A half-mile avenue meanders through parkland to Roderick and Helena Perceval’s classical mansion overlooking the ivy-clad ruins of a Knights Templar castle on a lake.

It’s ‘something of a mystery tour’ getting to this ‘fine-looking’ pale-pink Georgian house, ‘but utterly worth it’, says a Guide inspector.

Approached through 40 acres of manicured grounds embracing woodland, lake and lawns, the Bowe family’s ‘ambitious, guest-centred hotel’ occupies an ‘imposing Regency house with sympathetic modern addition’.

You need no licence to fish in Lough Corrib at Henry Hodgson’s Victorian sporting lodge from mid-February through to September. The lough is renowned for its wild brown trout – and for the mayfly they gorge on (enterprising local schoolchildren can sell you a box of them).

It is not revealed if the Prince of Wales indulged his love of fly fishing when he stayed at this Georgian country house with the Duchess of Cornwall in July 2018. Had he done so, he would have been in his element, with more than ten miles of salmon and trout fishing on the Blackwater, one of Europe’s most important salmon rivers.

It’s a glorious drive through rolling countryside to Anne and Warwick O’Hara’s manor house, where guests are welcomed with tea and ‘a delicious variety’ of home-made cakes.

In a small harbour town between the foothills of the Twelve Bens and the Owenglin river where it meets the Atlantic, Julia and Paddy Foyle run their B&B with ‘generosity of spirit’.

A ‘splendidly labyrinthine’ Victorian pile overlooking a lake, this castle in name only is Ireland’s brilliant riposte to the corporate blandness of many modern hotels.

In ‘beautifully maintained’ grounds, from orchards to a Japanese garden, Beryl and James Kearney’s early 17th-century mansion is ‘memorable for all the right reasons’, reports a Guide stalwart in 2019.

Bobbie Smith is the welcoming heart and soul of this B&B in a former 19th-century rectory, which she runs with her daughter. It’s a ‘hidden gem’, say readers, with ‘tasteful and fine decor and furniture’, ‘exemplary comfort and service’.

Small wonder visitors linger at this inviting, creeper-covered Georgian mansion on the Clew Bay shoreline.

In a magical place on the shores of Lake Caragh, a serene hotel in a Victorian-style manor. Its name translates as ‘Hill of the Fairies’, a tree-covered knoll nearby.

Restored with flair, Regina Gibson and Thomas Coyle’s ivy-hung former rectory is a warm and welcoming outpost on the Wild Atlantic Way.

Painted an unmissably bright blue, Paddy and Julia Foyle’s good-value B&B in a 200-year-old building above the harbour is minutes from the town centre.

Off the beaten track, 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.

Much loved by a loyal following, this ‘very special’, creeper-clad pink Georgian country house is a beacon of hospitality in wild Connemara.

A library in the stables, dedicated to the history of the evolution of civilisation, is a unique selling point, but there is much more to enjoy at Paddy and Hannah Flynn’s Georgian mansion in parkland beneath the Slieve Bloom mountains.

Approached through rolling deer-nibbled pastureland, ‘gracious’, welcoming Simon and Christina O’Hara provide an ‘immensely enjoyable’ slice of Irish country house living at their Georgian pile in Yeats country.

Reached by a mile-long drive, Fred and Joanna Madden’s grand Italianate country house stands in ‘an estate of great beauty’, with working farm, golf, lakes for fishing and wild swimming.

‘We were charmed by the hotel and its attentive staff.’ Guide regulars declared John Edward Joyce’s country house hotel ‘in a class of its own’ in 2019, with praise for the man himself: ‘Mr Joyce has a gift for hospitality.’

In a ‘dramatically beautiful’ setting overlooking Bunatrahir Bay on the Wild Atlantic Way, Frances Kelly-McSweeney’s hotel was built for its stellar sea views.

In a pretty town between the wild and wonderful Ring of Beara and the spectacular Ring of Kerry, this ‘attractively priced’ hotel exudes ‘a genuine sense of hospitality’, thanks to the ‘warm, helpful, friendly’ staff – and to hosts Una and Dermot Brennan.

Minutes from Connemara national park, Lucy Fretwell’s ‘fabulously located’, creeper-clad Georgian guest house has mountain views, ‘excellent food’ and a homely, lived-in feel.

Far from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, this rambling property next to the River Varty claims to be Ireland’s oldest coaching inn.