Coopershill

In a vast swathe of woodland and deer pastures, the ‘easy grandeur and graciousness’ of the O’Hara family’s Georgian mansion is unmistakable. ‘Helpful, welcoming’ hosts Simon and Christina O’Hara are the seventh generation of the family to occupy the stately home. ‘We like guests to feel they’re visiting old friends who happen to have a country house,’ they say, and guests reciprocate: ‘conversations flow easily’ between visitors. Log fires burn in the drawing room and dining room; original paintings and antiques abound. The traditionally furnished bedrooms bask in period elegance – two Georgian four-poster beds in the original master bedroom; a Victorian roll-top tub in the Yellow Room bathroom. Eat well in the dining room, where ‘O’Hara ancestors look down from their portraits’. Christina O’Hara (regular guests will remember her as Chef McCauley) cooks home-grown feasts, perhaps including Coopershill venison medallions, juniper sauce. Breakfast has much choice: home-made bread and jams; a full Irish in any combination. Stroll about the estate, afterwards, crossing meadowland and river. (CG)