(D) So the thing I have to write about now is the absolutely stupendous, amazing surprise sprung on me today. Liane is the sneakiest sister to ever walk the earth the way she kept this quiet…. She, along with my beautiful children Patrick, Oliver, Dominic and Gwendoline, and Patrick and Oliver’s wives Sarah and Ingrid planned an overnight stay in a castle as a present for my 55th birthday, which was last week.

We were merrily heading towards Westport where we were to have our next five night stay and intended to go via Clifden and Roundstone for a scenic route. Originally Clifden was somewhere we had thought we might spend a few days but Liane loved Westport and I’d wanted extra time in Ballyvaughan so ultimately we decided that after the quiet life in Ballyvaughan it might be nice to be based in a larger town and do more day trips further afield.

We still wanted to see Clifden and Roundstone though so yes went up via that way – then about 15km from Clifden Liane says “oh I want to pop down this road because I’ve seen it on google maps and it looks gorgeous”. I wasn’t even remotely suspicious as, given the amount of research she does, this wasn’t at all out of character for Liane. Her back story, of how she’d been google driving our route and the yellow google man accidentally went on this side road which is how she discovered it, wasn’t even really necessary but I have to say now was rather a nice touch!

We both oohed and aahed, stopped for photos of gorgeous autumn leaves, mossy trees, babbling brooks and then drove further down the laneway a bit. Liane pulls over and says “oh look at that” and there in the distance over the water is this stunningly beautiful building, framed perfectly with the trees and water. We got out and I walked a bit further on to get a good distance shot of it, exclaiming about the beauty of it all. As I walked back to her she said “well now seems a good time to give you this" and handed me a sealed envelope. In confusion I opened it to find a card from my children and Sarah and Ingrid (and grandchildren!) saying that this night was on them and Happy Birthday!…. I still didn't understand what was happening but then Liane said "Happy Birthday, we're staying here tonight". Even thinking of it now makes me want to cry – what a totally lovely, thoughtful and special gift.
 
After the initial shock wore off our day continued, we weren’t booking in for a while so went day tripping about to Clifden and Roundstone as intended. I kept thinking though “OMG I’m staying in a Castle tonight!!!” – I asked Liane at one point if she thought the staff here might accommodate us by referring to us as Princess Debra Jane (my darling Dad’s nickname for me) and Princess Larnie Baby (he called her Larnie Baby) for the night but she thought probably not…..lol!

I’ll just add that our drive up here was good. We left in the dark (7.30am – for our supposedly long scenic drive with lots of stops all the way to Westport!) and had some rain, which fortunately cleared, and saw snow capped mountains, beautiful bays and more – yes more – stunning vistas! We stopped in Clifden as we fancied something to eat and a hot drink but the pub we inquired at said they didn’t serve food until noon and it was only about 10.30 by this stage. The lass in the pub who we’d asked was very friendly though and told us there was a place, named Walsh’s, across the road that served a nice breakfast and also a place “off the square” that was really good.

Walsh’s looked OK but we thought we’d wander up to the square and look for the other place she’d mentioned. The trouble was as we walked and chatted, neither of us could remember the actual name of it. “Do you think we’ll recognize it when we see the name, what was it, do you remember?” we were saying to each other. Neither of us could so we were wandering and looking about, the trouble is because it’s so cold I guess, even places that are open don’t necessarily look like they are as their doors are closed etc. We were saying to each other, well that’s the Square and she did say it’s off the square so maybe it’s over that way, or down over there perhaps. Looking and looking around and then….. oh look, there’s somewhere that seems open we’ll just go there. At the exact same moment we both looked up at the name of the place and it was actually CALLED “Off the Square”!!! We had a bit of a laugh at ourselves at that one for quite some time I can tell you…..

That’s it for today, we are extremely busy Princesses who need to go and enjoy our Castle!

(L) I can only laugh at the last sentence as all night Deb and I have been making references to us being Princesses in our castle. Yes I know we are a little flaky but we do have active imaginations and quite seriously I think it's what got us through our childhood. We had all sorts of wonderful fantasies but our most special one was what we called "Money Michells"... OMG it seems like a million years ago but we designed a house that had innumerable underground floors containing ski slopes, theme parks, water & winter wonderlands and .... well you get the picture .... so it was no real stretch for us to imagine we were "ladies of the castle" or more likely the Princesses!! 

When we went down for dinner and had a look at the wine list we were astounded to see a bottle worth $2000... that's Australian $$. Deb asked the server if anyone ever actually ordered it and she said yes, occasionally!!! Way out of our league but hey... we're princesses for the day so anything is possible!! 

Now .... I guess I should really start this blog seriously!!

As Deb said we left Ballyvaughan at 7.30 as we were both up and organised and wanted to get a hop on the day. I wanted to get to Ballynahinch asap but of course Deb was totally clueless!! She kept trying to make plans for what we'd be doing in Westport etc but I think I did a good job of being vedy vedy sneaky and with every suggestion she made I managed to find a logical argument against it. 

When I knew we would be spending Debs 55th birthday in Ireland I had spoken to all her children (& their wives) and said I'd like to do something special for her and would they like to be involved. Of course they all jumped onboard and the plan was hatched to find a magnificent surprise.... I muted a castle stay which all approved of and as luck would have it, after consulting Tripadvisor, Ballynahinch just happened to be right on our way from Ballyvaughan to Westport. I must say I was rather nervous about how it would all go down as Debra is not usually one that likes surprises but the plan went off without a hitch! 

This really is the most beautiful place and I would definitely recommend a stay here if one is looking for something a bit special. 

We did arrive somewhat early so went off to Clifden through Roundstone making only a few detours along the way! Those you can see in the photos - we probably won't be naming every spot but the whole area is spectacular so you can't go wrong no matter which way you look!! 

Definitely going to Westport tomorrow ( the plan was "early" but it's already nearly 1am and copious amounts of wine have been consumed so who knows??!!)