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This elegant hotel in traditional style is five minutes by car from the centre. It pampers its, often high-profile, guests from the minute they walk through the door. Standard rooms provide bathrobes and slippers, while executive rooms have stunning four-poster beds.

If you want a treat in the heart of the city, head for this boutique hotel, once home to the Earl of Shel-bourne. The brasserie is also celebrated.

As with most of Dublin’s townhouse hotels, Browns has perfectly preserved the Georgian setting, while adding modern facilities, including TVs and writing desks. The result is a blend of comfort and convenience.

Once you check into this old coaching inn and mill house, you may find it difficult to leave. Not only will the open peat fires, pitched pine and gas lights make you want to stay, the Bushmills distillery – the oldest in Northern Ireland – in the village may make you forget how to get home. Golfing and fishing available nearby.

Perhaps the most luxurious stay in Kilkenny. This Georgian townhouse overlooks the river and Kilkenny Castle. Rooms are spacious, and sweeping staircases lead down to the well-maintained gardens.

Each of the 20 rooms here has an individual decor, yet the feel of the place is like a friendly country house, with sofas around the lounge’s fireplace.

An oasis of calm in the wilderness of the Atlantic coast, this hotel rests elegantly amid beautiful gardens. Rooms look onto the gardens or the sea. Antiques and period paintings abound, as do open turf fires. Private beach. Walks, cycling, horse-riding and fishing are available.

This modern inn attracts locals as well as visitors to its café/wine bar, one of the best in Armagh. Armagh’s two cathedrals are nearby.

A wonderful futuristic-style hotel in the renovated Smithfield area. It is named after a 19th-century Irish-born Chicago Chief of Police, Francis O’Neill. Panoramic views of Dublin can be seen from the Smithfield Chimney in front of the hotel.