‘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. Built in 1885 by the parish priest – and for a long time home to the Mercy order of nuns – it stands in lovely grounds ‘full of colour’, with orchard and kitchen garden. In 2016 it passed seamlessly into the ownership of long-serving manager Mr Joyce, and everything is as it ever was. Bedrooms are traditional, furnished with antiques (perhaps a four-poster), and have luxury toiletries, mineral water, tea and coffee facilities on request (‘but we’d rather make it for you,’ they say). A deluxe suite opens on to the garden (ideal for dog owners). On arrival, ‘a great, friendly welcome, tea and home-baked biscuits’. In the evening, chef Angel Pirev’s four-course menus include such dishes as Ballinwillinn farm beef loin, fillet, kale, parsley root, apple wedge, jus. ‘Meal delightful, service a little stiff at first but readily became relaxed,’ a reader writes. In the morning, in the sunny breakfast room, there is soda bread, eggs from the hotel’s hens, ‘lovely cooked items’. (John Hood, HS)