A stone farmhouse abutting a 15th-century castle, at the heart of a working dairy farm, is run as a guest house by Jack and Kathleen Mernagh. It is very much a family enterprise, and this year marks a centenary: Jack’s father bought the property in 1920, and today the Mernaghs’ son Paul is manager, while Paul’s wife, Patrycja, cooks. Readers write of ‘a beautiful place’, of ‘great hosts’, a warm welcome from Kathleen, with tea and home-baked biscuits. The house is filled with antique furniture, cosy sofas, china and ornaments. The ‘beautifully decorated’ bedrooms are traditionally styled, supplied with magazines, electric blankets, spring water from the artesian well. From June until the end of August, Patrycja cooks a three-course evening meal with meat from the farm, and home-grown salads. A ‘lovely breakfast menu’ includes home-made soda bread and yogurt, farm free-range eggs, bacon and sausages, perhaps Duncannon smoked salmon, pancakes with maple syrup. Guests may explore the castle, admire the view from the top of the tower, walk through an old beech grove, visit a holy well in the grounds. There is a pitch-and-putt course, a tennis court and a croquet lawn.