Ballyvolane House

With breakfast served until noon, afternoon tea by the drawing-room fire, shooting, fishing and communal dining, this Georgian country house has a house-party atmosphere. Approached along a winding, tree-lined drive, and sitting in parkland, it is the home of third-generation owners and experienced hoteliers Justin and Jenny Green. The interiors are filled with the accumulated treasures of seven decades: quirky antiques, clocks, books, ornaments, paintings. The bedrooms, decorated in fashionable shades, have a coffee machine, home-made cordials, Voya toiletries, and homemade chocolate biscuits. One has a vintage, mahogany-encased bath. Produce from the kitchen garden, farm, river and foraged from the estate appears at night in four-course set menus that might feature potted smoke mackerel with celeriac and fennel remoulade, and glazed loin of bacon. Be sure to try the house drink – Bertha's Revenge Gin. In the morning you awake to a full Irish with home-baked bread and homemade jam. Children love to collect eggs from the hens. You can take a picnic lunch and explore the grounds. Happy glampers follow the laburnum walk to their bell tent or ‘pig ark’.