Travel tales

Ann Marie Kilkenny, from Butler's Bridge in Co Cavan, got in touch about our review a fortnight ago of the Slieve Donard hotel

Having just spent two wonderful nights in the Slieve Donard hotel, I feel compelled to respond. Mal Rogers completely under-rates this magnificent hotel.

Rogers’s main gripe seems to be that the barperson in the Chaplin Bar hadn’t heard of a margarita and that cocktails couldn’t be served in the library and drawing room. We were informed that the library has been gone for over two years and that cocktails (including margaritas) are indeed served in the drawing room. Perhaps Rogers should have had his cocktail in the Percy French Inn, on the hotel grounds, which has a complete cocktail menu. Rogers also complained of no minibar in the bedroom and reckoned this is a “worrying trend”. In times of recession I find this a relief. Besides, is it too much bother to order a drink to one’s room?

I can’t help but wonder if Rogers was offered the same morning meal that my husband and I indulged in. Along with the usual trappings of an Irish breakfast, there was an array of morning delicacies, including fresh local produce and a fine selection of home-made breads, one of which was made of 17 per cent Guinness. This, according to Rogers, was only passable.

While Rogers briefly acknowledges the homeliness and comfort of Slieve Donard, he hardly mentions the award-winning spa and swimming pool, with jaw-dropping floor-to-ceiling views of the imperious Mourne Mountains that overlook Newcastle beach.

As an avid swimmer I generally stay only in hotels that have indoor leisure facilities; the Slieve Donard’s pool is one of the finest in Ireland.

Contrary to Rogers’s review, I feel that the Slieve Donard hotel is the benchmark by which other country retreats should measure themselves.

Goreader Jerry Kellygot in touch about Deirdre Davys's walk on Camaderry, in Co Wicklow, which also appeared on November 14th

Deirdre Davys’s advice on how to stay safe around stags in rut goes against everything I have learned in a decade and a half as a keen hillwalker and, latterly, mountain leader.

Stags in rut are very dangerous. Stags are also short-sighted. So a stag in rut, if confronted by a hillwalker following Ms Davys’s advice – “to stand your ground, roar loudly every so often and stare at your enemy straight between the eyes” – is more likely to attract a stag’s attention and lead to a potential goring than keep a walker safe.

Stag gorings do happen: rarely, but seriously. All my training and experience teaches avoidance rather than drawing attention to oneself. I was in a party confronted by a stag in rut on the mountain of Slioch, in northwest Scotland, a few years ago. One of the lads, Jim, was walking a few yards ahead of the rest of us when he was confronted out of the mist by an enormous stag bellowing a challenge. Jim immediately crouched down as small as he could until the stag, confused, wandered off.

So poor is its sight that a stag may mistake a person for another stag – especially if that person decides to start roaring – and charge. If that person squats quietly the stag just sees what is, to all intents and purposes, a rock. Even if the stag decides to charge, the person is already in, or close to, a defensive foetal position.

Ms Davys may very well be right. It’s just that I’ve never heard of such a strategy. Besides, I wouldn’t wander around the hills shouting and roaring, and I’d prefer if other people didn’t, either.