ECCLES Hotel, Glengarriff had attracted our attention. It is owned, I believe, by the owners of Macreddin village in Wicklow. We booked for two nights. Unfortunately, the sea view rooms were booked out so we had to settle for a forest view!!
It’s a long 3.5 hour drive from Dublin. Prepared, so as we would not to have to dine in some unknown cafe, we armed ourselves with a flask of hot water and lunch, which we had by a lay by - no facilities - not even a picnic table or a restroom. Covid travelling really exhibits the inadequacies of our motorway services.
We arrived at the hotel at 14:00 only to be advised that check in was at 15:00.
I was wary. It was the first hotel or eatery I had visited since the onset of Covid. There was a bottle of sanitation lotion as one entered and the usual protocols applied.
We lunched on the balcony outside overlooking the bay. The sun periodically peeped amid the clouds. Lunch was good - two excellent sandwiches and a pot of tea.
We checked in. The forest view is such but if you look down the view is rather untidy with numerous buildings and a rusty container of sorts. It needs to tidy up the rear room views!! We had been advised at check in that if we wished to have our room cleaned to hang the sign on the door handle otherwise no one would enter the room. I sanitised all the surfaces and did not avail of maid service!
Suitably fortified, we took a walk to the nearby Garnish Island terminal. The ferries to the Island had ceased for the day but we were advised to arrive before noon the following morning to avoid the families and on enquiry I was advised that every second seat was made vacant and the boat is sanitised after each trip and so it was.
We continued uptown. The town was very quiet. Some restaurants were open but many restaurants and bars were closed. It appears it isn’t worth their while opening!!
We decided to eat at Casey’s - a 3 star hotel in the town as we didn’t wish to eat both nights at The Eccles. We made a reservation and having perused the remainder of the town, we returned to our hotel.
We dined at 8 at Caseys. It was a version of faulty towers.!!! Our choice of starter, both our choices of main course and our chosen bottle of wine were unavailable!!! The meal was mediocre. I was disappointed at the lack of fish on the menu with our second largest fishing port nearby!! It was hake or a medley. I chose the medley - very poor and not I would wager local fish. The proprietor arrived at our table to apologise!! He’d had a busy weekend!!
We returned to our hotel.
