The other favorite thing that we did, as with most of our favorite things in Ireland, was hit the cocktail bar. We sound like alcoholics and I swear that’s not the case but Alex the bartender knows what he’s doing. We both decided to try some traditional drinks made the royal way. I opted for a Brandy Sour and Dylan tried an Old Fashioned and they were both amazing, but even better than tasting the drinks was watching Alex make them! I have a video that I’ll be posting when I do the vlog series of our honeymoon, so watch for that because it’s awesome (he gets the blow torch out and everything).

The bar itself was pretty neat too, it had live music (that dedicated a song to us—the honeymooners), high ceilings, vintage crown molding, and a fireplace—a real fireplace. The whole castle vibe was so classy and we loved it. I almost wish we would have brought fancier clothes to wear instead of jeans and a sweater, but I guess there’s always next time…

If you visit Ireland I would definitely recommend you stay at least one night in the castle.