Find yourself living in a real-life fairytale at Cabra Castle in Co. Cavan. From stellar service to incredible food, you will be left feeling like royalty after your stay here.
Experience a 5-course culinary experience at their award-winning restaurant and enjoy exploring their vast grounds and rich history.
To celebrate our wedding anniversary last year, we thought we’d do something magical. And sticking true to my dream of being a princess (or at the very least a duchess) I began hunting for a hotel to enjoy our special occasion.
I booked us the One Night B&B and Dinner deal through their website. This included a 5-course dinner at their award-winning restaurant, a night in their king-suite cottages, and breakfast the next morning.
A bit about Cabra Castle
The magnificent Cabra Castle (originally named Cormy Castle) building that you see today was rebuilt in 1808, after being destroyed during the Cromwellian War. The castle was then bought by the Pratt family in 1813 and was given its new name in 1820. The castle was lived in by the Pratt family for generations before it was bought and remodelled into a hotel in 1964. But it wasn’t until 1991, when the Corscadden Family bought the property, that it became a popular hotel and wedding venue.
The Corscadden Family continued to develop the land to accommodate more and more rooms for people to enjoy – introducing the cottage rooms, where we enjoyed our stay.
Here’s what we thought of our stay at Cabra Castle with our total score at the end:
Value for Money
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Cabra Castle always has incredible specials on (which can you find on their website linked below) especially if you go during the week.
We booked one of Cabra Castle’s amazing specials to celebrate our anniversary. The special was one night in a king suite, including a 5-course dinner and breakfast the next morning.
Our stay cost us €278.00 for 1 night.
The food at Cabra’s award-winning restaurant was incredible. With breakfast and dinner included we feel like this special was definitely worth it.
Checklist:
Included breakfast ✅
Free Activities (pool, hikes, games etc) ✅
Discounts Available ✅
In-room snacks (this star is for hotels that go beyond leaving tea and coffee) ✅
Met expectations ✅
⭐️ Value for Money Rating: 5/5 ⭐️
Aesthetic
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When one books a night at a 200-year-old castle, they expect to be taken back to that regal time,
The main castle is everything you’d hope a restored castle to be – with history draped across the windowsills in orate curtains and walls covered in portraiture and art that could have only existed in a time long before our modern history even starts.
However, that was not the case for our cottage suite. While there was attention paid to the choice of wallpaper, bedding and curtains, we couldn’t help but feel the supremacy of the estate was left outside the door.
The bathroom was the biggest letdown for us. It was a massive space but only one sink and one shower – all modern fixtures. I think that there could have been more care taken in choosing the interior decor and there is definitely enough space for a bath. (It’s a luxury hotel king-suite, it definitely should have a bath don’t you think?)
Checklist:
On brand ✅
What we expected 👎🏼
Great view ✅
Good interior and exterior design 👎🏼
Well maintained ✅
⭐️ Aesthetic Rating: 3/5 ⭐️
Cleanliness
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I don’t have much to say about the cleanliness – we spotted nothing out of the ordinary. Obviously, great care was taken to make sure our room was immaculate.
Checklist:
Cleaned well ✅ (kind of want to call this category “great care taken in cleaning”)
Toiletries provided ✅
Housekeeping available ✅
Clean sheets, towels and blankets ✅
No dust or visible dirt ✅
⭐️ Cleanliness Rating: 5/5 ⭐️
Experience
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The service at Cabra Castle is unmatched.
Finding specials and booking a room is a very simple process through their website: https://www.cabracastle.com/
And yet, despite its simplicity, I made a mistake when booking, however, the secretary called me a couple of days before to confirm my booking and point out my mistake. She was incredibly friendly and changed my date-error immediately.
I was blown away by the above-and-beyond service we received at Cabra Castle. When we arrived at our cottage, we were greeted with a card and box of chocolates congratulating us on our anniversary. How sweet is that? They also organised a tray of chocolate-coated strawberries in their gardens for us to enjoy before dinner on our special day. All of this was extra that the staff arranged just to be accommodating.
Checklist:
Great service ✅
Check-ins and no long waits ✅
Comfortable Experience ✅
Good Quality Fixtures ✅
Comfortable bed ✅
⭐️ Experience Rating: 5/5 ⭐️
Environment
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Wander the main castle buildings, taking in the vintage armour, life-sized portraits and ornate decorations that celebrate the castle’s history. Or go for a stroll in the Dún a Rí Forest Park that borders the castle grounds for a peaceful morning or afternoon adventure.
There is history at every turn of the castle and its grounds. We found a lovely little garden by a widow tree that was celebrating the historical statues laid there.
Checklist:
Beautiful location ✅
Parking Access ✅
Safe ✅
Close to attractions ✅
Involved in the protection of history and natural surroundings ✅
⭐️ Environment Rating: 5/5 ⭐️
In a couple sentences:
This enchanting hotel is only made more magical by the warm and welcoming staff that make you feel like royalty yourself. It is a great place to celebrate a special occasion and worth the trip to get there.
Located right on the beachfront of this small coastal town in Ireland, is the stunning Palm Hotel and Restaurant. It’s a beautiful hotel and, if you’re anything like us, the pictures will definitely make you want to visit. So we did.
Let’s rate it!
We arrived at the hotel, just in time for our check-in at 4 pm on a Tuesday. We had booked our room a mere 2 nights before that (on Booking.com) and worked out afterwards that if we’d booked at least a week in advance, we would have saved a whopping €100 over the two nights. (Lesson learnt, plan ahead).
Value for Money
Our stay cost us €396 for two nights. Which is quite expensive, even as hotels in Ireland go.
Okay so it’s expensive but “is it worth it?”
While it was an absolutely fabulous room – and I’m sure I racked up a small bill with my two deep baths – I just don’t feel that the price is justified without including breakfast.
There is nothing better than waking up to a big, cooked breakfast. And usually, we wouldn’t book a hotel that didn’t include one, but the look of the room and the location of the hotel had us sold. We had to try it for ourselves.
For a hotel to be considered good value for money, it has to include more than just a place to sleep. You want to go somewhere and be offered an experience. Especially, if the price is high.
Checklist:
Included breakfast 👎🏼
Free Activities (pool, hikes, games etc) 👎🏼
Discounts Available ✅
In-room snacks (this star is for hotels that go beyond leaving tea and coffee) 👎🏼
Met expectations ✅
⭐️ Value for Money Rating: 2/5 ⭐️
Aesthetic
The main room (our room 😉) at The Palm is absolutely stunning and will have you wanting to restyle your own room to match its aesthetic.
The main feature of the room is the giant steel bathtub. This massive bin is big enough for two people to lounge in – and a good bath is always a luxury. The bed was lovely – fitted with soft, white linen and 4 puffy pillows (although we both bumped our poor toes on the extruding wooden legs a good few times).
Despite the bath overlooking the boardwalk below, you cannot see into the windows from the street (we checked!). So you can enjoy your bath, stalking the poor people below, knowing that cannot spy back at you.
Second to the bath, the greatest features in this room are the windows. They are ceiling to floor and directly face the ocean. You could sit and stare out them all day and night long. But don’t worry, they are also fitted with black-out curtains for when you want to sleep in for a few more hours.
The toilet room and shower room are separate (a pleasant feature when you’re enjoying a nice long shower in their great walk-in shower).
The lighting fixtures are aesthetically chosen and can be turned on and off separately (as well as dimmed) depending on how much light you’d like.
Checklist:
On brand ✅
What we expected ✅
Great view ✅
Good interior and exterior design ✅
Well maintained ✅ (I nearly didn’t give this point because the poor plants had not been well looked after, but the decor is almost faultless)
⭐️ Aesthetic Rating: 5/5 ⭐️
Cleanliness
Cleanliness can ultimately determine one’s experience in any establishment. While our first impressions of our room were that it was impeccable, our room was slacking in some small ways.
I was very excited about our coffee station in the room. Usually one can expect sachets of instant coffee and a kettle. We were treated with a Nespresso pod machine and various pods (although we had no idea which one was which). As I was indulging in my first cup of coffee I noticed some old, congealed milk in the bottom of one of the mugs. Also there was a used pod and couple milk cartons in the collection.
There was also a pretty-big cobweb above one of the windows.
It’s really disappointing because this small lack of attention to detail felt like such a damper on such an immaculate room.
We were given a single set of toiletries (shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and soap) to use during our stay. They were the normal size of hotel toiletries but of a pretty good standard.
Checklist:
Cleaned well 👎🏼 (kind of want to call this category “great care taken in cleaning”)
Toiletries provided ✅
Housekeeping available ✅
Clean sheets, towels and blankets ✅
No dust or visible dirt 👎🏼
⭐️ Cleanliness Rating: 3/5 ⭐️
Experience (and comfort)
Our room was fitted with a Nespresso coffee pod machine and radio. These increased our experience immensely. We spent a good amount of our time just chilling, drinking coffee and enjoying our stay. Everything about this room makes you want to stay for as long as possible.
The bed was of good quality, the shower and bath were next level and the quality of decor in this well-designed room was faultless. (And while we weren’t the biggest fans of the weird hand doorknobs, we can appreciate the aesthetic).
The only issue we had with our experience of the hotel was the noise.
We were notified via email (as we arrived – with a no-refund policy) that there was construction happening at the hotel. While the construction was probably as quiet as construction can be, the 8 o’clock banging-on-the-wall alarm was not what we were hoping for on our relaxing getaway.
While we totally get that building new rooms has to happen at some point (and off-peak, during the week is the best time for that) it still took away from our peace and must be noted.
There was also a lack of apology in person, which there really should’ve been. And besides our room service asking us if we needed anything, we were not checked on when passing the manager and there was no one to take the keys from us at check-out. (we just handed them to some guy who said he’d take them so hopefully that all went well).
Checklist:
Great service ✅
Check-ins and no long waits 👎🏼
Comfortable Experience 👎🏼
Good Quality Fixtures ✅
Easy access to attractions ✅ (This will obviously depend on what you were looking for in your stay)
⭐️ Experience Rating: 3/5 ⭐️
Environment
The Palm is in an absolutely prime location.
It is right on the boardwalk of the main beach in Bray. The ocean view is breathtaking and we walked the beach several times a day. It is not even a 5-minute walk to the Aquarium and is surrounded by restaurants within walking distance. The hotel itself also has an in-house restaurant and bar [review coming soon!] that is definitely worth eating at, even if you aren’t staying in the hotel.
Checklist:
Beautiful location ✅
Parking Access ✅ (Parking is available on the street outside the hotel, which is very common for almost everywhere in Ireland).
Safe ✅
Close to attractions ✅
Involved in the protection of natural surroundings 👎🏼
⭐️ Environment Rating: 4/5 ⭐️
In a couple sentences:
Everything about this room makes you want to stay in it for as long as possible. Small changes would have made our experience a whole lot better, but you’ll definitely find us back here.
We're Ken & Chey - a young South African couple currently exploring Ireland. We're adventurer's writers, musicians, tech nerds and vloggers who love Jesus and coffee.
This is our adventure and we're so excited to share it with you.
