Sheep crop the grasses in the parkland around Roderick and Helena Perceval’s classical Georgian mansion overlooking a lake and a ruined 13th-century castle – a working private estate rather than romantic Grand Tour fantasy. Guests follow a half-mile drive before entering a vestibule with ‘a stag’s head, a large fossil and shell collection gathered by an antecedent’. After a ‘warm handshake’ they are shown to their bedroom, ascending a grand staircase beneath ancestors in gilt frames. All rooms have park views, antiques, hunting prints and the like. Showers have ‘excellent water pressure’ (a selling point). Evening drinks are served in the morning room, where estate logs burn on cold days. Annual refurbishment keeps things quite smart, but there remains a ‘lived-in feel’ to public rooms. Diners sit down together at a mahogany table laid with silverware, and choose from a short, locally sourced seasonal menu, perhaps thick onion tart and greenhouse rocket; lemon chicken; braised Temple House lamb with rosemary jus. At breakfast, a buffet is set out on the sideboard (stewed rhubarb, fruit compote, home-made muesli, bread and marmalade), while the hosts cook a decent full Irish.