Farmleigh House - Easter Break

I've been here in Ireland for more than a decade. Yup. A third of my life. I never had a chance to explore the whole of Ireland yet. Well, to be honest, not even the whole of Dublin.

When I moved to Blanchardstown, I've had this nice neighbour. An old lady who lived with her deaf-mute son. She is extremely friendly and if by chance we bump into her we can't just stop at Hi and Bye. We'd be stuck in front of the door at least for about 10 minutes. Hehehe... She's just so nice and friendly. She not only gave my kids presents for Christmas and Easter as well as Halloween, she would also tell us everything and inform us what ever she knows.

This includes letting us know about this one nice place called Farmleigh House and Estate that's just a 10 minute drive from our house in Dublin's famous Phoenix Park.


On the Easter Sunday itself, I Googled again for any exciting events for the day. I found out about plenty of free activities in different places which were being held for the kids to enjoy (as well as grown ups). Farmleigh had lots of events on so, as I've never been to Farmleigh before and as it was very near to my place, we decided to go there. It just didn't occur to me that there was a nice, beautiful yet secluded estate at the end of Phoenix Park.



With some picnic preparation we enjoyed the sunny but quite cold day. During the day, there were lots of activities held for kids such as magic shows, story-telling and Easter Egg hunting. Unfortunately, as everyone had the same thought as us, the places for these events were limited. We decided not to do the kiasu thing so, we enjoyed ourselves playing on the grounds instead. We were rewarded for this as the kids managed to meet the Easter Bunny!


Besides that, there was a food market where they sold gourmet foods, drinks, vegetables, fruits, flowers and plants.


We got a spot right in front of the Farmleigh House for our picnic and let the kids enjoy the open space. It was just so lovely.




After that, we decided to explore the estate. We went to the farm where there were a few animals and later to the back of the house where a live band was performing for the day. And then we went into the maze (more like a secret garden but maze sounds more interesting!)

Right before we left the estate, we stopped for a cup of coffee in the Coffee House within the nice estate and had an ice cream on the way back. Overall, it give the place 2 thumbs up. We will definitely go there again!


Just as a tip, if there are any events on the day, traffic might be heavy, but don't worry. There are surprisingly plenty of parking spaces at the very back of the estate especially for visitors. So don't be turned off if you see lots of car going in there. Your time won't be wasted.