Most weekends away in Ireland involve a lot of meteorological wishful thinking.

You check the forecast obsessively, convince yourself the sun symbol means a Mediterranean heatwave, and spend the drive down wondering if you’ll finally get to wear your new shorts and bask in the Irish summer of dreams.

Then there are places like Glengarriff.

Places where the weather almost doesn’t matter. In fact, there are times when you could argue it’s better when the mystical mist is down, and the skies are thunderous and moody.

Arriving into Glengarriff on a rainy afternoon feels a bit like accidentally wandering onto a film set.

The mountains disappear into low cloud, the harbour takes on a gorgeous, eerie stillness, and the whole village is in soft-focus magic. The grey is broken by splashes of green (tropical plants) and bright purple (gigantic rhododendrons). You find your racing mind slowing down without even really meaning to.

And perched on the edge of Bantry Bay, looking out towards Garnish Island, sits the Eccles Hotel. It’s one of those grand old historic Irish hotels that has seen generations come and go. Its rooms are full of stories and are still as popular with Glengarriff’s endless stream of visitors as they were in the 1800s when they hosted the writer William Makepeace Thackeray and served as a writing retreat to George Bernard Shaw.

On a wet day, the views from its many windows somehow become even more dramatic. The clouds drift across the water, and boats emerge and disappear in the mist. We dart from the car in a customary summer downpour and land, soaked, in the warm and cosy lobby.

The art of slowing down

After an easy check-in (the staff greet everyone like an old friend), we deposited our suitcase in a cosy guest room, swapped the raincoats for soft robes, and immediately headed off in slippers to the hotel’s outdoor wellness area.

Most outdoor wellness experiences rely heavily on sunshine and Instagram filters. The Eccles has managed to create one that’s arguably at its best in the rain.

There’s just something brilliantly Irish about sitting in a steaming hot outdoor sauna while Atlantic drizzle taps gently against the glass. Once you’re nicely roasted and turning pink, you step out into the cool air, plunge into a barrel of cold water, and let the rain do what it will.

A few minutes later, you’re a world away from work and meetings and the school run, bubbling away in the huge hot tub, mimosa in hand, gazing across the bay towards Garnish Island. It’s a difficult feeling to improve upon.

Throw in a dreamy massage or a restorative facial in the capable hands of the hotel’s Spa team, and you might start wishing it rained more often.

Linger over dinner 

Irish hotels often talk about hospitality, but at the Eccles,  you really do feel less like a customer and more like somebody they’ve actually been expecting. It’s probably why so many guests return year after year. That, and the food.

Award-winning chef Eddie Attwell’s decadent menu showcases the best of local produce, much of it picked fresh daily from the hotel garden, foraged locally or supplied by the best of West Cork’s artisan food and drink producers.

Take a table in the enclosed waterfront terrace at the Garnish Restaurant and enjoy the views over a feast of 12-hour slow-cooked featherblade of beef, served atop gnocchi, pearl onion, and Hagerty Templegall Cheese or butter-poached hake, with mussels, smoked bean, confit potato, and tender stem broccoli.

Dessert is a must (even if you don’t usually indulge, order the chocolate brownie with honeycomb to share) before you swing by the Harbour Bar for a nightcap en route back to your beckoning  Bay View room.

By the time you sit down to an elegant breakfast the next morning, you’ll realise you’ve been having too much fun to be obsessively checking the forecast.

Of course, when the sun does eventually arrive, Glengarriff transforms. The water sparkles, and the village suddenly looks like the postcard version, all craft shops, cute cafes and tempting pubs, just a two-minute stroll away.

The Eccles enjoys front-row seats for the whole lot. But somehow, even then, you might find yourself feeling a bit nostalgic for the mist.

Summer escapes in a Bay View Room start at €250 for two, including breakfast. For more information on the four-star Eccles Hotel & Spa, Glengarriff Harbour, Glengarriff, Co. Cork, visit eccleshotel.com or call (+353) 027-63093 reservations@eccleshotel.com. You can check out the menu at the Garnish Restaurant here.