‘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. When farmer’s wife Myrtle Allen, who sadly died in June 2018, opened a restaurant here in 1964, it was with all the values of localism, freshness and seasonality we espouse today. Since then Ballymaloe has acquired a shop, café, cookery school and heated swimming pool, but traditions prevail. ‘The welcome was warm, hospitality first class.’ Afternoon tea is served by the drawing room’s crackling fire. Bedrooms are supplied daily with fresh-cut flowers (sweet peas, old roses), and offer ‘utter comfort’. Some are on the ground floor, with courtyard access. In the restaurant, chefs Dervilla O’Flynn (Myrtle Allen’s granddaughter-in-law) and Jason Fahey work with seasonal ingredients from the walled garden and home farm, to create his ‘superb’, daily-changing menus. Sample dishes: escalope of Ballycotton John Dory, garden herb relish, pak choi; roast East Cork beef with red wine sauce, salsa verde, horseradish cream and garden green onions. Overall, Ballymaloe is ‘excellent’, run by ‘kind people’. The breakfast is ‘everything you would wish’. (Richard Parish, and others)