First off, this cottage is absolutely darling. A lot of time and effort was put into the style and decor. It belongs in the pages of some seaside cottage magazine. The view is breathtaking and it was so calming to listen to the waves and the birds. The washer and real american style dryer is a real plus. There is no wifi and we didn't have great weather while we were there. However, this was not an issue because the cottage is perfectly equipped for indoor entertainment: a great selection of books, movies and cable channels and a fire to gather around. But it's difficult to enjoy a cozy cottage in bad weather when it is not actually cozy. We were freezing during our entire stay: We wore our heavy jackets in the house and could see our breath.
It was hard to communicate with the host because of the lack of wifi and we didn't have consistent cell phone service at the property. The host explained that the heating was locked at 20 degrees (C) and was on a timer (no heat from 11 to 4pm I believe she said) when we expressed our concerns and she suggested lighting a fire. Of course, we had done that and the fire didn't do much to heat the back sitting room it was located in, let alone a two story cottage. There was a space heater in one of the upstairs bedroom that worked well; otherwise we would left without spending the night. The host gave us vague instructions on how to override the lock on the downstairs heaters, ONLY AFTER WE SPENT THE NIGHT. This helped and it was explained that old cottages like this one cannot get very warm. I do know that with turning the heater on and off, it will indeed never get warm. And we were asked to turn it off upon departure so I'm sure the next guest received the same chilly greeting. Some readers may look and see that we live in a warm climate and maybe we don't what cold really is. That may be true but I assure you that we have stayed in similar properties (and many that were much colder than Ireland in March) and never experienced any issues. In fact, our previous host on this same trip had turned on the heat for prior to our arrival which I feel is the courteous thing to do.
All and all, we still enjoyed the cottage and the nearby beaches. We did a lot of driving around to utilize the car's heater and joked about returning to "The Cold-Catcher" each evening.
There is no personal greeting at the cottage which is fine. But most places with self check-in have a welcome book on the property with instructions and recommendations. That would be useful with the lack of wifi and spotty service (we have T-Mobile and it only worked upstairs). It's a fantastic, unique property but bottom line is that we did not feel welcome here or comfortable during our stay.