Knappogue Castle Medieval Banquet (Clare Co., Ireland)

One thing we absolutely wanted to experience while in Ireland was a good medieval banquet in a castle. We initially wanted to go to the one in Bunratty (since that was where we were staying), but beware - those book up FAST! The Bunratty Castle banquet was already full when we went to make reservations, so we looked up others in the area and found one at Knappogue Castle and booked it right away!

The banquet and ambiance was SOOOOOOOOOOO much fun! In fact, it is one of our favorite memories from our trip! I'm not saying the food was absolutely out of this world, but in all fairness, I'm a pretty darn good cook myself, very keen on spices and flavor, so we're not easily impressed. But it was good, and a very filling meal!

We arrived just a few moments before the large gate and front door were opened to welcome guests in, and were immediately greeted with two cups of mead. Now, I'm not a big wine drinker, but this honey wine was delicious! In fact, since Mark doesn't drink at all, I ended up with two cups! My only complaint was that I couldn't get more!

After mingling in the entryway listening to some fun authentic irish music played by the minstrels, we headed on in to the main dining room. The pictures don't do it justice, but it was SO MUCH FUN!!

While we waited for our courses, there was a great song and dance show to entertain us. It was pretty comical, and incorporated a few audience members - a real hoot!

The first course was a delicious tomato basil soup - which I can almost smell again just by seeing this picture - yum!

The second course was a salmon salad, which was delicious. Mark absolutely despises Salmon, though, so it was comical for me to see him eat it...until I told him it was salmon. it was sliced sort of like deli meat, so you wouldn't necessarily know it. And I forgot to take a picture of it, sorry :(

In fact, I forgot to take any pictures of our food the rest of the meal, unfortunately. We were too busy visiting with the lovely people seated around us:

Of course, throughout the entire evening, we were continuously entertained by song and dance, which was so fun!

We had a wonderful time at the medieval banquet and would definitely go back again! I can't imagine that it would be too terribly different at another castle, but if you go to Ireland, you really must do this!