‘A quintessential country house hotel.’ The Quinion family’s creeper-covered manor house in mature grounds ‘combines the familiar features and decor of an earlier age with exceptional service’, writes a Guide reader, a frequent guest, in 2017.

‘There is much to like and laugh about’ at this utterly transformed Grade I listed Elizabethan manor house, in a ‘glorious setting’ in the Otter valley.

Richard and Brian Prideaux-Brune, with Richard’s wife, Alison, run their Jacobean ancestral home as a characterful – some say eccentric – hotel where guests are ‘cosseted and cared for’ by ‘charming staff’.

‘The setting, ambience and gardens are possibly the most attractive of any hotel we’ve stayed in, anywhere,’ writes a Guide reader this year of the Turner family’s country hotel, in a 16th-century priory on the River Frome.

‘Timeless standards of comfort’ keep guests coming back to this Italianate mansion ‘in a wonderful position’ on the River Usk.

Approached via quiet lanes bordered by hedgerows and dark-limbed trees, Jean-Pierre Mifsud’s Victorian hunting lodge-turned-country house hotel stands in extensive grounds stretching to a lake on the River Irfon.

History hangs about Roderick and Helena Perceval’s Georgian mansion, approached via a drive through sheep-grazed parkland.

‘The wonderful views of Lough Corrib, combined with warm, easy-going hospitality, make this a place in which we could stay for ages.’

Peace and quiet surround the O’Hara family’s Georgian mansion, which stands in great expanses of woodland and pasture for sheep and red deer.

‘Excellent all round.’ It is more than 50 years since farmer’s wife Myrtle Allen launched the modest restaurant that would burgeon into hotel, shop, café, cookery school and event space.

Up the tree- and hedgerow-lined road from the National Arboretum, this Cotswold-stone country hotel stands in gardens and woodland.

The peacocks in the ‘fantastic grounds’ are but a hint of the exotic style of local restaurateur James Thomson’s characterful hotel next to Royal Holyrood Park.

The Pear Tree at Purton closed down on January 2nd, 2018. It has had an entry in the Guide for many years. Anne Young, the owner, who has retired after more than 30 years helping customers, says: 'making happy memories for guests has been a pleasure.'

Countryside chic fills this 17th-century farmhouse on a ridge above vast fields beyond the Cotswold village.

Approached up a long drive, this ‘beautifully maintained’ 18th-century country house stands in extensive grounds – ‘a delight tn the eye’.

Stone House closed down at the end of January 2018.

There are open fires here, and views of Skiddaw; the traditional chintz and prints are ‘part of the charm’, says a devotee in 2017.

‘Positively flourishing’, the Leslie family’s sprawling estate has remained in the hands of its founding family for nearly three and a half centuries.

The day is one long round of pleasure at this ‘luxurious but unstuffy’ Edwardian country house beneath the South Downs, where classic lawn sports and garden games make jolly the ‘gorgeous, well-maintained’ grounds.

There are whisky and castle trails to strike out on, but begin, perhaps, with a stroll around the Matheson family’s ‘lovely’ mansion – ‘the grounds are wonderful,’ say Guide inspectors in 2017.

Romance is in the air, along with the birdsong of robins, nuthatches and chaffinches, at this golden-hued manor house in a pretty Cotswold village.

Olga Polizzi’s countryside retreat, at its origin a Regency fishing lodge created for the Duchess of Bedford, is today an ‘unpretentious, wholly enjoyable’ hotel ‘decorated with charm and taste’.

Come in to ‘a lovely, warm atmosphere and a good mood’ at Brendan McDonagh’s town-centre B&B, in a pretty cul-de-sac behind the High Street.

In a swaddle of green grounds unravelling towards the River Lagan, John and Louise Mathers are the ‘personable, totally customer-centred’ hosts of this ‘remarkable’ guest house.