It was my mothers 70th birthday so how best to spend the day than to wine and dine her and one of Ireland's best hotels Cashel Palace. Cashel Palace has a huge history in the town of Cashel and it was purchased by the Magnier family in 2016. John Magnier and his wife transformed the hotel into one of the best in the world. John is also known for his hotel in Barbado called Sandy Lane but he is largely recognised for owning Coolmore stud which is huge in the racing world. The hotel has a great story. It was originally the home of the Archbishop of Ireland. These homes back in the day came with their own land agent who would brew beer for these houses and this is where the story gets interesting. It was one Richard Guinness who was the land agent of an archbishop Arthur Price. The archbishop was also Richards son's godfather to little Arthur Guinness so when the archbishop passed away he left £100 to Arthur Guinness who used the money to for his famous 1000 year lease on St James Gate in Dublin, which is now the home of Guinness. There you have it.
So being voted recently of being the worlds best hotels I was looking forward to this one as I do enjoy the luxuries in life. Cashel of course is famous for its giant castle which is one of the oldest castles in the world. Now the castle itself looks the business when coming into the town and the American tourist loves an aul castle but I have to say it is still some sight on the way into the town.
Ok parked up and into the hotel. Great reception area with a lovely fire. Paintings everywhere. What I found about the top top hotels is there is no element of snobbery about them. During a visit to Adare Manor the concierge at the entrance told us that this is off limits and this is off limits but to enjoy ourselves and go whereever the hell we wanted to which I loved. Cashel Palace was the same.. Warm and welcoming. Too good to be snobby about things. Excellent. One of the hotels staff told us to have a seat by the fire and took us to our seats for afternoon tea. He focused on my son and asked him his age. My son is shy but he liked this guy and said 5. "FIVEEEE" asked the staff member as we walked to our seats. "But you look 15!!!." This to a little lad is probably the best thing you could ever say to him. To see he was chuffed is an understatement and I shall rob this guys aura and line and regurgitate this to every 5 year old I see from now on. It was just as good as the line from the elf with a Cork accent at Christmas "So is it boring being on the good list all year?" This line made be blurt out a big evil laugh out loud and made a scene. So with my son in love and transfixed on the Maitre. I had a look at the menu.
I have always found with the best hotels there is always around 5 sandwiches on an afternoon tea menu. 2 of them are normally fish. I like to stay clear of prawns and salmons and lone behold the prawn and salmon were of course on this menu. At times I had them and they were the nicest they could possibly be but I do not like fish in a sandwich so I tend to have 3 to choose from. Now it is easy to take 2 sandwiches off the list but 3 is a push so this was my predicament. Goats cheese no problem. Chicken and mayo , no problem. Egg mayo , with a push. Should I get rid of the egg mayo. I want to and have more of the nice sandwiches. "You can't take 3 off" someone went to another so I took the plunge and went with 3. I would suffer through the egg mayo. Now my strategy in life in this situation is that I would get rid of the not so nice stuff first so I have the rest of the meal in peace with the nice stuff. This normally did me well in life apart from that one time in the friends house where I tried to consume the driest floweriest potato of all time just to get it out of the way. My friends mother being the great host saw that I downed her dehumidifier of a spud first off and decided to give me another one. Mission failure. This was not going to happen here so I down the two egg mayo. They were the best egg mayos I have ever had which is not hard but they were still an effort to swallow. With hell over with let the good times roll. The other two sandwiches were the nicest I have ever had in their food types. Sublime. The scones came next. Freshly made nice and warm. Hobbit scones but nice. I had a second but regretted them as soon as I ate the second one because I was now full and we had the deserts to go. For tea I went with a mint option and then an Americano. I did this because I am sick of getting coffee at afternoon tea so I went with the most untea-like tea. Mint tea. As per above it was the mintiest of mint teas, Dessert!
These were all unreal and even the artwork was amazing. The mother made the mistake of a second scone and couldn't eat the desserts. I ate all but one. The waitress assured us that all desserts will be packed up at the end and given to us for later. This was a nice touch. It would be a shame to waste such masterpieces of what is a Michelin star pastry chef.
After the meal we went for a walk around the hotel and some of the rooms were amazing. There is a steep horse racing tradition and also sports tradition and this can be seen in its photos and paintings. They managed to mix Victorian Manor mansion with modern sporting events which is no mean feat.
All photos taken by my best friend - Iphone 15 pro max
