Save the day in style
Forgot to book the dinner, dip the strawberries in chocolate and cover the bedroom in the finest of rose petals?
Don’t worry. Dark clouds may be gathering around your partner’s head, but Valentine’s Day falls on a Monday this year — so there’s still time to save the situation.
Here’s your emergency survival guide…
Nothing relieves tension like a spa treatment. And that applies doubly to tension you’ve created by forgetting to get your Valentine a little something in the first place.
The four-star Blarney Golf Resort in Co Cork (021 4384477; blarneygolfresort.com) has a fancy Alpha Vital facial from €55pp, or you can twin a night’s B&B with two half-hour treatments from €100pp.
Or what about Fota Island Resort (021 4883700; fotaisland.ie), where a Milk & Honey Spa Package, including B&B, one spa treatment and use of the thermal suite can be had from €100pps?
If you are thinking treatments, discoverireland.ie/spatreats is worth a sneaky peak — most of the Valentine’s specials listed there are valid for use up to the end of March.
Fancy something quirkier? The Burren is famous for its limestone grykes and wild flowers, but did you know it’s got its own perfumery too? The Burren perfumery (065 7089102; burrenperfumery.com) has been making perfumes, creams and oils since 1970. A jar of cedar and lemongrass hand cream (€15/60ml) could be just the ticket after a rocky hike.
If you’re really in the doghouse, remember the golden rule of gift-giving: ELNY (Everybody Loves New York) Sunway (01 2886828; sunway.ie) has a February special, including flights and three nights at the four-star Fitzpatrick Grand Central Hotel, from €589pp.
Snowdrops are the most romantic of flowers. What else could you say about something so pure and true, yet capable of bursting through soil harder than a saucepan every February?
Snowdrop Week at Altamont Gardens (059 9159444; altamontgarden.com) kicks off on Monday — perfect timing for V-Day. It’s one of Ireland’s finest sights in springtime, a carpet of tiny white flowers pinging up under the yews with spectacular abandon. It’s free to visit too, unless you take the daily gardener’s tour at 2pm — but even that will only set you back €2.
If you fancy something more vigorous, the Sheep’s Head Way (thesheepshead.com) is a thumper of a trail following old school, mass and fishermen’s paths along Cork’s Atlantic coast.
The four-day route, circuiting the desolate-yet-diminutive Sheep’s Head peninsula, is stuffed with plunging cliffs, holy wells, forts, castles and caves. You don’t have to do the full 55 miles, of course. Hikers and cyclists can dip in and out of eight looped walks as they please.
If there’s one surefire way of turning a tongue-lashing over the petrol-station flowers into the most romantic day of your lives, it’s proposing marriage. You only get one shot at a manoeuvre like this, however, so make sure you get it right.
If you’re looking for a mind-blowing location to propose, there’s nowhere on earth to beat Coumshingaun. A glacial corrie lake carved into Waterford’s Comeragh Mountains, it’s a jaw-dropping work of nature just 45 minutes from Kilclooney woods. If the rain is teeming down, it will make it even more memorable. Bring a secret stash of chocolate though… you know, for ‘energy’.
Meanwhile, Ten Square Hotel (+44 28 90241001; tensquare.co.uk) in Belfast is offering a horse-drawn carriage ride around City Hall as part of its Valentine’s Day package — which could be the ideal moment to pop the question. Afterwards, you can look forward to a rose petal turndown and a Buck’s Fizz breakfast, as well as bubbly and chocolates, all for a total price of £195/€231.
You could even get engaged at a Valentine’s Ball. Going to press, there were still tickets available to tonight’s ball at the Maryborough Hotel & Spa in Cork (021 4365555; maryborough.com), where a Prosecco reception and six-course gala dinner will be followed by entertainment stretching into the wee hours. Tickets are €49pp, but you can bundle them with B&B for €99pps.
Then there’s the Costello Memorial Chapel (071 9620170) in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim. The little chapel with a big heart was commissioned by Edward Costello after the death of his wife in 1877. It’s reputedly the second smallest in the world, and contains the tombs of both wife and husband (who died in 1891). Think of it as a baby Taj Mahal — in sentiment, at least.
Cork’s Crawford Gallery (021 4805042; crawfordartgallery.ie) has an aptly amorous exhibition on show throughout February. Dubbed All My Lovin’, the collection roams from romantic and sexual love right through to family relationships through photos, video and sound.
In Dublin, the stained glass gallery at the Hugh Lane (01 2225550; hughlane.ie) is one of the most atmospheric little spaces in the city. The highlight is Harry Clarke’s Eve of St Agnes, which simply shines like a jewellery display. The room feels beautiful.
Meanwhile, Sligo’s Model Gallery (071 9141405; themodel.ie) is currently running The Outsider, one of the most significant Jack B Yeats exhibitions in decades.
Two of the paintings — Man in a Room Thinking and A Horseman Enters a Town at Night — once belonged to novelist Graham Greene, who bought them for his Paris apartment whilst engaged in one of the great literary love affairs of our times. This is the first time either has been seen in public.
Afterwards, take a trip to Ben Bulben, where the journey of Diarmuid and Gráinne (Ireland’s own Romeo and Juliet) ended after the couple was… erm… charged by a boar.
No matter what you’ve left to the last minute, there’s very little a heartfelt ‘Sorry’ won’t set right, particularly when it’s followed up with a heartfelt ‘Let’s get dessert’.
In Cork, the coolly comfortable Isaac’s on MacCurtain Street (021 4503805; isaacsrestaurant.ie) has an early bird from Thursday to Saturday for €25pp. You can trade any course for a glass of wine, if you like, though I doubt many diners axe the apple and chocolate crumble.
In Sligo, six Galway Bay oysters prepared by Conrad Gallagher can be chucked back for €8.95 at the celebrity chef’s new venture, Conrad’s Kitchen. Follow up your main course with a warm Valhrona chocolate cake with pistachio ice-cream and chocolate brownie (€7.95).
If you’re spending V-Day in Dublin, Queen of Tarts (01 6334681; queenoftarts.ie) in Temple Bar has some of the best cakes in the city. Regina and Yvonne Fallon trained as pastry chefs in the Big Apple, so feel free to get over-excited about their Queen of Chocolate Fudge Cake (€4.95).
In Dublin, the sexy Dylan Hotel (01 6603000; dylan.ie) has a Valentine’s Day package including B&B, a six-course tasting menu and late check-out until 2pm from €289 per room.
But wait a second… what’s this? There’s also a Kama Sutra kit (€25) in every mini-bar. Open it up, and you’ll find goodies like spearmint pleasure balm, sweet almond massage oil, honey dust and something calling itself ‘The Original Oil of Love’. It really would be rude not to...
In Donegal, you can check into the only Irish hotel to feature in Travel + Leisure’s Top 50 Romantic Hotels for 2011. Castle Murray House Hotel (074 9737022; castlemurray.com) is stashed away on the breathtaking Slieve League Peninsula, and has just reopened following its winter hibernation.
Travel + Leisure likes “the culinary know-how and Irish hospitality worthy of a king and queen”. It’s also just down the road from Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick’s romantic Irish cottage hideaway. Dinner, bed and breakfast are on special at €80pps.
Finally, nothing says romance like turrets and towers, so why not raid the piggybank for a splurge in Ashford Castle (094 9546003; ashford.ie)? From Sunday to Thursday, the five-star hotel a has one night’s B&B with dinner at €247.50pp. Yes, it’s pricey. But you get a dozen red roses, a bottle of chilled champagne and a lifetime memory too.
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