ashford castle

Ashford Castle stands a the head of Lough Corrib. You drive in under an impressive gateway, through a manicured nine-hole golf-course, and across an arched bridge over a wide river, into a broad forecourt, where the massive partly 13th-century crenelated castle stretches before you. In the 1800s the castle was rebuilt as a hunting lodge, and it was further extended while in the ownership of the Guinness family. In 1971 it became a hotel mainly for fishermen, but has since been totally refurbished, and is now a splendid 83-bedroom luxury establishment, under American ownership. Although a moat of river and lake and a curtain wall with battlements and watchtowers still remain, the castle's courtyard is now filled by immaculate flower gardens tended by fourteen gardeners. The jaunting car used by John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara in The Quiet Man, filmed on location here in 1952, is owned by the castle. Tied up by the hotel is a magnificent launch which once belonged to the liner Queen Elizabeth II, on which guests may cruise the lake. The bedrooms with the finest views are those at the corner of the castle overlooking both river and lake, and at the very top under the eaves, though there are larger, grander rooms elsewhere.