Castles & Historic venues in Ireland

November of last year, I visited Ireland for the first time. My fiancé and I (yep that’s right 💍😍)  rented a car and drove around Ireland, outside Dublin and up to the west coast. The truth is, we were on a quest to find a wedding venue for our dream destination wedding. There is actually a story behind this. When we were discussing ideas and countries for our wedding, we both agreed that we wanted something very different from where we live. Different from the white sand beaches and tropic weather. We wanted something old world, romantic and well, somewhere that’s around 20°C (in June). So, my fiancé suggested Ireland (out of the blue), and I randomly chose Portugal (just because I wanted a place where most of my friends haven’t been to yet).

So, moving on with the story, we visited Ireland first and then Portugal right after. Are you excited to know which country we chose? Well, for now, let me present to you the different venues we visited in Ireland. All were interesting, maybe some quirks here and there, but delightful nonetheless.

First stop was Carton House in Kildare, just 20 minutes from Dublin City.

That’s Fionnuala, the Wedding Planner of Carton House

The Gold Salon, where they normally hold the dinner reception was very nice.  The only problem is that it can only seat I think 28 people and the door that connects to the Old Drawing room beside it is so small. Nevertheless, the house was quite nice and very charming.

The next venue we checked was a castle in the town of Slane. Slane Castle was decked with christmas decors at that time. Unfortunately, the whole castle needed a lot of cleaning and a few repairs as it looked quite run down.

The ballroom upstairs was spacious though, and they also have their own Distillery.

The third venue we visited was 3 hours away from Dublin. The town is called Sligo, a coastal seaport northwest of Ireland. I saw Markree Castle online and loved how the photos looked like. True enough, it was indeed amazing in person.

It was what we pictured in our heads, a wedding in a castle! Sadly, there were 2 issues with this venue. First was the distance. But to be honest, it was something we could have managed and dealt with. The main issue, really, was the wedding coordinator of Markree Castle. She was not so accommodating and to top it off, our emails to her were bouncing back. It was actually something that we really had to think about – a beautiful venue but with difficult coordination.

The last venue we checked out was quite nice as well. Luttrellstown Castle, where David & Victoria Beckham got married, is situated beside a golf course yet had good privacy.

The ballroom had a good size and the exterior of the castle is just amazing. The wedding coordinator was also very nice and hospitable. Sadly, they only had a few rooms in the castle and only one main ballroom.

Thankfully, our venue hunting was pretty successful and surprisingly fun. We shortlisted three out of the four venues in Ireland. My next post will be the wedding venues we visited in Portugal. So til then, let me know which venue in Ireland you liked the most! 😉

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