Carver Castle Dundalk

Gee_G

Hi,
Does anyone have any feedback on Darver castle in Dundalk for weddings? Whether it was as a guest or bride/groom.

Thanks a lot

almorris

Photographed quite a few weddings there, one of my favorite places to go.

Gee_G

almorris wrote: »

Photographed quite a few weddings there, one of my favorite places to go.

Oh really, nice to hear! It looks absolutely fab! Thanks

Esterhase

I was there as a guest about 2 years ago. It's a lovely venue. It has a few small rooms and a conservatory area for people to have tea in when they first arrive, which I found much nicer than the awkward hanging about in lobbies that can happen with hotels. I'm afraid I don't remember anything about the meal, but don't take that as a negative - wedding meals just don't tend to stand out as anything special in my head!

I didn't stay in the castle overnight so can't give any feedback about the accommodation. AFAIK there are a small number of rooms in the castle itself and not many B&Bs nearby, so guests that need to stay might have to get taxis or buses to Dundalk/Ardee for rooms.

pooch90

When we viewed it we were impressed. There is 11(I think) rooms in the house and a few little houses at the end of the avenue. They said most guests went into Crowne Plaza in Dundalk.
We had it provisionally booked but read reviews of them closing the bar at 2am and only residents (ie the 11 rooms in the castle) could get served after this.
I put it to them and they said it wasn't true but we didn't want to take the chance of being sent to bed on our wedding day. We had read it over and over.
We booked the Station House in Kilmessan instead and just had the most amazing day
Really glad with our decision.

clint_silver

pooch90 wrote: »

When we viewed it we were impressed. There is 11(I think) rooms in the house and a few little houses at the end of the avenue. They said most guests went into Crowne Plaza in Dundalk.
We had it provisionally booked but read reviews of them closing the bar at 2am and only residents (ie the 11 rooms in the castle) could get served after this.
I put it to them and they said it wasn't true but we didn't want to take the chance of being sent to bed on our wedding day. We had read it over and over.
We booked the Station House in Kilmessan instead and just had the most amazing day
Really glad with our decision.

this is true about the late bar for residents only but I wouldnt see that as a big blocker. As a band, one of my favorite places to play in the country. Staff are amongst the nicest Ive ever encountered.

They do fresh fish and chips for afters as well in the paper cups, much nicer than the rubber sausages you get everywhere else.

MugMugs

I was there as a guest and I stayed there also.

Can't say enough about the place and food was fantasic.

As a guest, we were left to our devices in the kitchen into the small wee hours of the morning. Overall, 9/10

pooch90

clint_silver wrote: »

this is true about the late bar for residents only but I wouldnt see that as a big blocker.

They do fresh fish and chips for afters as well in the paper cups, much nicer than the rubber sausages you get everywhere else.

Thought the fish and chips was a nice touch too.

However, I would see 11 rooms only having access to residents bar as a major issue.
That would have meant family only after 2am, at that stage half the family would have been in bed for us. So there would have been the B&G and 3 other people left.
Our wedding only wrapped up at 6am for last guests, 7.30 for B&G!

ETA, have just read on another forum bar closed at 3, still too early IMO.

jameshayes

We went to see it there are a few weeks ago - if you are getting married in 2015 or 16 forget about it, almost completely booked.

We loved the place, it was really really nice, but the main thing that turned us away was not being able to do anything the day before or day after in the castle, they have 6 weddings a week so you only have the castle from 3pm on the day to 12 noon the day after, then you've to move on so another wedding can come along.. If we were both local to Dundalk that wouldn't be a problem, but we're both travelling 1.5 hours from either direction we were hoping to stay a bit longer

pooch90

Wow, very hard to have any type of DIY day that needs setting up then. We had bunting and centrepieces and all sorts of craic to set up that morning (well the men did )
12 is very early to have to be gone, we drifted around for a few hours the morning after.
If you haven't booked anywhere yet jameshayes, you should definitely check out the Station House.

jameshayes

pooch90 wrote: »

Wow, very hard to have any type of DIY day that needs setting up then. We had bunting and centrepieces and all sorts of craic to set up that morning (well the men did )
12 is very early to have to be gone, we drifted around for a few hours the morning after.
If you haven't booked anywhere yet jameshayes, you should definitely check out the Station House.

We looked at the station house actually! but we've booked Cabra Castle since, very happy with that!