Borris House and The Tea Rooms

Yesterday was the nicest day we've had in Ireland in a few weeks, at least along the Eastern side.  We decided to go exploring around Carlow and went off to Borris, a lovely, historic and picturesque town on the Kilkenny/Carlow border.

Our first stop was Borris House, the home since the middle ages of the McMurrough Kavanagh family whose ancestors were High Kings of Ireland.  Their lineage is extraordinary and if you'd like to know more, check it out here. 


We took the house tour given by Morgan McMurrough Kavanagh who was very informative about the house and its history. His most famous and interesting ancestor was Arthur McMurrough Kavanagh, who was born with stumps for arms and legs yet, due to his mother's insistence that he have a normal life, went on to do extraordinary things with his life. He spent a lot of time on his horse, in a specially designed saddle, as this was how he started getting around as a child.  Here's an article about him by the wonderful local historian and genealogist, Turtle Bunbury of Lisnavagh House (and Bunbury Board fame). If you don't know what Bunbury Boards are I highly recommend you check out that link.

Borris House is beautiful and well worth visiting. We spent quite a bit of time in the private chapel which is currently Church of Ireland but was Catholic to begin with. Apparently, the eldest son of the family would be brought up Protestant, so he could participate in all the rights of the British Crown, but the rest of the family were Catholic. Quite a complex history there.

The only thing we were disappointed by was that we did not get to go upstairs and see a bedroom and bathroom or two.  I really think they ought to add this to the tour as it seems to end abruptly and not as satisfactorily as I would have liked. For the €10 fee, I think they really ought to show a little more, although what they did show was really interesting. 

Borris House also hosts weddings and events.

Afterwards, we headed over to the new Tea Rooms, which are located beside The Step House, the most well known hotel and restaurant in the area and well worth going to.  The Tea Rooms opened at Easter and seem to be doing a bustling trade.  Run by a husband and wife from their home, they serve afternoon tea as well as other lunch and snacks items.  We ordered the afternoon tea and were served with beautifully made sandwiches, cut into fingers and with a wide variety of fillings like ham and mustard, egg salad and home made brown bread with delicious smoked trout pate sourced from the nearby Goatsbridge Trout Farm.

  

 There were homemade coffee and lemon cakes and delicious scones.  Each table is set with a different tea set, collected from markets and antique shops.  We got two large porcelain teapots with Assam tea (leaves of course!).  All in all we were delighted with it and at €24 for two people, we thought it was also good value. You don't need to eat again after that.  The only down side was one of the owners regaled us with disparaging tales of some of the people in the village. For all he knew, we could have been related to some of those people. It left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

They don't take Laser or Credit cards so bring cash.  It's a lovely place, very clean and well presented and the food is excellent.