28 March 13 2016 Sunday Independent PLACES Camelot — and baby came too

GETTING THERE

OVERNIGHT ESCAPE One night’s accommodation, a full Irish breakfast and a 5 course , surrounded by ancient woodlands, transports you to another world, another time dinner in Snaffles Restaurant. From €135pps at The Lodge From €145pps at The Castle straight out of a Kavanagh poem. was a five-minute walk to the town!) I’d love to know what our one year ‘It was bliss. For It was a fascinating exercise in COUNTRY GETAWAY Barry Egan old baby thought of , three days we letting go. The baby was fascinated, Two nights accommodation plus , with its magic coming out too, by the standing antique bath in five-course dinner in Snaffles of every tree along the paths — or the reconnected the corner of our room, and loved Restaurant. atrick Kavanagh, who ineffable energy that perhaps only having her bath-time in such a big From €215pps at The Lodge hailed from these parts, Baby could see with her new eyes with something and strange looking thing. From €225pps at The Castle from . called of the Famine Wall from We then all had a pre-dinner it in his poem Having to Rockcorry. deeper inside drink (the baby had a pre-dinner EASTER FAMILY BREAKS To Live In The Country, My little angel Emilia was mes- bottle) in the opulent drawing room Three or five nights at the Old P“wild, wet Monaghan.” merised by the transcendent colour ourselves in this with its grand piano and with its De Stable Mews or Village Cottages When we went recently, it never of the spring leaves and the like, as most glamorous of La Robbia fireplace complete with a to include breakfast each morning rained once. Nor was it particularly I pushed her in her buggy. fire roaring inside it. in Snaffles Restaurant and a wild. I felt, imperceptibly, robbed has the most beautiful scenery in getaways’ At the appointed hour, a driver casual three-course family dinner by Mother Nature. The sun shone the world when you think about it, came and picked us up and brought at Conor’s Bar at The Lodge on a almost non-stop. doesn’t it? us the 400 metres to the hotel’s ex- night of your choice. The last time I was in Monaghan We were only on a short break, quisite Snaffles Restaurant . We had From €700 for 3 Nights town was a very long time ago with but we were told that the forest water on the lake and the sounds of a beautiful meal of local meats and From €900 for 5 Nights Hothouse Flowers, back in 1988: walks in Lough Muckno Leisure the birds in the distant trees. fish, followed by sumptuous desserts, we travelled up and down to their Park, in , could be just There is no other hotel like Castle all washed down with a glass or two To make a booking, please gig in a hall in the town in as mesmerising to babies of all ages Leslie in Ireland. There is no swim- of good wine. contact the Reservations Team on the band’s rickety tour van. Nearly and we made a mental note: must ming pool. There are no TVs in the I won’t bore you with what the 04788100 or email reservations@ three decades later, we’ve gone come back soon. We hadn’t much rooms. And the mobile phone and baby had. The following morning, castleleslie.com into a bar on Dublin Street in time. We were bound for the internet coverage is god-awful. Emilia in her jammies was in thrall Web: www.castleleslie.com Monaghan Town for a bit of lunch and a famous fairytale castle. . . And you know what? It was bliss! to the sight of a 99-year-old man in and they are playing Hothouse Castle Leslie is probably more For three days we reconnected with his bedtime attire — albeit a distinct- Castle Leslie Estate Flowers. Later, walking around the Downton Abbey than Downton Ab- something deeper inside ourselves ly regal looking silk pyjamas — and Glaslough town, my wife and me, and the baby bey. As far back as the 1740s. Dean in this most glamorous of getaways. slippers, having his breakfast at an Monaghan in her buggy, took in the archi- Swift wrote: ‘Here I am in Castle Rather than be glued to the telly or adjoining table in the hotel’s dining www.castleleslie.com tectural intrigues of the place: to Leslie, With rows and rows of books Netflix or checking our Facebook or area. name but a few, the Victorian upon the shelves/Written by The Twitter, we did the most perverse Allow me to introduce you to courthouse built in 1830 on Church Leslies, All about themselves.’ things instead. . . Sir John Leslie, 4th Baronet, a first Square; the Gothic-Revival St Paul McCartney got married here We talked to each-other over teas cousin once removed of Sir Winston Macartan’s Cathedral built 1861-92 in 2002 — he and your wan Heather and scones and posh sandwich- Churchill. . . and, erected in 1876, the Rossmore Mills were rowed across the lake to es in the hotel’s rather imposing The last time I met Uncle Jack, Memorial in The Diamond was de- their fate. So I simply had to take my drawing room. We went for walks as they call him, he took me and a signed to remember the fourth Baron wife and baby out for an afternoon in the spooky-cool woodlands. We gang clubbing and told me the story Rossmore. According to Burke’s row on the mystical lake. It was as sat on the benches and held hands, of Norman Leslie who was spotted Peerage, ‘he died on 28 March 1874 clear as glass as it was otherworldly. like teenagers in love. We drank in a cloud of light by Lady Marjorie at age 22 at Windsor, Berkshire, It cleared my head. wine and read esoteric books from Leslie in 1914, not long after he had England, as a result of a fall when When you are there and you the Castle’s shelves while the baby been killed on the battlefields of riding in the Guards’ Cup steeple- look around at all this scenery that crawled around. France. chase, unmarried.’ The octagonal surrounds you — the ancient wood- The mini nervous breakdown I Lady Marjorie immediately sat Victorian monument has the eight lands, the Irish countryside at its was having on the first day — be- bolt upright in bed and enquired letters of the man which it was de- most sublime and spiritual — you cause my mobile phone had no thus through the cloud of dust: “Why Sir John Leslie with his uncle signed in homage to spread across are transported to another world, coverage — was almost gone by the Norman! What are you doing here?” Norman Leslie’s sword. Norman the columns. It is like something out another time. second evening once I accepted that Doubtless my one-year-old daugh- Leslie was shot and killed while of The Da Vinci Code. Out here, you forget about your we were marvellously and magnifi- ter was thinking: “Why Uncle Jack! charging a German machine-gun Earlier that morning, we were troubles or whatever is on your mind cently and almost completely cut off What are you doing here in your silk post in October 1914 back to innate Monaghan beauty and just go with the wind on the from the outside world. (Actually, it jammies?”