But it’s also had a mottled history, with standards falling before its purchase by South Africa’s Red Carnation Hotels in 2013. It has spent a reported €100m sprucing the five-star up (even more improvements are in the works).

After all our recent traumas, the hotel is seeing a surge in Irish visitors who have always wondered about the setting and are investing in big-ticket travel experiences with their families. They’re spending significant sums to turn those ‘maybe one day’ holiday aspirations into a reality.

Can this fortress shoulder the weight of such high expectations?

Arrival & location

Talk about making a good first impression: after a courteous one-over from a gatekeeper, guests drive through the estate’s rolling golf course and woodlands before Lough Corrib’s silver waters shimmer into view.

Then, just beyond a little bridge, the 800-year-old castle appears.

It seems otherworldly — you’re reminded of just how incredible Ireland’s heritage and beauty is. Lots of guests stay on site for their entire holiday, and it’s easily done with boat trips, falconry, tennis and fishing just some of the outdoor activities on offer.

But the hotel’s also handy for day trips to Connemara and Kylemore Abbey, or up to Achill; it’ll take about 45 minutes to get to Galway city. 10/10

Service & style

Long a private home of the Guinness family, Ashford Castle feels just as much a national monument as a hotel.

That’s partially due to the no-expense-spared renovation: look out for the huge Donegal Crystal chandelier and hand-carved fireplace in the Connaught Room, the bar’s mossy-green Connemara marble countertop, and the plush in-house cinema with its cherry-red velvet seats.

I enjoyed eavesdropping on wealthy, well-travelled Americans — a huge, crucial market here — left incredulous by the age and significance of their surroundings.

The hotel’s historian can go into all that heritage in more detail at the property’s museum space, though lots of visitors are just as curious about the prospect of encountering world leaders and proper-big-deal celebrities. Previous guests here range from Princess Grace to Fred Astaire, the Reagans, Brad Pitt and Christina Ricci, and the hotel's corridors are lined with pictures of many of these personalities.

Many staff have been employed for well over a decade; the rest are proud custodians, too. This is an incredibly grand property, but service feels nicely Irish — personable and genuinely hospitable to everybody, there’s no trace of haughtiness. 10/10

The rooms

As you’d expect, Ashford’s interior designers have leaned into the building’s history, so don’t come here expecting the castle’s 82 highly varied rooms and suites to showcase Scandi-style aesthetic austerity.

Instead, they’re bright — finished perhaps in candy-stripe pinks and burgundies, primrose yellow or emerald green — and busy, maybe featuring sprawling four-posters, working gas fireplaces and one-off antique furniture.

The soft touches (plush bedding, immaculate housekeeping, good WiFi and ample power points) are all in place, though a key consideration is the view.

If you’re fortunate enough to be able to stay here in the first place, consider securing a Lough Corrib-facing room. With a fire flickering behind you — it’s hypnotising to watch the mercurial skies shift and the light dancing on the water. (And if you’ve stayed previously and want a change of scene, the castle’s ultra-private Hideaway Cottage is a separate lodge, beloved by honeymooners, directly by the lake.) 8/10

Food & drink

There’s no question you’ll eat well at Ashford, and plentifully too.

A standalone thatch, Cullen’s at the Cottage is the traditional seafood restaurant; the Drawing Room offers delicious, unfussy lunches; afternoon tea at the Connaught Room (above) feels a proper treat (alongside jam and cream, the scones come with a white chocolate-infused lemon curd);

The fine-dining George V Dining Room is the special-occasion setting, where ‘a dinner jacket is required for gentlemen’ and everyone makes an effort.

The hotel’s reputation means guests expect to enjoy some of Ireland’s best dining experiences here, but there’s some room for improvement against increasingly sophisticated competition.

For now, I feel Park Hotel Kenmare’s Dining Room is the country’s best hotel restaurant. The fine-dining venues at Co Kildare’s Carton House and Tipp’s Cashel Palace are other ones to watch, though they don’t compare in other respects.

This leader board might change. Ashford’s new executive chef, Liam Finnegan, has big plans for the place; made with grapefruit and ginger, his Doonbeg crab dish at the George V is next-level and a promising indicator of great things to come. Fingers crossed they’ll also reinstate an iteration of the fantastic breakfast buffet that was offered pre-pandemic, rather than sticking with a model that’s now solely à la carte — it was world-class. 8/10

The bottom line

‘Breathtaking’ is a term that’s grossly overused in travel writing, but this setting really is magical.

Ashford Castle is up there with the best hotels you’ll find globally — it’s more romantic than predictable, pretentious Paris; if you’re happy to be chatty, the service surpasses deferential Hong Kong’s (and is light years ahead of New York’s insincere, overzealous sycophancy).

Ireland’s high-end hospitality offering has improved hugely over the course of this century and travellers are spoiled for choice by increasingly strong competition at resorts like Adare Manor and the  Park Hotel Kenmare, but Ashford Castle is really something special. 

Insider tip

One of Red Carnation’s biggest innovations was to open a polished spa with plunge pool and petite gym. Post-Covid, those facilities feel somewhat limited given travellers’ increased interest in health and wellness. Currently under construction, a swish and spacious new gym and proper lap pool are due around spring or summer.

Local 101

You’re minutes from pretty and pristine Cong village, which is ringed by water, houses a 12th-century Augustinian abbey, features a cluster of pubs and cafes, and continues to prosper from its prominence in 1952’s The Quiet Man film — The Quiet Man Museum leads walking tours from April to September.

Rates

B&B at Ashford Castle starts from €435 in a Corrib double until March 7; from €535 thereafter. John O’Ceallaigh was a guest of the hotel. ashfordcastle.com