My husband and I stayed two nights at Clontarf Castle and we were very pleased with the hotel and our room. The hotel has modern facilities and amenities but retains much of the architectural interest of the original castle. The hotel is a short and pleasant walk through a residential area to a bus station, which offers an easy ride into city centre. The bus ride felt more like 15-20 minutes than the 10 minutes we expected, but the bus was clean, cheap (1.50 Euro), and easy to catch. Be sure to have exact change for the bus, which the staff can give you. A taxi into city centre costs about 15 Euro and it was 20 Euro from the airport to the hotel. We had the full English breakfast both days, and found it the best of all the four places we visited in Ireland. There was a wedding one of the nights we were there, and there was a bus tour another day. These were not inconveniences to us but they did clog up some of the common areas. The staff were also pleasant and helpful.

If there was one thing we were determined to do while in Ireland it was going to have to be stay at a castle. And while this isn't the imposing fortress you think of when you think castle it was fantastic. Thanks to their very generous special on their website we got to stay here for a mere fraction of what it would normally cost. and being travlers with a small budget, that really means something.

The amount of amenities in the room is fantastic! The hotel was wonderfully decorated, a little farther from the DART that it was made out to be but not too tough of a walk, everyone was helpful and nice, the bar (despite there being a large funeral party ) wasn't overtly crowded and we were waited on very quickly.

These were the only problems:

We booked a room with two beds and they gave us one (we were only staying one night so we didn't feel it was a big enough deal to go back to the front desk and straighten it out), the brochure in the room was woefully out of date, we walked around the entire place trying to find a casual bar that no longer existed and the breakfast was a little off with (and this seemed to be a theme where ever i went) weak tea. i can't describe exactly what was wrong with the breakfast, perhaps the buffet had been sitting out too long...but by the time someone got around to getting us something to drink we were almost done with our meal.

All and all i would most definately stay there again.

We stayed at the Cliontarf Castle Hotel for four nights in April, three at the beginning of our two week trip to Ireland and one last night before an early flight out.

The hotel is lovely. We arrived at 10:00 in the morning after a ten hour flight and we hoped to at least leave our bags. Lucky for us one last room was available immediately and I was able to get a good night's sleep as it was 2:00 in the morning at home. We slept through the day and most of the night. I am so grateful for that early check in.

We enjoyed the Knight's Bar and we wandered around Clontarf. The bus into the city centre was cheap and convenient and the bus out to the airport to pick up our rental car before we headed west was only 2 euro. What a bargain.

Special thanks to Declan who really put out a lot of extra effort to make our stay special. Also special thanks to Sam, sorry I couldn't pronounce his real name and he said to call him Sam, who came running when I couldn't figure out how to turn off the shower.

The beds were super comfortable, the comforter was great, the bathroom was nice, everything we asked for was delivered with a smile. Our first night there, after having slept all day, my husband went down to the bar for a late drink and was surprised to see a large party going on. We found out later that it was a charity event. We never heard a thing from our room.

All in all, well done.

I have just come back from a weekend at the Clontarf Castle and the experience was a joy. I was part of a group of 50 (over 40's) who were attending my 40th birthday party. The hotel has been refurbished very well and the staff are just fantastic - nothing was too much trouble. With such a large group of people I was sure that we would have some complaints - not one! The hotel is 10/15 minutes out of town but to me this is a postive for those of you who want to avoid what can be tourist, overpriced areas of central Dublin - particularly if you want to avoid the large groups of stags/hens . You are in a residential area half way from Dublin and half way to some great coastal towns i.e Howth and Malahide offering good food, a lively friendly atmosphere and a sense of traditional Dublin. Harry Byrnes pub on the Howth Road is great for a good pint of guinness - although it can get busy. Most pubs do have good pub food, head for town if you want fine dining or check out some of the restaurant reviews in Howth and Malahide. A big, big thank you to our Duty Manager Phillp who was the most helpful man I have ever met and the ever pleasant Eva on reception - I would highly recommend this hotel.