From beautiful Instagram reels created by lovely guests, TikTok hits, to healthy calves and a thriving garden.  All wonderful reasons for celebration but what really brought joy to our hearts was three couples, (well three proposers), choosing Fernwood as their special place to engaged.  To say that fills us with joy is an understatement.  It makes us feel that people are really appreciating the unique platform that nature has created at Fernwood; and that we hold so dearly.  Guests are seeing how special this place is, just as we do. 

I hope a certain couple won’t mind us re-telling our Fawlty Towers moment when Simon (aka Basil) tried to deter one intended proposer from achieving his goal!!  

One scorching hot July morning I received a message from a Studio guest asking could we keep the lakeside free that evening as he had a little ‘something special’ planned for his intended.   I informed the necessary parties, Simon, the kids, the dog and the other couple staying in the Dome.  However, after a long, hot day Simon got confused as to which couple was planning this beautiful event by the lakeside and when he encountered them (The Studio couple) in the forest that evening he tried to stop them reaching the lake.... “STOOOOPPPPP” he implored, “you can’t go down there, the guy staying in the Dome is planning to propose to his girlfriend”!!!  Not only that but Simon happened to be up to his shoulder in the proverbial s**t due to a blocked sewer at the Dome (never a dull moment in hospitality!).  After a rather dazed and confused conversation with the couple, and a quick phone call to me, the penny finally dropped and Simon made a hasty retreat into the forest.  After a little persuasion the proposer and his intended finally made it down to the lake and she said “YES”!!    Celebrations all round!

From engagements, to honeymooners, birthday surprises and post-lockdown ‘break away from the kids’, our Connemara couple’s retreat is really taking off.  We are currently in the throes of planning, and executing our next offering, a lakeside sauna hidden in the woods.  Along with our direct access to the Connemara Greenway, we feel this will really enhance what we have to offer our romantic couples and are so excited to launch it in the new year.  It’s going to be really special and will hopefully enhance this already immersive experience.

It is certainly beyond our expectations that our guests would embrace the surroundings in this way.  Sometimes when you spend so much time in a place you are unsure if others will see it the way you do, appreciate its wildness, its rugged Connemara beauty.  Lucky for us, it turns out that they do…. Let the celebrations never end…