Lavish wedding castle in the west of Ireland: Ashford Castle

The de Burgos raised the first castle here in 1228, on the edge of a monastic site. It changed hands by battle and by royal grant before the Brownes arrived. In 1715 they added a hunting lodge in the style of a French chateau, and you can still see its steep slate roof butting up against the battlements. Then came the Guinness family. Sir Benjamin bought the estate in 1852, and his son Lord Ardilaun rebuilt the west wing in neo-Gothic style between 1875 and 1881. Lady Ardilaun laid out the terraces and the walled garden in the 1890s. The castle became a hotel in 1939.

The castle stands at Cong, where the River Cong slips into Lough Corrib and County Mayo meets County Galway. Ireland West Airport at Knock is the nearest gateway, about 68 km by road. Most transatlantic guests fly into Dublin or Shannon, and the castle runs chauffeur transfers from all three. There's a helipad on the lawn for anyone arriving in style. Galway city is about an hour south. It feels remote and isn't, which is exactly what you want when guests fly in from three countries.

Cong village is a 15-minute walk out through the estate gates, so guests can wander to a pub without a taxi. The village has the ruins of a 12th-century Augustinian abbey and a museum for The Quiet Man, which John Ford filmed here in 1951. Lough Corrib is the largest lake in the Republic, scattered with wooded islands you can pick out from the lake-view rooms. Connemara starts about an hour west, with Kylemore Abbey right on the hour. Couples planning a destination wedding in Ireland often stay on a few days for exactly this.

Ireland's School of Falconry has flown Harris hawks over these woods since 1999. An hour's hawk walk puts one on your glove and sends it tree to tree above you. Green fees on the nine-hole Eddie Hackett course are free to residents, and Christy O'Connor Senior started out here as the club professional in 1947. There's archery on a sheltered range, clay shooting, horse riding through the old forest and trout fishing on the lough with a ghillie. The Isle of Inisfree cruises the islands from the castle's own pier, a hundred yards from the front door.

It's a protected historic building, and the castle says plainly that it can't make everything step-free. What it does have: one fully accessible bedroom, ramps and lifts in the public areas, and adapted bathrooms. Accessible routes reach reception, the event rooms, every restaurant, the spa, the gym and the pool. The Connaught Room is on the ground floor. The walled garden is reached over gravel, so tell us early and we'll plan the day around the routes that work for your guests.

All 83 rooms and suites are inside the castle, from Corrib Rooms to the split-level Reagan Presidential Suite in the oldest wing. Staterooms have fireplaces you control yourself and Murano glass chandeliers. The Boathouse stands apart on the lake shore, a one-bedroom suite for two behind its own gates, built by the Guinness family to house their Riva boats. It comes with a butler and a pair of bicycles. Check-in is from 3pm, check-out at noon, and a full Irish breakfast is included.

The Reagan Presidential Suite has two bathrooms and joins two neighboring rooms into a private three-bedroom wing. That's a corner of the castle for your side of the party on the wedding morning. Downstairs, the spa in its bronze conservatory holds five treatment rooms, one of them a couples' suite, plus a hammam and a mosaic-walled relaxation pool. Treatments start at 9.30, and the spa has been named Ireland's best hotel spa ten years running.

Ashford Castle is licensed for civil ceremonies, so the legal part happens here rather than in a registry office beforehand. The registrar travels out on set days and times, and notice goes in at least three months ahead. Humanist and interfaith celebrants can also marry you legally in Ireland, which opens up the garden. When the weather holds, that's where you stand: under a spreading tree, between deep perennial borders, with a signing table on the gravel. Indoors, the Connaught Room takes up to forty. Our Ireland-based wedding planner books the registrar and walks the garden with the castle's events team.

Which room you get depends on numbers. The Inglenook takes two to ten, panelled and fireside, with a Renaissance fireplace and a thousand-piece silver-gilt dinner service once owned by the engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge. The Connaught Room takes ten to forty under a Donegal Crystal chandelier, with tall windows onto the gardens and the lough. Above forty, dinner moves to the George V Dining Room, built for the Prince of Wales's visit in 1905 and lit by eleven Waterford Crystal chandeliers. Welcome drinks go in the Oak Hall, the panelled gallery at the heart of the castle.

Everything comes from the castle's own kitchen, led by executive chef Liam Finnegan. Menus change with the season: pea and shallot tartlet and turbot in champagne butter in summer, pumpkin soup with Cashel Blue and beef fillet with bone marrow sauce in winter. The kitchen gardens supply the restaurants, and the estate's beehives supply the honey in the Ashford honey cake. Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and children's menus are standard. You're invited to a complimentary tasting evening to settle your menu. Your cake can come from an outside baker, delivered on the day.

Bands, DJs and anything amplified come with booking the whole castle, and the castle lays a dance floor for those weddings. Dancing then runs in the Drawing Room, with a late supper served around half past eleven. For a wedding in the Inglenook or Connaught Room, music stays unamplified and finishes at 10pm, which suits a harpist or a string trio beautifully. After that there's the Billiards Room until midnight, a residents' bar, and the rooftop Cigar Terrace over the River Cong. The Prince of Wales Bar keeps sixty Irish whiskeys.

Children are welcome and well catered for. Deluxe Queen Family Rooms take two adults and two under-12s, travel cots are available, and rooms interconnect. There's a Family Experience Manager, children's menus in every restaurant, and a splash pool at the Ealu leisure centre with daily children's hours. Junior guests can fish, ride, take the boat cruise or shoot arrows from age ten. The Lego Butler delivers a set to the room in white gloves, on a silver tray.

Dogs are welcome in Deluxe Rooms and above, two to a room at most, with a nightly charge per dog. Yours gets a bed, bowls of mineral water, fluffy towels and a turndown treat. A Pet Concierge talks through the details before you arrive, and dog sitting or dog walking can be booked a day ahead. With 350 acres of woodland and lake shore to cover, a dog in the photographs is an easy yes.

The grounds are closed to anyone not staying, so the only people on the estate are guests. Every wedding guest has to be a resident of the castle, and evening-only guests aren't taken at all. Up to forty, you reserve the rooms you need and the hotel runs on around you. Above forty, the castle is booked exclusively for a minimum of two nights, with lunch and dinner taken together as a group. If that's more castle than you need, we list smaller wedding venues across Ireland too.