Mayo: Breaking the mould at Belleek Castle

The Restaurant, Belleek Castle,

The dining room at Belleek Castle features crushed-velvet seat covers and a curving oak staircase straight out of a fairy-tale forest.

THEY broke the mould when they made Belleek Castle. Set in a 1,000-acre wooded estate outside Ballina, guests arrive into a baronial-style hall bedecked with dark oils and daffodils. Carry on, and you’ll find four-poster bedrooms, a bar that recreates the Captain’s Ward Room in a Spanish Armada galleon, and a basement museum crammed with curios ranging from Grace O’Malley’s bed to the last wolf shot in Connaught.