A ruined Knights Templar castle sits beside a mile-long lake in the grounds belonging to Roderick and Helena Perceval's impressive classical mansion.

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.

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'.

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).

You don’t have to be a fly-fisher to check in at Kieran Thompson’s creeper-swathed, late Georgian mansion with views over the Newport River estuary and Clew Bay, but if you are into the sport, this is indeed the place to stay.

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.

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.

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.

With its harbour views, eclectic furnishings, bedrooms full of home comforts and hosts who exude warmth and joviality, Quay House is a Connemara institution.

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.

A 15th-century fortified tower complete with massive walls and murder holes abuts this handsome B&B in the heart of a working farm.

In shades of heather and bracken, Slieve Foy rises behind the Carroll family’s listed Georgian house.

Within walking distance of Dublin’s many attractions, this 19th-century schoolhouse by the Grand Canal is today a hotel with a restaurant and a ‘very jolly’ bar.

Overlooking Ballinakill Bay, and tucked among private woodland, this fine-looking, family-run hotel offers rooms and service as serene as its surroundings.

Put together a Georgian mansion, rambling grounds, creative cooking served by serenading chefs, and big-hearted hosts, and you understand Roundwood’s allure.

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.

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.

‘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.’

‘Rayanne House isn’t your typical bed and breakfast accommodation,’ say Conor and Bernie McClelland of their Victorian merchant’s house overlooking Belfast lough.

‘A special place.’ Said to be Ireland’s oldest coaching inn, this rambling, ‘extremely comfy’ hotel stands in ‘lovely’ grounds by the River Vartry.

The extensive gardens of this Irish sandstone-built manor house on the wooded shores of Lough Caragh are ripe for discovery: hidden pathways open on to the water, and the mountains beyond.

In a conservation area just south of the centre, Mary Callan’s guest house is a welcoming home away from home.

‘Divine’ views stretch down rolling meadows to a spring-fed lough from this ‘impressive’ Georgian house, which has been home to Verity Butterfield’s family for four generations.