Valentines Day in Ireland....

Love is in the air with some great romantic ideas for Valentines weekend, why not cuddle and curl up with a movie, chocolate feast & bottle of bubbly in your own luxury suite overlooking the Shannon in Limerick City this weekend. There will be rugby action for the guys on the big screen Saturday night with Ireland playing France in the RBS 6 Nations and Spa treatments for the girls, not to mention a bit of retail therapy in Brown Thomas up town! An overnight stay in the Limerick Strand Hotel for two, including breakfast and a luxury 4 course dinner in the River Restaurant starts from €99 pps sharing for 1 night, €139 for 2 nights! Upgrade to a suite for €40 per night.

And if it’s something a little more serious you fancy, it being a leap year? it might be a good idea to give Hayfield Manor in County Cork a bell, they have their very own Proposal Team in place to help you set scene and get that all important YES result! They have some great ideas including candlelit venues with chauffeur driven champagne transfers to perhaps an islolated beach with your proposal written on the sand...the sky is the limit quite literally with the option of a trailing banner from a light aircraft either? After all it’s a once in a lifetime occasion, hopefully! Personal (top-secret) consultation with the team, who will do all the leg work for you till you get down on one knee, is complimentary with any of their romantic dinner, bed & breakfast packages which start from about €225 pps sharing.

Or you could leave it in the capable and knowing staff of The Ritz Carlton, Powerscourt, County Wicklow, who have been known to soothe manys an anxious suitors nerves…The hotel itself is set down a long avenue lined with mature beech trees in the grounds of Powerscourt House and Gardens. You are unlikely to encounter a more romantic, breathtaking, setting anywhere in Ireland, with terraced gardens and a huge fountain overlooking the Sugar Loaf (I kid you not) Mountain, until it snows that is? Cue the clever ladies at The Ritz Carlton, Powerscourt who pulled on their wellies and trudged out into the snow to spell out ‘marry me’ lit by tealights for an extremely nervous gentleman last year? No prizes for guessing he got a resounding YES and they seem to be living happily ever after with their wedding reception taking place there this summer. Romantic packages starting from €310 per couple in a deluxe room, with dinner, bed & breakfast in the Sugar Loaf restaurant or €360 per couple with 6 course gourmet dinner in Gordon Ramseys and while snow cannot be guaranteed, a fairytale setting certainly is…

From fairytales to legends who wouldn’t like to be woo-ed Maid Marion style in Ashford Castle on the shores of Lough Corrib. This turreted and stately pile has been the setting for many proposals, with its cute little stone bridges leading into romantic tree lined walks. Enlist the help of Ashford Castle’s falconer to deliver your proposal (or the actual ring) to the arm of your intended on the talons of a trained Harris Hawk… And afterwards revel Tudors style in the lavish surroundings and sumptuous interiors of the castle itself, which once belonged to the famous Guinness family. Valentines special on the 14th includes dinner, bed & breakfast, a dozen red roses and bottle of champagne for €495 per couple. And for daring-do’s an Everlasting Love Leap year special on the 29th is €395 per couple.

Feel free to cut, copy, paste, share any of the above and leave obviously lying about for the love of your life to read...