I am from Cork City and me and my partner went down to Kinsale for St. Patricks weekend. We initially consulted tripadvisor to give more insight of a couple of B&B's because we did not get availibility at the hotel where we usually stayed.
The only B&B that had avaiibilty was the lighthouse, but were very sceptical about it after reading the reviews.


I found The Lighthouse very comfy and yes there is a lot of nik naks in the house but it was clean. A lot of the furniture looks antique and cant believe that she has it in the rooms to be used by so many people every year.

We stayed in the room with the consevetory at 55 euro's per person and thought that that was a great deal, and it was inclusive of breakfast.

I would recomend this B&B to all couples that would like to have a break away from everyday life.

I am going to have to agree with most of the other reviews. We were greeted by a note on the door, entered, had to find our own rooms(we just presumed the ones with doors open. Both our rooms were very dark and musty,and the bathrooms really old and dated with bleach stains on the bright red towels. it was like staying in a dungeon. The rest of the house was quaint but dirty, carmel has too many nick naks that are in need of a good clean. Was looking forward to a nice Irish breakfast like we have had before in previous irish b&b's. No such luck, it was awful and tasted like rubber. we kept on having to ask for everything and the toast was made with the cheapest thin bread so it was like eating crisps. Carmel on first appearances seemed very glamourous but as time went on you realise she is very strange, and insists on telling you her life story. She seems to do alot of running and flapping around without getting anything done. She talks constantly and you end up hoping she wont come to your table.
We were very dissapointed with our choice of accommodation in Kinsale, but it wouldn't stop us going back as it is a lovely place with some good bars and places to eat. We liked The Blue Haven restaurant/ bar/hotel. Have the fish and chips or the oysters - gorgeous!!

When we arrived the host, Carmel, was not even there (although we'd called the day before to secure a time) and made us feel at fault?! We had a room with little more than a one foot perimeter around the bed. The website uses old pictures and leads you to believe this is a treasure when, in fact, it's a nightmare! Breakfast took more than 2 hours every morning due to one thing or another. Please don't make the same mistake we did book elsewhere!

We arrived at The Lighthouse, no one was in, unfortunately we did not have the telephone number with us for Carmel so walked down into the town to the Tourist Board for her number, they kindly let us use their phone and she said she would be back in 10 minutes. She arrived in a fluster and palmed us on to a family friend/relative to show us around and choose our rooms.
She clearly couldn't be bothered with us.

Our room was dark, the bed felt damp and some of the wallpaper was peeling of the walls. The shower room was spacious and very dated, also there was just a bit of plastic up against the window as curtaining. Breakfast was ok and a lot of the china on the table was chipped also the spoon in the salt pot was green with some form of reaction to the damp salt on the spoon, the pepper was also damp.
We booked this B & B because of the good reviews and photos on the web site, which has been very cleverly done. I wish we had thought about going through the tourist board for recommendations which we will do next time.

We spent 3 nights there and I couldn't wait to leave.