Having enjoyed a Hawk Walk around the grounds followed by a fab revitalising facial in the spa, my appetite was suitably stirred and I was more than ready for dinner in the superbly atmospheric Dromoland Castle. And, what a castle it is. Its history goes all the way back to 1014 when Donough O’Brien, a son of Brian Boru, held it as a defensive stronghold, and, for the next 900 years, a branch of the O’Brien’s lived there and ruled the demesne. Sweeping forward to 1948, in an effort to make the estate self-supporting as a dairy farm, the then financially hard-pressed 16th Baron of Inchiquin, Sir Donough O’Brien began taking in tourists as guests.