Ballyvolane - a B B & B

Anne McAllister who started her report on the Ireland trip back to front – beginning with the ending - has already blogged about Ballyvolane in great detail. We agreed things this way because after all, Ballyvolane was her place – the major research she needed to do for her book. She was looking for a draughty castle – what she found was Ballyvolane House - and it fitted her requirements perfectly. So if you want to read more about this lovely place than check out her blog as well.

But when I think of Ballyvolane what comes into my mind – apart from the log fires and the wonderful rooms andthe soft cushions, the antiques and the bookshelves crammed with books and the polished wood flooring, and the grounds . . . (sorry I slipped back into memory time there) - what I remember is the fact that most places that take paying guests can label themselves a B&B – bed and breakfast – Ballyvolane , at least for me and the BM was very definitely a Bed and Breakfast and Bath.

Our room had en suite facilities – the usual extra room containing the toilet, sink and the bath. No – make that The Bath. What a bath! It was huge – definitely big enough for two to share companionably – maybe even three if you were really friendly. And it was a Bath of State. So big and deep that you had to go up two polished wooden steps to get into it. It had huge brass taps that worked on levers to turn them on and it must definitely date back to the time when the owners of the house had maids or a ‘gentleman’s gentleman’ to help them get ready for the day. This bath was so deep that you needed to turn on (or rather, lever on) the taps and then go away and drink a mug of tea or perhaps some homemade blackcurrant or elderflower cordial (both of which were provided in the room, together with fresh, pure well water to dilute them) while you waited for it to fill up.

And then there was The Bed. And as you might have expected from the size of The Bath, The Bed was pretty substantial too. The Bed was more than big enough to sleep three – even four quite comfortably. Not being into writing books about threesomes , or even foursomes, what my romance writer’s mind kept thinking was of the way that, after an argument or on that so familiar, ‘forced to sleep in the same room and there’s only one bed’ scenario it would be completely possible for the hero and heroine in a story to sleep in this bed and still stay miles apart – they would have to make a real effort to come together and if they wanted to they wouldn’t have to touch each other at all through the night. They might just as well be in separate single beds.

But then, of course, The Bed had wooden cherubs, and a carved love knot fixed on the wall around the headboard so maybe they would help to bring about the required reconciliation and bridge the gap so that The Bed could become a real love nest.

So that’s the Bed and the Bath – what about the Breakfast bit? Well, as you’d expect the Breakfasts at Ballyvolane were substantial – Full Irish Breakfast was provided in the dining room, at whatever time we wanted it. You could have eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms,

tomatoes, black pudding or white pudding . . . Being veggie I passed on most of that but the poached eggs and mushrooms were pretty good. There was fruit and yoghurt, cereals, toast and on the toast you could have Irish butter, honey, homemade raspberry, strawberry or blackcurrant jam . . .tea or coffee . . . And the toast was either home baked white or, one of my most absolute total favourite things in all Irish food – home baked Wholemeal Soda Bread. My mother used to make this for us when my sisters and I were children and I've been addicted ever since.

It was no wonder that we had breakfast - and then didn’t eat for most of the rest of the day. A couple of times we went out to nearby towns and ate in wonderful small restaurants or a local inn

– but even that was late on because Justin and Jenny provided afternoon tea as well – huge trays with great pots of loose leaf tea and cake – home made fruit cake or chocolate brownies – or, my favourite, the lemon cake. All eaten while sitting round the huge log fire while (on one day at least) the rain lashed down outside. Perfect.

As you can see, a lot of Ballyvolane was of large proportions – the rooms, the bath, the meals . . . so were the Grounds and The Cat – but I have a book to write and a Spaniard who’s impatient at being kept waiting for my attention. So I’ll come back to those tomorrow.

But just in case you'd like to try it, I thought I'd include the recipe for that wonderful soda bread - I may even make some for myself later today (if the Spaniard cooperates)

Ballyvolane House Brown Soda Bread(Makes 2 Loaves)
1 1/2 lbs. wholemeal flour1 handful wheat bran2 handfuls wheat germ2 1/4 lbs. pinhead oatmeal (aka chunky-grade)2 tsp. salt2 tsp. sieved baking soda1 liter buttermilk
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease bread tins with butter. Mix dry ingredients well. Add buttermilk and stir until mixed thoroughly with the dry ingredients. Divide mixture into 2 bread tins and sprinkle with a little additional pinhead oatmeal. Bake for 1 hour on oven upper shelf.

Enjoy!