Margaret's Cottage B & B

Margaret's Cottage B & B Here I share the realities of running a small hospitality business later in life.

I'm Ciara, the owner, host and story teller of the historic Margaret's Cottage, where the pace of life slows down, the surroundings are relaxed and the welcome is warm. Our luxury B&B has two double rooms and one twin room, each with its own unique character and each accompanied by a beautiful ensuite or private bathroom. You’ll find hand-baked goodies on your bedside table, the comfiest beds to r

etire to, soft Egyptian cotton towels, a retro digital bedside radio, hair dryer and flat-screen TV in your room. Guests enjoy breakfast, served in your own drawing room, overlooking the 18th green of Ardglass Golf Club. And, if you are staying with us for two nights or more you can enjoy a complimentary , self service, afternoon tea, with your feet up and today’s newspapers.

Now then...If there is a nicer smell than freshly baked Guinness wheaten bread coming out of the oven, I honestly don't ...
09/06/2026

Now then...
If there is a nicer smell than freshly baked Guinness wheaten bread coming out of the oven, I honestly don't know what it is.

The kitchen at Margaret's Cottage is smelling distinctly , deliciously divine this morning because I've just taken these three beauties out of the oven.

And yes, before anyone asks, I did stand and admire them for a few moments.
It would have been rude not to.

This is my own Guinness wheaten bread recipe. It's taken me a good few years of tinkering, tweaking, experimenting and generally meddling with it until I got the recipe exactly how I want it.
A little brown sugar.
A little treacle.
A touch of molasses.
Lots of good oats and wholemeal flour.
Plenty of Guinness.
And of course, buttermilk.

The result is a loaf that's rich, wholesome, ever so slightly sweet and, if I do say so myself, utterly delicious.

Now, there are many ways to enjoy Guinness wheaten bread.
Fresh from the oven with proper butter melting into it....
Toasted with butter.
Alongside some deliciuos smoked salmon from East Coast Seafood.
Or simply sliced thickly and eaten standing in the kitchen because you couldn't wait another minute.

I may have conducted extensive research on this subject....and I will report back.

These loaves are destined for tomorrow morning's breakfast table for our lovely guesties, although a couple will be safely tucked away in the freezer because we have a full house arriving for the weekend.

Our American golfing guests are returning to tackle Ardglass Golf Club once again.
Whether they manage to master the course this time remains to be seen.

The wheaten bread, however, has already mastered me.

Anyway, admiration time is over.
I've afternoon tea guests arriving shortly, scones still to bake, sandwiches requiring precision engineering, and approximately forty-seven other jobs waiting for my attention.
But before the chaos resumes, I thought I'd share these lovely loaves with you.
Because some things are simply too good not to show off.

Have a wonderful afternoon, you lovely bunch of smashers.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have an overwhelming urge to eat warm wheaten bread with far too much butter on it. 😄🍞
Xx

I firmly believe that you can tell a great afternoon tea by its sandwiches.Not the cakes. Not the scones. Not even the f...
08/06/2026

I firmly believe that you can tell a great afternoon tea by its sandwiches.
Not the cakes.
Not the scones.
Not even the fancy presentation.
The sandwiches.

Because for me, a proper afternoon tea begins with proper sandwiches.

Today I was preparing a large order for a lovely customer, which meant making fifteen rounds of perfectly, precision cut, delicate finger sandwiches.
And🙄 as you can see, there was a bit of a sandwich production line taking place in the Margaret's Cottage kitchen.

Now, I may be slightly particular about sandwiches. Ok, let's rephrase that....I'm obsessively particular about sandwiches.
The bread must be fresh.
The butter must be real butter.
None of your "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" nonsense. What was the advert in the 80's? "No buts, it's got to be butter".
I quite agree.
If you're putting butter on a sandwich, then let's have actual butter please.

Then come the fillings.
Fresh ingredients.
Plenty of filling.
And 🙄🙄 most importantly, the filling has to go right to the very edges and corners.
There is nothing more disappointing in life than biting into the corner of a sandwich and discovering it's just bread. Monday can have enough disappointments in it already, sometimes. So empty sandwiches should never be one of them.

Every mouthful should be delicious.
Every single one.

Then comes the cutting.
A very sharp serrated knife. Carefully cut. Nicely shaped into four delicate little fingers per round.
And of course...
The crusts must come off.
Always.
Please don't argue with me on this one (and anyway, I never wanted curly hair!)

I honestly don't know if this attention to detail is a sign of obsessive compulsive disorder, perfectionism, or simply spending many years making afternoon teas.
But I do know this:
When all the sandwiches are lined up neatly, perfectly cut, all looking exactly the same, it makes me ridiculously happy.

Surely I can't be the only one?
Please tell me I'm not alone in this.
Or am I the only person who gets excited by a beautifully symmetrical sandwich?
Tell me, do I need to get out more ? Do I need therapy? 🤣

I really should know better by now.On Friday afternoon, I found myself popping into The Crowes Nest in Crossgar. Now, if...
01/06/2026

I really should know better by now.

On Friday afternoon, I found myself popping into The Crowes Nest in Crossgar.

Now, if you've ever been in The Crowes Nest, you'll understand my predicament immediately.

The Crowes Nest a beautiful little shop filled with gorgeous home fragrances, fabulous objets d'art, stunning faux flowers and enough beautiful things to test the willpower of a saint.
Which is precisely why I try not to go in too often.
Because every single time I walk through the door, I inevitably buy something.

So, before entering the shop, I gave myself a stern talking-to.
"I don't need anything."
"I don't need anything."
"I definitely don't need anything."

Feeling rather pleased with my self-discipline, I walked through the door.
Thirty seconds later, I loved everything.
And naturally...
I came home with this beautiful green urn and these absolutely gorgeous hydrangeas.

So much for self-control.

Now, I firmly believe that with faux flowers, much like many things in life, you get what you pay for. The flowers from The Crowes Nest are such beautiful quality that people regularly have to look twice to check if they're real.

And frankly, there's another advantage.
Even with my somewhat questionable horticultural skills, I can keep these looking fabulous all year round.
No watering.
No pruning.
No emergency plant rescues.
Perfect.

The vase and hydrangeas now have pride of place on the breakfast table in the guest drawing room, where I can admire them every morning while clutching my strong coffee latte and contemplating the day ahead before our guesties arrive upstairs to be fed.

And do you know what?
I hadn't realised until Friday that my life was completely lacking one very specific beautiful green urn.

Now that it's here, I honestly can't imagine how I managed without it.

Funny how that happens.

Anyway, it's a bit drizzly outside today, and I thought these flowers deserved their own moment in the spotlight.

Because whether they're real flowers or faux flowers, beautiful blooms have an extraordinary ability to brighten a room and lift your spirits.

Have a lovely Monday, you wonderful bunch of smashers.
And 🙄 if you're heading into a lovely gift shop today, may your willpower be stronger than mine.
Xx

31/05/2026

I'm selling two tickets to this Saturday's Peter Kay gig in Belfast.
Selling for £50 each via TicketMaster.
Check out the link below...

So… despite the slight chaos and assorted catastrophes of the past few weeks at Margaret’s Cottage — leaks, holes in cei...
28/05/2026

So… despite the slight chaos and assorted catastrophes of the past few weeks at Margaret’s Cottage — leaks, holes in ceilings, building dust, and guests appearing unexpectedly in their underpants before 7am — I have somehow managed to find time to do something that has become very rare for me these days.

I’m reading a book.

An actual proper book.
Not a recipe book.
Not a list.
Not Amazon reviews on things i don't actually need to buy.
A real book 😄
And the book I’m reading is A Short History of Ireland by John Gibney.

Now here’s the thing…
Although I’ve been living back home in Ireland with Kelsey for the past eleven years, I actually went to school in Scotland and England, so Irish history simply wasn’t part of our curriculum growing up.

As a result, I realised over the years that I knew embarrassingly little about Irish history.
A few names.
A few dates.
The odd historical figure.
Bits and pieces....but not enough.

And when we moved home in 2015, I often found myself in conversations where friends or family would casually reference events, people or periods in Irish history, and I’d quietly nod along pretending I fully understood what everyone was talking about… while internally thinking: “I haven’t a clue.”

So I finally decided it was time to change that.
And honestly?
I'm absolutely immersed in this book.

It begins commenting on historical events around the 1200s, and I’m currently somewhere in the late 1800s, learning all sorts of things I genuinely never knew before.
Some fascinating, some heartbreaking, some surprising… and all of it making me realise just how much history shapes the place we live in today.

I’m also discovering that the more I read, the more questions I have.
Which I think is probably the sign of a good book.

So now I’m curious…
Is Irish history something you all learned properly at school?
Is it something you’re knowledgeable about?
Or are some of you, like me, slowly trying to catch up later in life?

Anyway… I’m off to make another strong latte and read another few pages before I take the sausages off their frying pan and before normal Margaret’s Cottage chaos resumes again and breakfast needs served.

Have a thoroughly chilled Thursday, you lovely bunch of smashers. This woman needs to get a wiggle on.
X

...and that's why we love Ardglass Golf Club, which is just 10 meters from.our front door.
26/05/2026

...and that's why we love Ardglass Golf Club, which is just 10 meters from.our front door.

You may notice a slight difference between these two photographs.And when I say "slight", I mean one photograph shows th...
26/05/2026

You may notice a slight difference between these two photographs.
And when I say "slight", I mean one photograph shows the Cabin bedroom looking exactly as it should — peaceful, beautiful, tranquil, welcoming and, most importantly, with the ceiling entirely intact.
The other photograph?
Well... the other photograph features a rather large hole in said ceiling.

As many of you will know, last weekend one of our guests was rudely awakened by water dripping from the shower above directly onto his face. This resulted in him sprinting upstairs at ten to seven in the morning to report the emergency.
Wearing only a t-shirt and his underpants, to tell me about the problem.
The leak, thankfully, was real.
The lack of trousers remains unexplained.

Anyway...
After much detective work, head scratching, investigating and putting hands in spidery places I wouldn't fancy putting my hands into, Colly and Brendan have successfully identified the culprit, repaired the leak, sealed everything up and are returning today to put my poor ceiling back together again.

Which is wonderful news.

Less wonderful is the fact that once they're finished, I shall be embarking on what I expect will be an Olympic-level hoovering event.
There is building dust.
Everywhere.
Again.

Honestly, I thought we'd finally said goodbye to building dust after the renovations.

Apparently the building dust did not get the memo.

So my mission today is simple: hoover, dust, hoover again, dust again, and somehow have The Cabin bedroom looking absolutely fabulous for our lovely guests arriving tomorrow evening.

Meanwhile, His Royal Furriness Mr. O'Shea has chosen a rather different approach to the day's workload.
He is currently stretched out beneath a shady bush in the sunshine, watching a particularly large wood pigeon and appearing to contemplate whether or not he can be bothered chasing it.
The answer, it would seem, is no.
A wise decision, frankly.

So once I've cooked a delicious breakfast for our lovely guesties from Florida, I'll be getting a wiggle on with the great Cabin Bedroom restoration/cleaning project.

And by this evening, with a bit of luck, there will be no leak [well, we know there'sno leak thankfully] , no dust, and most importantly...
No giant hole in the ceiling.
Hurray!!!

Have a wonderful day in the sunshine, you lovely bunch of smashers.
And don't forget your sunscreen. ☀️

This is my favourite time of the day.In about an hour and a half, Margaret's Cottage will spring into life. In about hal...
23/05/2026

This is my favourite time of the day.

In about an hour and a half, Margaret's Cottage will spring into life. In about half an hour there'll be guesties appearing upstairs, kettles boiling, coffee flowing, breakfasts cooking, toast popping, and in about half an hour there'll be me dashing about wondering how it's suddenly that time already.

But for now...
For now, the house is blissfully uneventful.
It's just me, a cup of coffee, a little bit of sunshine, and His Royal Furriness, Mr. Michael O'Shea, pottering around the garden exactly as a cat should.

Actually, "pottering" might be the wrong word.
At the moment he's furtively trying to find the perfect spot to stretch out in a warm patch of sunshine looking as though he personally arranged the weather forecast for the Bank Holiday weekend. Which, knowing him, he probably thinks he did.

Mr.O'Shea absolutely loves this time of year. Give him a bit of sunshine, a comfortable spot in the garden and absolutely nothing whatsoever to do, and he's a very happy boy indeed.
And if I'm honest, I'm not so different...May is my favourite month.

So while the house is quiet, I'm stealing twenty precious minutes of solitude, caffeine and peace before I need to get a wiggle on and the day begins in earnest.

The breakfasts can wait.
The washing machines can wait.
The to-do list can wait.

For another twenty minutes at least.
Wishing you all a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend in the sunshine.
Enjoy every minute of it... and don't forget your sunscreen.
Xx

Well now… just when I thought life at Margaret’s Cottage was finally settling down after months and months of renovation...
20/05/2026

Well now… just when I thought life at Margaret’s Cottage was finally settling down after months and months of renovations, builders, dust, noise, more dust, and enough chaos to test the patience of a saint… this weekend happened.

Honestly, you couldn’t write it.

We had a full house on Saturday and Friday night, with very very early breakfasts, and at five to seven on Sunday morning I was happily pottering about the kitchen preparing breakfast for my lovely guesties.

And then…
BANG BANG BANG on the kitchen door.

I opened it to find one of our long-standing guests — who has stayed with us for seven, eight, maybe even nine years at this stage — standing there looking very alarmed.
And also… wearing only a t-shirt and underpants.

No trousers whatsoever.
Now naturally, being the calm and professional B&B owner that I am, my first thought was: “Well, THAT seems to be the immediate problem here.”

But no.
Apparently there was a far bigger issue than missing trousers.

“Ciara,” he says very dramatically, “we have a problem.”
“Yes,” says I, “you’re not wearing any trousers.”

“No no no!” he says. “There’s water pouring into the downstairs bedroom!”
And off he ran again… still with absolutely no trousers on him.

So there we have it.
This weekend’s saga.
Turns out, one of the bathrooms we had NOT needed to renovate— ironically the bathroom that had been mine for the last eleven years — had developed a leak.

And this poor unfortunate guest was rudely awakened at ten to seven in the morning by a steady aggressive drip of water landing directly onto his face from the shower above.

Now to be fair, that would wake you fairly quickly.
So after much apologising, feeding everybody magnificent breakfasts, reassuring guests that old houses occasionally like to create drama, and pretending I was entirely coping with events… the guests all departed very graciously.

Meanwhile… downstairs in the Cabin bedroom… there is now a rather alarming, investigate, cut hole in my beautiful newly renovated ceiling while Colly and Brandon conduct what can only be described as a full forensic investigation into where the water is actually coming from.

And yes… there is building dust everywhere again.

EVERYWHERE.

I am honestly so tired of building dust at this stage that I may soon simply accept it as part of my personality.

But we will get to the bottom of it.
The Cabin room will be back in action soon, our other two lovely bedrooms are open as normal, and normal service will resume shortly.

Although given recent events, I’m no longer making any promises.
And perhaps, moving forward, we should introduce a new house rule:
If you need to report a leak before 7am… please, please, please report this urgent matter to the management, as soon as possible, but please, may i politely request the wearing of trousers!!😆

Address

Castle Place, Ardglass
Downpatrick
BT307TP

Telephone

+442844843328

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