20 beautiful hotels in Ireland
Temple House
Ballymote
A ruined Knights Templar castle sits beside a mile-long lake in the grounds belonging to Roderick and Helena Perceval's impressive classical mansion.
Gregans Castle Hotel
Ballyvaughan
There isn’t a castle, but there is a 15th-century tower house, built for the ‘Prince of the Burren’, the unearthly glaciokarst landscape said to have inspired J R R Tolkien.
Enniscoe House
Ballina
A single-track road meanders through woodlands to this Georgian mansion at the foot of lonely Nephin mountain, overlooking Lough Conn, where Susan Kellett and son DJ are 'welcoming hosts'.
Marlfield House
Gorey
George the peacock struts some of the 40-acre grounds of this rural Regency-style country house, run as a hotel for more than four decades by the Bowe family (Relais & Châteaux).
Rathmullan House
Rathmullan
Second-generation owners Mark and Mary Wheeler continue a 60-year tradition of welcoming guests to their Georgian-cum-Victorian house in landscaped grounds and gardens, with a sandy beach on Lough Swilly.
Ballymaloe House
Shanagarry
When farmer’s wife Myrtle Allen opened a restaurant in her Georgian farmhouse back in 1964, she did not dream that she was starting a quiet revolution in Irish food, or that her home would become the epitome of country house hotel style.
Ballyvolane House
Fermoy
Amid gardens and parkland, with bluebell woods and trout lakes, this Georgian country house, remodelled in the 19th century, is not a hotel but a family home, say third-generation owners Justin and Jenny Green.
Viewmount House
Longford
It is the attention to detail that so impresses at Beryl and James Kearney’s classical Georgian rebuild of a 17th-century house, set in themed gardens with a pond and orchard.
Newforge House
Magheralin
Set on the edge of a small village, in mature gardens and pastureland, this creeper-clad Georgian mansion offers a taste of country house living only 40 minutes from Belfast.
Rosleague Manor
Letterfrack
Overlooking Ballinakill Bay, and tucked among private woodland, this fine-looking, family-run hotel offers rooms and service as serene as its surroundings.
Roundwood House
Mountrath
Put together a Georgian mansion, rambling grounds, creative cooking served by serenading chefs, and big-hearted hosts, and you understand Roundwood’s allure.
Currarevagh House
Oughterard
With cakes on the sideboard, drinks by the fire, and a gong to summon guests to dinner, Henry and Lucy Hodgson’s Victorian mansion in parkland on Lough Corrib has the atmosphere of a much-loved home.
Coopershill
Riverstown
A mile-long avenue leads across the River Unshin to Simon and Christina O’Hara’s Georgian country house in 500 acres, with a deer park, venerable oaks and exhibitionist peacocks.
Hilton Park
Clones
Built in 1734, burnt down in 1803, rebuilt over 15 years and remodelled in the 1870s in the style of an Italian palazzo, the ancestral home of the Maddens is the perfect place for an escapist Irish country house weekend.
The Mustard Seed at Echo Lodge
Ballingarry
Everything is peachy at this apricot-washed Victorian mansion, now a lavishly furnished hotel and fine-dining restaurant, in landscaped grounds with orchard and working kitchen garden.
Castle Leslie Estate
Glaslough
‘This is such a unique and interesting place,’ writes a reader, of the Leslie clan’s 19th-century mansion on a vast estate with gardens, lakes and woodland. ‘I felt like I was in a fairy tale.’
Lorum Old Rectory
Bagenalstown
A stay at Lorum is like being invited as a family friend to enjoy the antique-filled country house, candlelit dinners and mountain views.
Stella Maris
Ballycastle
You can drift off to sleep to the sound of the waves and wake to the view over Bunatrahir Bay at this Victorian coastguard's fortress turned one-of-a-kind hotel.
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