Ireland: Bunratty

We drove from Galway to Bunratty and on the way to our hotel (the Bunratty Castle Hotel) we stopped at the Cliffs of Moher. We went to the Information Desk and I asked the woman there, Rose, if the place was 100% wheelchair accessible and she told us it was and even where to go. We went to the place she suggested and found the path was full of pot holes on both sides. It was very difficult to push the wheelchair up the path as I had to stop and go. When we made it to the top we couldn't see anything because the walls were too tall. We went down the path and back to the Visitor Center. I went to the Information Desk and told them I wanted to see the supervisor. After waiting about 15 minutes the supervisor came and I explained what happened and how her staff had lied to us about being able to get up there with a wheelchair. She tried to give me a bunch of excuses, but I wouldn't take any of them. At the very end she refunded us the 8 Euros parking fee, but the whole experience made the day awful.

We then went to our hotel and checked-in. Authentic Ireland had booked a dinner at a Medieval Banquet at Bunratty Castle. I even e-mailed Bunratty Castle myself and asked them about the wheelchair and got a response from Betty saying "there was absolutely no problem with coming in a wheelchair." When we got to the Castle the woman at the entrance told us that there we 2 stories of stairs that we would have to climb (not sure how that is accessible for wheelchairs.) She said that if we could get up the stairs then everything else would be fine. I even asked her about the wheelchair at the table since the benches had no backs on them. She said it would be fine. My dad went up the stairs and asked them about the wheelchair and was told it would be fine. My mom and I walked up the two stories and when I put her at the table the manager came running over and was saying that we couldn't stay there as it would "not allow the servers to serve the others." She did not care about us. I told her about what the woman at the entrance had said and showed her the e-mail where Betty said it was "absolutely no problem," but the manager did not care. She said we could eat in the basement and when I said that we wanted the show as well she wasn't having it. I really let her have it and then left. We had to walk back down the stairs and go to the entrance and talk to the same woman as before. This woman gave us all sorts of excuses and even offered us the dinner (but no show.) We didn't get a refund from them because we had a voucher from Authentic Ireland and would have to get it from them - I did have the woman right why we weren't getting the refund and why we couldn't see the show.

We left the Castle and were angry beyond belief - it was the second time that day we had problems and the last straw on the trip. We called Authentic Ireland and told them everything, but since it was a Saturday no one would be able to help us until Monday - when we would be in London.

The next day we had Des drive us far away from Bunratty. We drove around the coast and had an early day since we were exhausted and had to get up at 3 am for our flight to London. We send good-bye to Des and told him he made the trip really fun.