There's just something about this place keeps drawing me back. The staff are lovely, the rooms…read morespacious and the hotel well kept. Food is hotel food if you know what I mean but the breakfast is above the ordinary. Add to that the spa and leisure centre and it's location in Birr close to Birr Castle, the bog sculptures etc. and there ye have it. I like it ...nuff said

We stayed here for a wedding. The reception took place here as well. The food was incredibly…read moregood. You wanted for nothing. Anything you wanted or needed was at your fingertips. The staff was very warm and receptive and extremely helpful. I recommend this hotel to anyone who wants great service, good food, and a comfortable place to lay their head down after their travels.

Had a very tasty meal here today. The food was delicious. I had chicken wing starter, pizza main…read moreand choc fudge cake for dessert, literally can't move now I'm so full lol everything was lovely, fresh and cooked perfectly. The staff were very attentive and friendly. We got a table no problem although it did get quite busy after that. The lounge was very well kept, clean and comfortable.

Dominating Emmet Square is the large tidy discreet Georgian building known as Doolys Hotel…read more Favoured by travellers and market goers, it's always humming with activity. It's a comfortable old shoe of a building, with some modern day polish. Bustling staff efficiently take care of you at reception or steer you into the dining room. There's always a carvery for lunch- which is always well attended. Given its location in the centre of the town square, parking is close at hand in the centre of the square. However, on a busy day these will fill up early in the day. We always stop there when travelling cross county - a handy and comfortable place to stop.

I stayed here last night. It's a real castle. It's pretty awesome. I didn't have an opportunity…read moreto do any golfing or use the tennis courts. We DID do a Falconry experience that was really cool. (I recommend it) The bar was great. The high point of the stay was the dinner we ate at the Hermione's restaurant. I had a ribeye steak with a pressed potato. Both very good. Our server Glenn was outstanding. Out of every dinning experience that I have had in my entire life, Glenn would rank in the top 5 of the servers. Can't say enough about the service.

Kilkea Hotel is a spectacular and beautiful property. The renovations to turn it into a hotel…read moreinclude some modern amenities but keep a lot of the historical charm of the property which I appreciated. We had one castle room and one carriage room for our stay. Both rooms were quaint and well maintained. The gardens around the property are gorgeous and wonderful to explore during nice weather. The only thing to note is that in off-season the main restaurant is only open on the weekends and the tea service is not available during the week. While we enjoyed the food at Hermione's, the day we stayed there was a group event closing the main restaurant so we had to eat in the bar area. Most of the activities are off the property which wasn't very clear as we approached the date of our stay. We ended up visiting the National Stud Farm (about 30 minutes drive) and the clay pigeon shooting (about 40 minutes drive). Highly recommend both activities and really appreciate the staff helping us arrange these activities. The downstairs bar area is open late with a delicious charcuterie and board games are available to use by the fireplace which was a fun way to spend the later evening hours. Highly recommend staying at Kilkea Castle Hotel!

Wonderful location. Great access to everything Kilkenny has to offer. The staff was just wonderful…read more Some of the nicest people we have encountered while traveling. Included breakfast was made to order from a menu. Rooms were of good size and functional. Definitely recommend staying here.

Everything about this hotel was really good. Can't go as far as say it was exceptional, but it was…read morereally really nice for what it was. It's very close to everything so that means everything is in walking distance. They have complementary parking on site that they don't charge you for. The bed was comfortable. The room was clean. The service staff was really nice. The only reason it's not getting five stars they don't have a fitness center. We would definitely come back and probably will be back and visit this hotel.

Ever stayed the night in a legit castle from the 1200s? We hadn't either until we came here! It's…read morethe crossover the history and comfort, and was just plain awesome! Located in Kinnity county, this castle sits atop a hill just below the Sleeve Bloom mountains. You drive through woods, turn a soft corner and BOOM, there's the castle. It's magnificent! Old Gothic style, dungeon and all. The castle is equally beautiful inside. There are dozens of rooms inside, all at different levels of the castle. We stayed in a big room up top. The view is the grounds out front was beautiful - a huge field, surrounded by woods and containing a ton of deer that just seem to hang out. The bed was huge - two queens side by side, so we slept 4 across (and one on the floor) and had plenty of room for everyone. There are four spots to eat on site. A nice restaurant, and three bars including one in the library, one in the dungeon and one outside. The grounds were magnificent. There are miles of trails out back, tons of small structures to explore outside, a lovely courtyard that housed an abbey and even a sport court for those so inclined. We also had afternoon tea in the front room. A wonderful experience with nice tea and lovely little sandwiches/cakes. They don't give it away, but it was less expensive than a nice spot in Dublin. All in all, this was a homerun! It's something we'll do again in the future and you should do if you're in the area!

We had our wedding here for about 45 people including us all from the states. Our coordination for…read morethe tasting was handled by Ana and for the day of was mainly by Emma and Connor. All three individuals and all of the other staff we met were absolutely incredible, kind and generous. We had the most peaceful and surreal weekend as did our family and all of our guests. This place is so incredibly special, from the hikes, to the surrounding land, the castle architecture, the history itself, and the people here. There are not enough words to express just how amazing this place is. We will be returning for many many many years to come

Wow. Where do I start? My wife and I decided to seriously indulge ourselves so we went with a two…read morenight package (via Relais et Chateaux) in Ballyfin Demesne, a grandiose 18th century house on 600 acres in the leafy Laois countryside. We arrived at the main electronic gates (you need to dial reception for entry) and made our way along the winding 3km road to the main house. It was a bit disconcerting to have all of the staff lined up outside the hotel to greet us, but it certainly made us feel very welcome. Our luggage was taken, my car driven off to be hidden away out of sight and we were given a short introduction about what we could expect from our stay. Our deluxe room was incredible. It was very well presented, looking very much like what it would have looked like two hundred years ago (I'm sure) and the mini bar was filled with complimentary (non alcoholic) drinks and nuts. The quality of the products (soaps, shower gels etc) were of the highest order. We relaxed for a while then went down for a guided tour of the house hosted by the extremely pleasant & imitable Lionel. The house has been lovingly restored to its former glory in the finest detail by its owners. I could talk for hours about what a beautiful hotel it is. The main points to note are that: yes you do pay a lot to stay/eat there, but it is worth it for the relaxation, the excellent food, the incredibly friendly, attentive (and not in any way overbearing) staff. There are many activities on offer (we took a spin in one of the golf buggies and explored the estate and all of its follies, grottoes and forests), including clay pigeon shooting, fishing, archery etc...I enjoyed not having to worry about running up huge bills, as most teas, soft drinks, newspapers and a pre dinner champagne etc were complimentary. The team were accommodating in every way - they had no issue with us bringing a bottle of our own wine (for nostalgic reasons - our wedding wine) and just charged corkage. The food, including the breakfasts, was incredible. I recommend to anyone looking to seriously indulge themselves in truly opulent surroundings to treat themselves to a night in Ballyfin. I would personally prefer the Cliff House for a foodie break, but for the whole end to end package it is hard to beat the luxury on offer at Ballyfin.

I cannot wait to come back! This is the most luxurious and beautiful hotel I have ever been too! We…read morestayed here for my husband's birthday. The attention to detail by the staff was phenomenal! From the pictures on the wall, flowers, decorations, I could go on.... Staff very helpful & always there to offer you, tea, water or coffee. Golf carts great way to get around!

The rooms in this hotel are outdated, however when we were here they were in the middle of…read morerenovating the rooms. The front lobby, sitting area, coffee/Tea area, and restaurant areas were updated and very nice. The front staff very friendly. The room was outdated. Their is no luggage rack stand. So we had to use the counter. The rooms are small, flat screen tv was small, and you were not able to use your travel Outlet Converters because they would blow the fuses in the hotel. The beds and pillows were comfy. I believe once the rooms are renovated this will be a very nice hotel to stay on. The breakfast was really good. Everything we had was good. It was an Irish Breakfast and buffet style, pastries, yogurt, fruit, cereal, juices, and so forth.

The reception area in this hotel is great, not just the desk bit but the whole front of the hotel,…read moreits huge and there are loads of seats where you can sit about for a chat or just rest while you're waiting for someone else. This is a feature that carries on throughout the hotel, outside all of the meeting rooms there are nice large seating areas. I think this is great when you are at an event but you wanted a small mini meeting with another participant, gives you lots of room but privacy at the same time. I had to mention that first because it is the bit of the hotel that stands out the most to me. The conference rooms in the old part of this hotel are not great, most of them do not have any natural daylight which means you feel like you are stuck in a box not knowing what time of day it is if you don't have a watch and you have no idea what the weather is like outside, it's like they are trying to imitate casinos or something where they want you to stay longer! This has the totally opposite effect on me! The bedrooms in this hotel are okay, fairly standard nothing special to say here really. Hotel rooms can be so boring can't they!? oh one great thing is the fact that this is one of the few hotels that still gives shoe shine kits and sewing kits in the rooms, brilliant! The kitchen and waiting staff are really nice in this hotel and are very eager to please while you are dining. The reception and other staff however I have found are the total opposite, I thought that the reception staff were a bit untidy looking to start with (am I being too pernickety?) and when i had any requests they were not to helpful at all! ( i will say though the guy dedicated to ourevent was really great)At one particular event the heating in the room was mental, it was like being in the arctic one minute and then suddenly you were trekking through the Sahara, the reception staff were looking at me like I was a complete nuisance, maybe I was but we were not going to pay lots of money for an inferior room, no siree! There is a new wing to this hotel which i will get to test out later this month, hopefully it is better than the old part of the hotel, I hear it has natural light anyway, I'll be back with an updated review and hopefully la few more stars!

Stayed in your hotel last Saturday and we were not allowed to go to room until 4 30 and then when…read morewe did get to the room The guest book said we were to vacate by 11 a.m. I find this a joke as the rooms were not overly clean and the bathroom left a lot to be desired. The carvery had no Beef on the menu and I do not eat fish, chicken or turkey. We had a light meal on Saturday evening which was not cheap as a Burger was €15. Just an average hotel which was not average priced MH

We bought the Menupages voucher offer for this hotel last weekend. €89 for 2 steak dinners, plus…read moreB&B overnight. Superb value and so handy to get to, down the new M9 motorway. Its a popular hotel, and parking had extended across the grass lawns by late Saturday afternoon, as there was a Poker Classic on. Anyway, down to the food menu. Part of the stay is complimentary tea & scones on arrival; ours were still steaming they were so fresh from the over, yummy. Later then, two grilled sirloin steaks, mushrooms, onions, bowl of chips, side-salad if you ask nicely, accompanied by their new house red, a False Bay Shiraz at just €18, which washed it all down just nicely. The steaks were succulent right through. We chose to share a dessert then, a big slice of chocolate cake with choc sauce drooling over it. The choc sauce is tasty as its made in-house, not so the cake part; bought in apparently, a bit shall we say, saw-dusty ! They do good coffee though, and the full Irish next morning was delivered promptly to our room (extra charge of course) which just filled us up the more. This is a great voucher deal, watch out for it.

We absolutely loved this charming hotel! The pub, the downstairs sitting areas, the garden, the…read moregreat location next to shops ... plus the rooms were large and comfy and the people were mostly lovely. We had a great stay and would definitely stay here again. NOTE: this review is for the hotel itself and NOT the pub! We loved the hotel but the pub was, by FAR, the worst we have encountered since our arrival in Ireland. The food was dry, the servers were rude and/or ignored us completely, and there was no music as promised. We ate there for lunch and it was great people watching because the place was packed with locals but everything else was ... disappointing. Then we came back later for music as suggested by the front desk, and we were ignored while standing at the bar, sitting at the bar, and hovering around the door. It was real "we know you are trying to be polite but we are not meeting your eyes so please get out" energy. Maybe we did something "wrong" I don't know, but it was still very strange. But the hotel is great and there are plenty of pubs a stone's throw from the front door.

This is a pretty hotel with nice grounds. The elevator was being worked on during art of my stay,…read moreso I had to take the stairs. There isn't air conditioning, but there is a fan in the room and it wasn't an issue in late September. There was toothpaste on my sink faucet when I checked in, which made me question the overall cleanliness. I could hear everyone who walked by and talked in the hallway. The church bells also woke me up.