The Retreat

Property description

The Retreat sits on Dundalk Street in Carlingford, three minutes’ walk from the centre of the medieval village that has been standing since the Normans arrived — near enough to walk home from dinner, heels or no heels. It is a proper welcoming home, and one booking takes all of it so the only people in it are the ones you arrived with. Books on the shelves, a fire place in the lounge, a kitchen stocked with the things you always forget to pack, essentials and more. The ground floor runs from the front room through to a kitchen and dining room that look out over the patio and furnished walled garden.

Upstairs, three bedrooms take nine people in comfort — two with a super-king and a single, one with three singles. Outside, a walled garden and furnished patio with a barbecue catch the afternoon sun, and the mountains sit behind the roofline.

We are stag and hen friendly, however access to the property is limited to the original booking guests, additional guests without prior approval can invalidate your booking, without refund.

Check-in is from 4pm, and we will cater for earlier check-ins when possible — please contact us. You are welcome to drop your bags off from 12 noon, on request. Checkout is 11am if you booked through Booking.com, and 12 noon if you booked direct with us.

Self-catering

The kitchen is fully equipped — not fully equipped in the way that means a kettle and a saucepan, but everything you would actually reach for if you were cooking at home for nine. The spices are in the press, there are cook books on the shelf, and there are fresh herbs growing in the garden to cut as you need them.

Bedrooms and bathrooms

Bedroom one

Super-king bed and a single bed, and a television of its own. Front of the house, looking down Dundalk Street.

Bedroom two

Super-king bed and a single bed, with a television, at the quiet back of the house over the garden.

Bedroom three

Three single beds and a television — the children's room, or three friends who would rather not share.

Bathrooms

Family bathroom with a full-size bath and shower, plus a separate WC. A cot and an extra bed are available at no charge — ask when you book.

Key details and facilities

• SleepsUp to 9 guests across 3 bedrooms
• Size116 m², the entire house is yours
• Let asSelf-catering, sole occupancy — never shared
• KitchenOven, hob, dishwasher, microwave, air fryer, juicer
• LivingLarge living room with an open fire, Sky TV and Netflix
• TelevisionsA television in every bedroom as well as the living room
• GamesChess, cards and board games for every age
• OutsideWalled garden, furnished patio, barbecue
• LaundryWashing machine in the house
• ParkingFree parking on the street outside the house — all parking in Carlingford is free
• ConnectivityFree wi-fi throughout
• OutlookMountain views to the rear
• DogsWelcome, at no extra charge
• SmokingNot permitted anywhere in the house, permitted in the private garden.
• Quiet hoursMidnight to 7am, as a courtesy to neighbours

Your stay includes

• Welcome basicsMilk, bread, coffee, tea and something to open on arrival
• Homely fire placeFuel for the first evening left in the basket
• Linen and towelsBeds made up before you arrive
• Leisure club accessPool and gym nearby, €12 per adult and €6 per child per day
• Books and gamesChess, cards and board games for every age, and shelves stocked for every kind of weather
• Sky and NetflixBoth signed in and ready, in the living room and in every bedroom
• Local guidanceWhere to eat, walk and hear music, from someone who lives here

Location

Carlingford sits between the Cooley Mountains and the lough, halfway between Dublin and Belfast and about an hour and a half from either. The Retreat is three minutes’ walk from the middle of it — the heritage centre is at the end of the street and King John’s Castle a little beyond — but Dundalk Street is quiet, so you get the village without the Saturday night that comes with the square.

Guests often use the house to attend nearby weddings in the Four Seasons Hotel, which is a 3 minute walk away.

Eircode A91 V381 — put that into the satnav or into Google Maps and it brings you to the door, not to the end of the street.

• Holy Trinity Heritage Centre 50 m
• Kingfisher Bistro 50 m
• Oystercatcher Bistro 150 m
• Liberty 250 m
• Carlingford Lough shore 400 m
• King John's Castle 600 m
• Greenore Golf Club 9 min drive
• Nearest beach 12 min drive
• Dundalk 24 km
• Dublin city 108 km
• Dublin Airport 97 km
• Belfast International 78 km

Owner recommendations

Visit

King John’s Castle

Six hundred metres down the street, standing over the harbour since the Normans built it. It is open to visitors, but only on a guided tour and only in season, and the times change through the year — check before you set off. The tours leave from the heritage centre at the end of our road, so you can call in on your way past and book one.

President Biden was shown round it in April 2023, on the trip he made to his ancestors’ country. His great-great-grandfather Owen Finnegan came from Whitestown, a couple of miles outside the village, and sailed for America in 1849 — this castle would have been close to the last of Ireland he saw. If you have Louth people somewhere behind you, that is the walk to take first.

Cycle

The Greenway

Six kilometres of old railway line from the village to Omeath, flat and traffic-free the whole way with the lough beside you. Bikes can be hired in Carlingford, and guests have cycled it and been back for lunch.

It is a lovely walk too. No hills, no traffic and no need to be fit for it — push a buggy along it, take the dog, turn back whenever you feel like it. The good part starts the moment you leave the village.

Golf

Greenore Golf Club

Nine minutes down the road and right on the shore of the lough — an 18-hole links laid out in 1896, par 71, 6,647 yards off the blues, with mature pines, water and the Mournes across the water for company. Half links, half parkland, and the clubhouse has the view. Visitors and societies are welcome any day, but book it, especially at a weekend.

Institution

PJ O’Hare’s

Not simply somewhere to eat — one of the reasons people come to Carlingford at all. The Anchor Bar is a grocer’s shopfront that never stopped being a bar, with an oyster bar and a beer garden behind it, music, and the old petrol pump outside painted “Oyster Fuel”. Two minutes from our door. Have the chowder, and I am partial to the crab claws.

pjoharescarlingford.ie

For the kids

Carlingford Adventure Centre

The award-winning one, and probably the best day out for children anywhere in Ireland. Skypark is the country’s biggest aerial adventure park — zip lines, Tarzan swings, thirty-odd challenges up to forty feet — with kayaking, archery and laser quest on the ground and the water. Camps at Easter, Halloween and through the summer; book ahead in school holidays.

Mountain biking

The Cooley hills - cycle

You do not have to leave the peninsula for it. The forestry roads, grassland and mountain paths around Slieve Foye — the hill directly behind the house, and at 589 metres the highest ground in Louth — make proper cross-country riding, with the lough underneath you most of the way.

The loop above starts and finishes in the village: about 10 kilometres, and roughly 535 metres of climbing, up over Barnavave and round beneath the north-west top of Slieve Foye past the Eagles Rock and the Ravens Rock. Short, then, but not easy.

Nobody needs to bring a bike, Carlingford Greenway Bike Hire on Newry Street can provide.

Horse riding

Ravensdale Lodge

Trekking, hacking, lessons and cross country under the Cooley Mountains, beside Ravensdale Forest and a short drive inland from the house. Beginners are fine here. The one to ask about is their trek over to Carlingford itself, which comes with a picnic at the far end — you ride into the village you are staying in.

Unwind

The Hot Box Sauna

Down at Carlingford Marina, on the shore of the lough: wood-burning Finnish saunas with tiered seating and the whole width of the water in front of you, and steel steps going straight down into it for the cold dip afterwards. Sessions run about three quarters of an hour and are booked in advance — thehotboxsauna.ie. Go at the end of a day on the hill rather than the start of one.

Walk

Slieve Foye

The mountain directly behind the house. Two hours up, and the whole lough laid out below you with the Mournes on the far shore.

Part way up, out on the South Commons, you come on the deserted village — a scatter of roofless stone houses left empty around the time of the Famine, with what is thought to be a far older Bronze Age structure among them. Nobody is going to charge you in or hand you a leaflet; you just walk into it. The loop carries on through Queen Maeve’s Gap to the 589-metre summit and comes back down to the castle.

Live music

A session in the local bars

The village bars are lively year round and there is live music in them every weekend, and most weeknights. Some great Sunday lunch sessions in the summer if you are up for it. — trad sessions, and someone singing in the corner on the quieter nights. Every one of them is a few minutes’ walk away, you can stay for the last song and have a 3 min walk home, no queue for taxis required.

What’s on in Carlingford

Where to eat and drink

I am not going to review these — I am no food critic, and there are a hundred opinions online already. This is simply where the village eats are in the village, and every one of them is a three minute walk away.

And wherever you sit down, order the oysters. The world-famous Carlingford oysters are harvested from the clear, nutrient-rich grade-A waters of Carlingford Lough — the lough in front of you — and shipped as far as the hotel restaurants of Dubai. You are eating them about a mile from where they were lifted.

• The Bay Tree In the middle of the village, and the one we are asked about most.
• Fishy Dishy Seafood, and they do a nice breakfast as well.
• PJ O’Hare’s The Anchor Bar — the best known pub in the village, pints, chowder, music and a beer garden. I will break my own rule for one thing: I am particular to their crab claws.
• Carlingford Arms Seafood and steaks in the middle of the village, with live music on.
• Ruby Ellen’s Tea Rooms Delightful, and the other place for breakfast — full Irish, kippers, smoked salmon, and a terrace looking over the lough to the Mournes.
• Riina’s The Italian bistro, and there is seafood on that menu too.
• Ma Baker’s A great bar and a great pint. Live music, a beer garden, a pool table, and the racing will more than likely be on the television.
• The Brass Door The newest bar in the village, up on Castle Hill, open since 2025. Cocktails, and a bit of polish that Carlingford did not have before.

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