Mount Congreve Gardens & Country Estate — Attraction in The Municipal District of Comeragh

We were there yesterday, the gardens are beautiful but the main reason I'm posting this is because of the dreadful signage and map provided which no sense. I see from other reviews that other people think the same. When you get to e.g. post no.4, it's impossible to know which direction to take to number 5. Arrows should direct you to the next post. Then there's 4b, 4c and 4d which are not included on the map. We met 2 elderly ladies distressed and lost looking for the way out. Other people said they thought by following the map that they were at the top of the map but the 'you are here' said they were at the bottom of the map and the same happened to us. When we got to the pagoda the next left and right after have no signs. Some of the posts have no numbers so you have no idea where you are. After the pagoda I said we needed to get back as it was nearly 5pm and it closes at 5.30pm. My husband said to follow the river downwards and that should bring us back. We barely saw a small sign in green (making it difficult to see)and partially hidden by shrubbery stating back to the car park. We followed that which brought us to 2 large solid wooden double gates the size of garage doors,which were closed. My husband tried pushing the gate open but couldn't. He put his hand through the gap to pull back the latch and had to shove it very hard to open it. I was getting very panicked wondering if we were going to get through it, it was 5.15pm. What made me very angry was wondering what if that had been an elderly person who couldn't open the gate and was very frightened wondering if they were going to be locked in when the gardens shut 15 minutes later. They might not have had a mobile phone to call for help. Please do something about your maps and signage as previous requests have...

I visited today with my 3 teens all of whom are wheelchair users. The website says that there is a wheelchair accessible path. On advice from the young lady on reception we followed her directions. I can honestly say that Mount Congreve is definitely not wheelchair accessible. The paths are rough gravel and very uneven in places. The terrain is steep in alot of places, and this was only on tge wheelchair accessible pathway. The decline back to the walled garden is dangerous, my nurse pushing one of the chairs had to ditch the wheelchair to avoid loosing control. After finally locating the accessible entrance to the walled garden we were met with yet again another radiant. Thinking that we obviously followed the wrong path I spoke with one of the gardeners who advised that we had followed the correct path!! The path leading from the walked garden back to the main house is extremely rough and very steep. Our planned relaxing day turned into a very strenuous workout and a very uncomfortable wheelchair journey for my 3 teens all of whom have orthopaedic issues. Overall we were extremely disappointed and tired. Would not recommend this as a wheelchair...

The Gardens were lovely and as someone else mentioned if I could separately review this, I would as the gardens are lovely, but the cafe is a disaster. I couldn't recommend getting food to anyone, perhaps stick to a cake and a coffee. Most of the staff are completely clueless and untrained bar a few. After queuing for 10 minutes and paying we waited another 30 minutes and no food arrived, turns out our order was misplaced. After speaking to someone half of our food came out without any sides despite having paid 29 euros for 2 lunches from the specials menu. We sent these back and then another lady came with our meals, my meal was not what I had ordered or what was described on the menu but was too hungry to not eat at this point. My husband returned his food as the sandwich and cup of soup came out without his salads and the sandwich was very poor looking and we needed to get home at this point. For a 14 euro sandwich the standard is just not good enough. The supervisor was apologetic and staff are nice but totally disorganised. Their food system is same as Avoca style but is not working. Very disappointing as venue is fab it could be so...