Take a horsey holiday for a staycation to remember

Although she never took to horse riding as a child, Mimi Murray bravely saddles up to give it another go. Did she feel stable, or was it a total ‘mare?

The riding group with MJ Equestrian, cantering around the grounds at Mount Juliet, Kilkenny. Photograph: Patrick Browne

In the eighties, before Castle Leslie became the luxury getaway it is today, its lodge was a working equestrian centre where my mum, then a chef, would rustle up hearty lasagnes and bubbling shepherd’s pies for wealthy American tourists who came to Co Monaghan for some galloping good fun (I’ll try not to descend into Jilly Cooper equivoque, it was all very tame and well behaved I’m told, “for the eighties”). 

The Equestrian Centre at Castle Leslie Estate, Co Monaghan, just 80 minutes from Dublin Airport and 60 minutes from Belfast Airport.