Best hotels with fishing in Ireland

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

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'.

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.

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.

‘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.’

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 stay at Lorum is like being invited as a family friend to enjoy the antique-filled country house, candlelit dinners and mountain views.

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.

Creeper-covered on the outside, and filled with quiet, old-world charm on the inside, this B&B is owned and run by Regina Gibson and Thomas Coyle, who have restored the former rectory with period flair.

Its facade an eye-catching blue, Paddy and Julia Foyle’s jauntily refurbished B&B is above the harbour, a few minutes’ walk from the centre of the small market town.

‘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.

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.

With cakes on the sideboard, drinks by the fire, and a gong to summon guests to dinner, Henry and Lucy Hodgson’s Victorian mansion in parkland on Lough Corrib has the atmosphere of a much-loved home.

A mile-long avenue leads across the River Unshin to Simon and Christina O’Hara’s Georgian country house in 500 acres, with a deer park, venerable oaks and exhibitionist peacocks.

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.

You can drift off to sleep to the sound of the waves and wake to the view over Bunatrahir Bay at this Victorian coastguard's fortress turned one-of-a-kind hotel.

Remote and remarkable, Ruairí and Marie-Thérèse de Blacam’s sustainably run restaurant-with-suites blends in to the rugged landscape of its Aran island setting.