Weekender

Ciara Dwyer’s K Club

The K Club, Co Kildare, is less than an hour from Dublin,

but feels a world away. I don’t use the motorway. Too much testosterone there. I find it calming driving at my own pace along the country roads. You feel your shoulders dropping as you head away from the city.

My trick is to get away for 24 hours and let that be the break.

It can be so hard to free up that time away from kids and responsibilities, but it can make such a difference. So it all starts on a Saturday afternoon.

On arrival, I hopped on one of their bikes to explore the grounds.

There is art all over the K Club and its 550-acre woodland, and I swooned over sculptor Conor Fallon’s Pegasus statues. Sometimes you need a calm oasis.

Then, it was back to the K Club, and the spa,

for a Surrender your Senses massage. I requested no conversation, and that the therapist pummel the tension out of me. I floated out a new woman. I’ve always loved massages.

On Saturday night, I dressed up for dinner in the Byerley Turk Restaurant.

The food is exquisite, with locally sourced ingredients, a lot of which is grown in the grounds. If there is fabulous food, I won’t hold back. And here’s to a restaurant that keeps the lights up, so we can see the food and each other.

Sunday breakfast has to be a fry.

I love a slow, unrushed breakfast, browsing the papers with a second pot of coffee. At that stage, you are lingering, putting off a return to reality. The K Club, Straffan, Co Kildare, tel: (01) 601-7200, or see kclub.ie In conversation with Sarah Caden