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.

On the Wild Atlantic Way, with views across the ‘dramatic’ Burren Hills to Galway Bay, ‘delightful’ Gregans Castle is ‘the epitome of understated country-house hotel luxury,’ writes a Guide regular this year.

‘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.

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

‘Remains a flagship in its idiom,’ writes a trusted reader, of this legendary enterprise, centred on a wisteria-draped Georgian house grafted on to the remains of a Norman castle.

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 19th-century mansion–turned–guest house with a commitment and enthusiasm that delighted our inspectors.

‘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.

A Georgian house in extensive grounds near the Lagan river, John and Louise Mathers’s ‘first-rate’ guest house is an ‘outstanding’ place to stay.

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.

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.

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

A tree’s length from medieval Carlingford, this pretty Georgian house sits in mature walled gardens.

‘A real discovery.’ Overlooking a harbour brimming with fishing boats and big ships, this hotel has a ‘first-rate setting’ on the Beara peninsula.

It is easy to see why this 18th-century Italianate country house is known locally as The Castle.

Guests can ‘watch the dolphins frolicking in the bay’ from the conservatory of Frances Kelly-McSweeney’s hotel in a ‘dramatically beautiful’ setting overlooking Bunatrahir Bay on the Wild Atlantic Way.

On the edge of Ballinskellig’s bay, the Huggard sisters’ friendly, ‘well-run’, Victorian hotel enjoys outstanding ocean views.

A traditional hotel run with old-fashioned care between Lough Eske and the foothills of the Blue Stack mountains.