A ‘little jewel’ in a secluded setting, this small baronial mansion crowns sweeping manicured lawns within acres of woodland.

Much praise this year for Stephen and Lisa Davies’s ‘good-value’, ‘highly recommended’ Victorian guest house in the Tweed valley – ‘a little patch of undiscovered Scotland’.

‘A place in the ascendant,’ say our inspectors of Sylvia and John Matthews’s Edwardian mansion overlooking the Tweed valley.

In a small town well placed for tours of the Ring of Kerry, and the Wild Atlantic Way, Una and Dermot Brennan’s hotel is family-run, with a lot of heart and luxury boutique aspirations.

On a small private island in the south Adriatic, off the coast of the island of Hvar, this ‘splendid’ complex (‘my favourite place for a weekend break’, says a fan) is owned and run by Dagmar Meneghello, journalist and arts patron, with her three adult children, Djenko, Romina and Tarin.

A short detour off the scenic Southern Upland Way reveals a ‘pleasant town’ where Robert and Mhairi Ash’s ‘lovely Victorian house’ overlooks the surrounding hills.