Macreddin Village,BrookLodge and Wells Spa
A yearly treat for myself and friends is an overnight trip
to BrookLodge luxury hotel in county Wicklow. It’s just approximately one hour
and thirty minutes from where I live in North Dublin on the motorway then onto some country
roads, where satnav is needed as with all older Irish roads, the signage can
disappear for large chunks of the road, but we always make it there, and the
landscape on the drive up is beautifully breath taking, and always so lush and
green!
Every time we come and go, we are also reminded why tourists love coming
to Ireland!
So this year there were three sharing a room, one double and
a single, we were lucky to get a fantastic
deal, one night bed and breakfast,
and hour treatment and a three course meal for their Italian restaurant La
Taverna Armento. All deals can be found on their
Website, or do what we do
every year and
email them directly.
So on June 7th we packed up the car, grabbed some
snacks for the trip, got the playlist sorted and headed off, we were fortunate
enough to be arriving on a Sunday with a Macreddin village market on, we
arrived to a busy atmosphere of shoppers and food taster, parked up the car and
browsed through the home-made goods that were on offer, there was a mix of
fresh fruit and vegetables, a smoothie/juice stand, home-made jams, sauces and
pickles. I bought a delicious raspberry jam.
Within Macreddin village there is a pub called Actons,
the famous Strawberry Tree restaurant, and our personal favourite, the Italian
restaurant Armento. We sat outside the Actons with live jazz music playing and
sipped on diet coke, and had roasted hog baps with freshly roasted potato
salad.
We checked in then and got ourselves ready for the spa and
our treatment, each person had a bathrobe,slippers and some beautiful hair and body products.
We each chose to have the Decleor aromatherapy facial, and
luckily they could have us all at the same time, the facial was fantastic, the
girls were highly professional and welcoming, the products are luxurious and we
really felt pampered, not too often do you feel that.
Afterwards we were given
a smoothies and shown to the relaxation room that played soft calming music on
the most comfortable “deck style chairs.”
We then made our way into the pool area, here they have also
a jacuzzi, steam room, sauna and aromatherapy room, as well as an outside hot
tub, which much to our disappointment was closed for maintenance. The pool area is half in a conservatory and
also has a section as a hydrotherapy pool. After a quick dip in the pool, we
sat in the Jacuzzi then sweated any toxins out in the aromatherapy sauna room,
my first time experiencing something like that, and it was refreshing.
Our reservation for Armento was 8pm and so with three girls
to get ready we headed to the room, now to only two small criticisms of the
hotel, there isn’t enough plug sockets… in fact there is one socket, not really
convenient for even a couple sharing a room, but we had to manage, and the
second, the showers are slightly older and so the ease of controlling
temperature can be difficult and we had to have maintenance up to adjust the
shower for us.
The food in Armento is always delicious and vibrant, and
getting such high quality, flavourful food at thirty -five euro a head is fantastic. For
starter I had baked prawns, for the main course I had pizza which you can
choose from a selection of toppings, I had prosciutto, goat’s cheese, olives
and red onions, and for dessert I had my favourite, tiramisu! Always a treat!
At the back of the hotel there is now a fire pit with benches
surrounding, and we sat there until 11.30pm and chatted in the summer heat
aided by the fire, it was delightful.
Then headed back to the rooms, I always feel like the hotel
is quiet and peaceful nestled in the Wicklow mountains, the beds are comfy and
the duvet is heavy and warm. I usually have a good night’s sleep and wake up refreshed
for the breakfast that awaits us.
The breakfast is continental style with cooked breakfast to order
too, they have a selection of cereal juices, and pastries. Two of us chose the
full Irish for breakfast, one of the girls got scrambled eggs which are from
the free-range chickens running loose on the land. (you can see them in the picture above)
Everything is tasty and well
presented.
Check out is 12 I believe so we packed up and cruised on
home, relaxed and refreshed and ready to get back to the grind!
See you next year Brooklodge!
