Killiane Castle Country House and Farm

If murder holes in a 15th-century fortified tower hint at a want of hospitality, the welcome in the adjacent stone farmhouse could not be warmer. Jack and Kathleen Mernagh are the owners of both buildings, bought by Jack’s father in 1920, and the house is very much a family home. Son Paul manages the hotel side, while his wife, Patrycja, charms guests front-of-house and runs the kitchen. The property sits at the heart of a dairy farm, in gardens with a tennis court, croquet lawn, golf pitch-and-putt course and driving range. A reader, greeted with tea and home-baked biscuits, found a fire burning merrily in the elegant lounge. Bedrooms, supplied with spring water from an artesian well, have bucolic views of grazing cattle. In summer, Patrycja will cook dinner, including soup, a salad of home-grown produce, and maybe a choice of slow-cooked beef or locally landed fish. At breakfast there is a ‘fabulous’ buffet, eggs from the farm, Duncannon smoked salmon, home-baked soda bread, and honey from the hives. ‘A gem,’ say fans. ‘A beautiful place with great hosts’ and handy for 
the Rosslare ferry.