Castle Arms Hotel

A nice one night stay here for a wedding in the nearby Castle Durrow.

Check-in was quick and painless. Then a kind member of staff showed us to our room and carried up my bag. What a gent.

The room was lovely and clean. The bathroom could do with a bit of modernising to be honest, but other than that it was fine.

Breakfast was a bit of a let down. There was only one person working the whole floor and she was completely run off her feet. I started to get a bit narked when a group of three people who came in and ordered their food 30 minutes AFTER us got their food pretty much immediately. Not good when you have a hangover and needed a greasy fry up to make things better. It arrived eventually and filled a gap, it was nothing special. But fry ups that are not your own rarely impress, to be honest.

Apart from the breakfast, it was a grand stay. And I would recommend it if you are looking for somewhere to stay in the village

This is not a review of the hotel but only the restaurant. Durrow is not exactly coming down with breakfast spots so we found ourselves here instead. Where to start? There were four of us looking for a quick bite en route to Cullohill. Two of us ordered toast with lattes, one asked for a scone with a cappuccino and the fourth opted for poached eggs with an Americano. After some time, the scone arrived but, alas, no jam was to be found in the place. After an interval, one of the lattes and the cappuccino arrived. The latte was unpleasantly bitter and the cappuccino, pet peeve, had spilt into the saucer but the server either hadn't noticed or couldn't be bothered. Some time later, the second latte, unaccountably better than the first, and the americano arrived. By now, this tapas approach to breakfast service was wearing thin. The eggs arrived although the omens were by now poor. Two tiny examples sitting sadly beside some mass produced brown bread were served. After another 10 or 15 minutes, toast arrived. Was it delicious sourdough served at a perfect temperature and golden colour and presented, perhaps, on a fashionable slate? No. It most certainly wasn't. Three slices of supermarket sliced pan, cut diagonally for reasons were plonked unceremoniously in front of us. As well as being anorexically thin, the toast was pale although clearly had been in some limited contact with a toaster in the previous 5 minutes or so. Cardboard would be offended by the comparison. We paid almost €22 for this abomination of a 'breakfast'. There is no excuse for such a shoddy product and simply bad service. We won't be back.