Castle Leslie Estate

My new wife and I stayed over new year's eve for a 2 night stay. We arrived early and got lunch as our room wasn't available yet. The reception kindly text as soon as it was. The castle was unavailable due to a wedding that day. Check in was easy and friendly. We lunched and had dinner in Connor's the first day of our stay and the food was of high standards, the staff attentive and friendly. We were very impressed. Good Guinness and an extensive cocktail list. Our room was beautiful. Well kitted out with TV, tablet for radio, large bath, good hairdryer and iron. Presented to a high standard with complimentary chocolates to congratulate us on our wedding. The phone went 10 mins after check-in with reception checking everything was ok. We were able to ask for the pre-ordered bottle of bubbles which had been forgotten (delivered in under 5 mins) and the door to the balcony was stuck. Maintainance sorted this quickly. On day 2 it was damp but we walked the long trails (6km) and it was beautiful. We had been told by reception the castle was open but when we walked up there was a sign of private function. So we didn't go in. A bit of a bummer as, while the lodge is beautiful there is no where to sit with a paper or a book to chill out for a while. So we went back to the pub. We had new year's dinner in snaffles. Hands down the best meal I've ever had. Amazing food. I was blown away. I can't recommend it enough. The staff were really attentive and friendly. The service was outstanding, seriously. Amazing. It was that good I asked about leaving a significant tip. I was going to use my card to do this but the waiter told me the staff don't get direct tips. That they get a set amount per month as per hotel policy. I didn't really like that. So if you want to tip a specific person bring cash. The pubs in town are friendly, I liked the old bar best. Theres an ice-cream and coffee shop in the village which is lovely too. Overall we were very happy with everything. We'd have liked to have had a place to lounge by a fire with a book but alas for private functions

Always a brilliant experience and always feels like a real treat to stay here. Staff are absolutely excellent from the moment we checked in we felt looked after - thanks to the brilliant new receptionist in training. A special thanks to Leah & Daniel in Snaffles Restaurant for looking after us for the evening, Julia who looked after us for breakfast and Margaret and the brilliant busy housekeeping team. Can’t wait to visit again!

I visited with my mum for festive afternoon tea and we had a great experience- the Christmas decorations were beautiful, food was delicious and staff were extremely attentive and friendly. We were served by Ieva and Valeria and they were amazing. Will definitely return and would recommend to anyone!

Third time to stay at The Lodge. As usual, from check in to check out , we were treated like royalty. Our room was sumptuous. Breakfast was delicious, with buffet cereals etc, and hot breakfast of your choice brought to the table. Dinner in Conor's Bar was very nice and friendly but unobtrusive service. However, for that special occasion, Snafles Restaurant dinner service is sublime. But be warned, don't have a big lunch beforehand. Grounds are wonderful for a stroll. However, make the effort to do the Castle tour. Enda was our guide and history came to life in front of us, he's such an excellent story teller. Can't believe it's free.

Booked the Golden Years package in one of the Lodge rooms which included B&B and two dinners. We were at the hotel too early for check in (which is a bit late at 4pm) so we asked reception if we were ok to leave our car to go walking. Reception then rang me around 2.30pm to advise our room was ready. Which was great but as we were out we didn’t return anyway to nearly check in time. The grounds and village are lovely to walk around and we ended up covering about 5 miles. Check in was very efficient and we were shown to our room by one of the receptionists. Really loved the room and the complimentary mini muffins were delicious. Our only issue with the room was that the sink was very slow to drain and even with the heating as low as possible it could be incredibly hot despite opening the window. The room overlooked the stable yard and as a horsey girl I was pleased about that 😁. Had a two course dinner the first night in Connors bar which was delicious although I found the skin on the chicken dish very salty. All the staff were lovely apart from one lady who gave the impression she hated her job. Thankfully apart from her asking where we would like to sit, we didn’t see her again. Breakfast was excellent as expected, again the staff and service were great. Good selection of hot food options. Went to the castle bar (The Long Gallery) on the second afternoon for drinks and it was a lovely place to spend a couple of hours. Dinner on the second night in Snaffles which was five courses. This is where it became disappointing. The service and food were very good until I found a black hair in the blue cheese donut that came with the venison dish (the coating on the outside of the venison was also incredibly salty). When clearing the plates I pointed out the hair. At this point the waitress (Portuguese lady) told me it couldn’t possibly be one from the kitchen staff as they are all blonde…really? What a ridiculous thing to say (especially as I could see into the kitchen from where I was seated via a reflection in glass and they were most definitely not “all blonde”). I did not appreciate being told this as if I was some sort of idiot who would have believed this story. She then came back to the table with apologies from the chef who apparently said that the hair must have came from the deer…These silly excuses and lies annoyed us more than the hair because mistakes can happen and it didn’t put me off the rest of my dinner. I also pointed out how incredibly salty the version was to receive the reply “ there’s never enough salt on food for me I love it”. I wish now we had complained more and that I had sent the whole dish back. We still left a tip as the food and service on the whole was great. Shouldn’t have bothered really. We weren’t expecting anything to be taken off our bill as we were only paying for wine but it would have been nice perhaps to have been offered a complimentary drink. Check out the next morning was quick as we weren’t asked how our stay was. I wanted to advise reception of the slow draining sink in the room and of the silly excuses in the restaurant. It very much felt like “we have your money already, off you go”. Did the castle tour (which was really a walk into three or four rooms and more of a history tour). However it was very interesting and lasted well over an hour. Our guide Enda (?) was entertaining and engaging and we really enjoyed finding out about the history of the family, it’s characters and the house. Would the restaurant experience put us off staying again? No and I will be recommending it to others but in hindsight I wish I had been a little more forthright.