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.

‘Country house luxury’ abounds in this Georgian mansion, run by owners Simon Haden and Frederieke McMurray as a luxury hotel.

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 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.

‘Utter comfort – a fire lit after breakfast in the drawing room, drinks from the bar when needed.’ An endorsement from a regular visitor, following another stay at this family-run hotel.

With a seven-a-side soccer pitch, glamping tents, Bertha’s Revenge Gin distilled in a converted cattle shed, and breakfast served until noon, this is no run-of-the-mill hotel.

‘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.’

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’.

It was surely the ‘star quality’ recognised by Guide inspectors that saw John Mathers acknowledged in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for Service to Hospitality and Tourism.

'In a stunning location’ overlooking Lahinch Bay, Antoin O’Looney’s small hotel is upgraded from the Shortlist this year, on the urging of a reader who delighted in all that she found.

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

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’.

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.

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.

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.

On the shores of Lough Eske, a traditional hotel run with old-fashioned care by the Gysling family.

In ‘a spectacular position’, cradled by a mountain range, this Victorian fishing lodge is a remote and peaceful place.

Overlooking Killarney national park, peaceful repose greets travellers on the Wild Atlantic Way at the O’Donahue family’s large spa hotel encircled by a spectacular mountainscape.

'Meticulously' renovated and richly furnished, Michael McMahon and John Bentley-Dunn’s house in the Boyne valley ‘exudes class, from bedroom to table’.

'A real discovery.’ In a ‘first-rate setting’ on the Beara peninsula, this good-value hotel on the water’s edge overlooks a harbour brimming with fishing boats and big ships.