With St. Patrick’s Day circled on your calendar, it’s time to recall the luxury, hospitality and refinement to be found in the old country—Ireland.
One stunning choice is the award-winning, five-star Ashford Castle, which dates back to 1228 and is a former home to the Guinness family. It’s set on 350 acres in County Mayo (south of Westport, Ireland) along the shores of Lough Corrib and the River Cong and beside breathtaking woodlands and mountains.
The castle has eighty-two guest rooms and excels in its offering of country sports, such as equestrian, fly-fishing, golf and falconry. Other ways to recharge include a state-of-the-art, thirty-two seat luxe cinema; new billiards room with a mid-nineteenth-century Jacobean Revival carved oak fireplace and overmantle with Tudor roses and acanthus motifs; and a royal-stamped, full-sized mahogany and satinwood cross-banded billiards table from Thurston & Co. Ltd., with Edwardian-era mahogany scoreboard. (Yes, afternoon tea, too.)
Ashford is a member of the Red Carnation Hotel Collection, with five- and four-star family-run boutique hotels also in London, Dorset, Guernsey, Geneva, Florida and South Africa. ashfordcastle.com