Castle Leslie Estate

The claim that Clan Leslie ‘can trace its ancestry back to Attila the Hun’ might give you pause, but fear not: the warmest Irish welcome awaits at this baronial-style Victorian pile on a 1,000-acre estate with three lakes and an equestrian centre. The architect was pre-Raphaelite painter Sir John Leslie – his elder brother, Charles, having planned an Irish Château de Chambord before choking to death on a fish bone – and is filled with heirlooms gathered on a Grand Tour. Heritage bedrooms all come with a colourful story. One has the first plumbed bath in Ireland, another a bathroom in an oversized doll’s house, while not one but two were ‘used by John Betjeman whenever he stayed’. The furnishings are as lavish as the accompanying tales.  You can relax in vast drawing rooms, one with a grand piano and Della Robbia fireplace, enjoy country cooking and the craic in Conor’s bar, or such refined dishes as quenelle crab, crispy Morteau sausage and oyster leaves in Snaffles restaurant.