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.

A short stroll from the world’s oldest distillery, this amiable 17th-century coaching inn on the Causeway Coastal Route is an eclectic jumble of ancient and modern.

A shrine to Seamus Heaney, behind the bright red door of Eugene and Gerardine Kielt’s elegant villa, B&B guests will find an intriguing collection of books and memorabilia. Eugene Kielt, a Blue Badge guide, gives award-winning tours of the area, and reveals the landscapes and community that inspired the late Nobel prize-winning poet and playwright. Gerardine’s breakfasts (fresh fruit salad, a full Ulster, gourmet scones) are served in the wood-panelled dining room, beneath Heaney poems on scrolls.