Straddling a narrow peninsula where Lough Corrib meets the River Cong in County Mayo, a thirteenth-century Anglo-Norman castle expanded across seven centuries into one of Ireland's most recognizable silhouettes — battlemented towers, grey limestone walls, and formal gardens stepping down to the water's edge. Ashford Castle passed through the hands of the de Burgo family, the Brownes of Westport, and eventually the Guinness brewing dynasty before opening as a hotel in 1939, its 350-acre estate now carrying an eighteen-hole parkland golf course designed by Ryder Cup captain Christy O'Connor Jr., visible from the fairways as a romantic backdrop of crenellated turrets and wooded shore. The interiors, substantially reimagined during a two-year, $75 million renovation completed in 2015 under the direction of designer Olga Polizzi of Rocco Forte Hotels, work carefully between two registers: the masculine grandeur of the Dungeon Bar, where dark walnut Gothic cabinetry, tufted leather club chairs, and a carved limestone chimneypiece hold the atmosphere of a Victorian hunt library, and the unabashedly romantic guest rooms above. The 83 rooms and suites range from canopied four-posters draped in champagne silk with twisted mahogany columns framing lough views through arched windows, to attic suites where powder-blue Murano glass chandeliers and Venetian mirrors introduce a more playful, feminine counterpoint to the castle's stony exterior.

1hr 30min drive from Shannon airport (SNN); 2hr 45min drive from Dublin airport (DUB); 1hr drive from Knock airport (NOC)

No description provided yet.