Sheep crop the grasses in the parkland around Roderick and Helena Perceval’s classical Georgian mansion overlooking a lake and a ruined 13th-century castle – a working private estate rather than romantic Grand Tour fantasy.

‘As the owners claim, this is neither B&B nor hotel, but a family home that welcomes guests,’ writes a Guide insider, of this ‘classic Georgian manor house, deep in the countryside’ beneath Mount Nephin.

‘It doesn’t seem to change,’ says a reader who first stayed some 30 years ago at this pink-washed Georgian country house ‘in a glorious setting’, with gardens bordering Ballinakill Bay.

Infused with warmth, Paddy and Hannah Flynn’s Georgian mansion beneath the Slieve Bloom mountains may be a little lived in, but few hotels can touch it for character.

Reputedly Ireland’s longest running hotel under one family’s ownership: its ‘true country house’ atmosphere and easy access to rural pursuits draw back guests year after year.

A beautiful formal garden greets visitors to the O’Haras’ otherwise laid-back and informal Georgian mansion.

A mildly bohemian air filters through the Green family’s wisteria-hung Georgian country house hotel, bordered by bluebell woods.

‘In rolling countryside with views of mountains and hills’ Anne and Warwick O’Hara run their 18th-century mansion–turned–guest house with a commitment and enthusiasm that delighted our inspectors.

Built by a Spanish merchant in 1750 and, as you would guess, once home to the parish priest, this smart town-centre B&B has been run for more than 20 years by ‘likeable’ hosts Philip and Noreen McEvoy.

‘It is impossible not to like Julia and Paddy Foyle,’ the ‘delightful hosts’ of this ‘sybaritic’ harbourside B&B on the fringes of the Wild Atlantic Way.

‘Tranquil air of relaxed calm’, ‘Good for the soul’, ‘An oasis of peace’. We hear perennial praise for John Edward Joyce’s country house hotel.

Scottish Baronial meets Italian Renaissance in Samantha Leslie’s Victorian pile on one of the last great Irish castle estates still owned by the founding family.

A long drive through parkland brings guests to this Georgian mansion beside the golf course on the edge of town, where Beryl and James Kearney are the ‘warm and friendly’ hosts.

Afternoon tea is taken by a turf fire in the drawing room of this ‘beautiful’ 19th-century granite rectory at the foot of the Blackstairs mountains.

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.

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.

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

While it has a brand-new seaweed bath house, treatment rooms, sauna and hot tub, this traditional hotel, at the head of Bantry Bay, preserves the aura of a bygone age.

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

With a claim to being Ireland's oldest coaching inn, this rambling property next to the River Varty has been owned by the same family for almost 200 years.

There are diversions aplenty at this much-refurbished 17th-century former fishing lodge on a tranquil estate overlooking Kenmare bay and the Sheen waterfalls.

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

Emerging from the landscape, Ruairí and Marie-Thérèse de Blacam’s sustainably run stone-and-glass restaurant-with-suites is a design-led sanctum in a remote Gaelic stronghold.