Cashel House Hotel, Connemara- a weekend of blooms and food!

I am so lucky that my work takes me to Cashel House Hotel in Connemara, Co. Galway. Situated in a picturesque bay on the Atlantic coast with mountain views and ocean waves, the grounds of Cashel House Hotel are home to a varied and unusual collection of plants. Sheltered from the Atlantic gales and salt laden sea spray, the gardens are lovingly tended by their owner Kay Mc Evilly.

We are here this weekend to give a course ‘Preparing and Planning the Vegetable Garden”. I am going to post updates over the weekend using my iPhone and camera to show you the beautiful plants, capture some of the magic atmosphere and tease you with the delicious menus.

We started the weekend course this evening in the drawing room meting the course participants with complementary pink champagne by the glowing turf fire. After meeting the garden group and introducing ourselves Hanna and I had a lovely evening getting to know the people in our party. This we did over a five course meal in the consevatory dining room and over coffee in the comfortable lounge.

Tomorrow we start the day at 10am, with a presentation in the classroom and after coffee break we will take a walk through part of the garden. After lunch we plan on doing a practical class including seed sowing.  I will bring my camera and show you some pictures of the garden, I will also show you some of the delicious food.

This evening I had the delicious chicken liver pate, followed by Apple Sorbet,  Connemara Lamb and then Apple tart and Vanilla Ice Cream. The menu will be different tomorrow, if the rabbit is on it i will go for it, Hanna ordered the rabbit and it was delicious. It is a hard job, but somebody has to do it!