New Forest Golf Club

We *almost* got turned away from New Forest when we arrived last night. It’s a golf resort (in a bit of financial trouble by the sound of things) and the bar staff weren’t too sure what to do with our request for parking overnight. We hung around while one of the ladies made a couple of phone calls and eventually said that we’d be OK to stay. They weren’t particularly chatty bar staff so we quickly drank a pint of Guinness each before heading back to the van for the night.

New Forest is a fairly new 18 hole parkland course near Tyrrellspass, Co. Westmeath. There are some very picturesque holes here, but on the whole it looks less nice than the course map on the card might suggest or the lovely looking pictures (of just a couple of holes) on their web site. Granted, it was a bit of wet and windy day when played, but I get the feeling even the sunshine couldn’t hide some of its flaws. The outward holes have a lot more going for them the some of the back nine holes which are exposed and field-like. The course is nicely designed and seemed well enough looked after but away from the the fairways and greens things just looked a bit unkempt and scratchy.

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Belvedere House & Gardens

Belvedere House is right beside Mullingar Golf Club and after golf we decided to pay it a visit. The weather had really picked up and it was sunny and warm when we arrived. After some making some lunch in the car park we headed in to explore.

Entry costs €8.95 for an adult, which we thought was reasonable, and once through the visitor area (which has more displays, a cafe and a 10 minute film which we didn’t watch) we headed for the house. Before you get there you pass the largest folly in Ireland, built to look like a huge ruin. It’s very impressive - as is the story of why it was built (I’ll leave you to discover that bit on your own!). You enter the house at the back through the basement area which has a dairy and a kitchen. There are no artefacts but plenty of displays and information about the house and its owners.

The ground floor upstairs is fully restored and though there weren’t many rooms they were very impressive. I particularly liked the dining room - very easy to imagine what it must have been like to dine there.

As we finished the tour of the house we got talking (and by we I mean Clive) to a very knowledgeable lady about Belvedere and many other houses in the area. She name-dropped shamelessly but Clive managed to keep up with his Lissadell connections! They chatted for ages about history and I kind of switched off - but she sure knew her big houses.

Out of the house we went to the walled garden which was as excellent as any we have visited. They get minus points, however, for the dead fish (carp no less) floating in their pond!

After that we went for a walk down to and along the lake shore. It wasn’t too taxing a walk, though longer routes are available if you’re feeling energetic. There seems to be a Narnia trail of some kind for the kids and it did seem like a popular attraction - the car park was packed as we left.

A worthwhile visit if you’re in the area.

Link: Belvedere House

Mullingar Golf Club (221)

We have passed Mullingar Golf Club many, many times on our trips around Ireland so we thought it was high time to actually play it, and today we did.

Arriving last night we happened to meet Albert Lee, GUI President, who is a member at Mullingar. So without further ado we launched into our story and before long we had the OK to park overnight and Albert generously bought us a couple of pints of Guinness. We tried to catch up on the latest at the Scottish Open but they couldn’t seem to find anything on SKY (so we had to endure some dull looking dance-off reality TV show until someone had the good sense to switch it over for the hurling).

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