The anticipation builds as you follow a half-mile drive through sheep-grazed pastures to Roderick and Helena Perceval’s 18th-century classical mansion, remodelled in 1864.

This ‘epitome of Irish country house hospitality’ overlooks Galway Bay, in the dramatic Burren landscape, said to have been the inspiration for Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

‘More comfortable home than guest house’, this classic Georgian house stands in deep countryside at the foot of Nephin mountain.

‘It was like going back into the past and being treated like guests in a private home’ for a reader this year after a stay at Kieran Thompson’s Georgian mansion overlooking the estuary and quay on Clew Bay.

Fifty-seven years after Myrtle Allen opened a restaurant in her home on her husband’s farm, her values are still articles of faith at this legendary country house hotel.

A house-party atmosphere prevails at Jenny and Justin Green’s Italianate mansion set amid romantic gardens and parkland.

Home to the O’Hara family since 1858, this Irish country manor house with its gardens and wooded grounds lies just outside the village, in a landscape of rolling hills and ancient forests.

There’s personality aplenty at this family-run B&B ‘stuffed with antiques and curios’ in a former Georgian harbourmaster’s house and three of its neighbours, overlooking Owenglin estuary.

The claim that Clan Leslie ‘can trace its ancestry back to Attila the Hun’ might give you pause, but fear not: the warmest Irish welcome awaits at this baronial-style Victorian pile on a 1,000-acre estate with three lakes and an equestrian centre.

This elegant 17th-century country house set among orchards and beautifully designed gardens ‘ticks every box’ for readers.

If murder holes in a 15th-century fortified tower hint at a want of hospitality, the welcome in the adjacent stone farmhouse could not be warmer.

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

A tree’s length from the medieval town, the Carroll family’s listed Georgian house sits within castellated walled gardens, with views of the mountains that surround.

Across the River Nore from the medieval town, Phil and Rhoda Nolan’s friendly B&B is well located for visiting Kilkenny’s castle and cathedral.

In Ballsbridge, a tree-lined residential district within walking distance of the centre, this 19th-century schoolhouse by the Grand Canal is today a hotel with a restaurant and a ‘very jolly’ bar.

Four generations of Verity Butterfield’s family have lived in this ‘impressive’ Georgian house, with ‘divine’ views down rolling meadow to a spring-fed lough.

In an elevated position, this large, modern hotel perches above tiered gardens, taking in an impressive panorama over the city and harbour.

Built for the Earls of Courtown, this Regency-style, 19th-century dower house has been run as an ‘absolutely lovely’ hotel by the Bowe family for more than 40 years.

‘We returned after five years, and everything lived up to our recollection,’ says one trusted reviewer of this salmon-pink Georgian manor house overlooking Ballinakill Bay in wild Connemara.

There’s plenty of personality alongside the period furniture at this 18th-century Irish country house in parkland at the foot of the Slieve Bloom mountains: a library in the double-height stables is dedicated to the history of the evolution of civilisation, and dinner is served with a serenade from the ‘singing chef’.

You get Irish country house living at its best at Simon and Christina O’Hara’s Georgian ancestral home, where fallow deer roam the 500-acre estate, with its woodland walks and a river for fishing.

The ancestral domain of the Madden family for almost three centuries, this grand Italianate mansion stands in pleasure grounds on an accredited wildlife estate.

This ‘splendid’ heritage hideaway in Ballingarry, where staff ‘fall over each other to be helpful’, is popular with Guide readers.

What appears on approach to be a white-painted bungalow with a belvedere turns out to be a Georgian country house hotel on a hillside overlooking Lahinch Bay.

In ‘lovely’ grounds by the River Vartry, this rambling, ‘extremely comfy’ property enveloped in olde-worlde charm is a ‘special’ place, says a Guide reader this year.

Within easy reach of the centre, Jennie McKeown’s ‘warmly welcoming’ guest house occupies three connected Victorian town houses in the Ballsbridge neighbourhood.

In the embrace of mountains, this Victorian fishing lodge stands in ‘a spectacular position’ before a panorama of Lough Inagh.

A gracious hostess in an elegant Victorian house, Pam Mulhaire welcomes B&B guests with hot drinks and home-baked scones.

‘A genuine sense of hospitality’ – and an interesting collection of local art – fill Una and Dermot Brennan’s ‘attractively priced’ hotel, in a pretty town between the Ring of Beara and the Ring of Kerry.

Within their working farm, Theresa and Albert Morrow’s rustic B&B yields a genuine welcome.

On the waterfront of the working fishing village, this brightly painted Irish tavern and family-run guest house is full of all the nooks, crannies and maritime memorabilia a guest hopes to find.