Castlemartyr Resort

We booked a weekend at Castlemartyr (and dinner at Terre) as a birthday treat, hoping to park the car and completely switch off. Instead, the hotel was overrun with multiple weddings. Check-in was delayed, which was understandable, and we were upgraded to a lovely manor house room — though the toiletries were nearly empty and the towels felt basic. Dinner in the Canopy Restaurant was disappointing: bright lights and high noise levels made it feel more like a café than fine dining. The bathrooms were also in poor condition, seemingly due to heavy wedding use. Afterwards, in Knights Bar, we asked for the fireplace to be lit but were told there were no firelighters, so we returned to our room. The following morning, we tried again to relax in Knights Bar, only to be repeatedly moved to accommodate wedding setups. Fireplaces were unlit or unsuccessfully lit, leaving us cold while staff bustled loudly around us preparing for events. Eventually I told the Duty Manager we wanted to check out. He tried to seat us in the Salon, but the fire there smoked so badly (they used candles to light it - as again, there were no firelighters to be found?!!) that the windows had to be opened, leaving the room (and us) freezing. We left the hotel in search of warmth and found that the local pub (owned by the hotel) was due to be taken over by the previous day's wedding party from mid-afternoon. Dinner at Terre was excellent — as expected at €220 per person before drinks and service — but, in hindsight, we should have stayed elsewhere and travelled in for the meal. We came to Castlemartyr for calm, comfort, and restoration, but the experience was overwhelmingly chaotic. It’s clear the hotel is geared around weddings and events; non-event guests feel like an afterthought. While we understand the commercial importance of events, guests should be informed in advance when weddings will dominate the hotel and its common spaces. Transparency would allow people to choose whether to stay, avoid the dates, or prepare for a very different experience. The staff were excellent throughout, but management urgently needs to rethink the hotel’s approach.

First room was shabby with damage, moved to a second room which was ok, restaurant food was nice but slowest service, told “we are very busy”. Hoovering in hall outside our room at 10:30am Sunday. Bar has all the atmosphere of an airport bar. Very disappointed

Location excellent. Atmosphere is lacking warmth. Room was beautiful but think that there should be 2 double beds for twin booking. Expensive as breakfast was very disappointing and ages waiting for cooked food which arrived lukewarm. I could hear music until around 2am, think it was a wedding. Amenities excellent but not big enough for volume of people.

Amazing experience, beautiful room an hotel, food was out of this world, an most of all staff were incredible real asset to hotel

Amazing experience by far best stay, room was incredible, spa was so good my soul was cleansed, food exceptional gratitude to chefs, staff always on hand to help especially Anna front desk along with Katie in the afternoon tea room truly worth it we will certainly be back keep up the fantastic job all