Attached to a 15th-century fortified tower house, the Mernagh family's farmhouse B&B offers both history and comfort. Guests are welcomed to this lived-in and loved home with tea or coffee and home-baked biscuits.

Verity Butterfield clearly loves to welcome guests to her loch-side Georgian house, with blazing fires, comfy sofas, good artworks, excellent breakfasts, and dinner by arrangement.

Guests' happiness is paramount for host John Edward Joyce at his characterful, eclectically furnished country house with charming bedrooms and exquisite but unstuffy fine dining in the Mustard Seed restaurant.

Beneath Slieve Foy Mountain, stepping distance from the sea and within walled gardens, the Carroll family's Georgian house affords views at every turn.

On the Coastal Causeway Route, overlooking Ballygally Bay, this traditional hotel, occupying a much-extended 16th-century castle, is a welcoming, comfortable base from which to tour Game of Thrones countryside.

One of Ireland's oldest coaching inns, in lovely gardens on the River Vartry, and in the same families since 1825, this hotel attracts visitors from around the world with its chintz, old-world charms and honest Irish fare.

In a conservation village on the shores of Strangford Lough, this friendly family-run gastropub is a popular social hub, with locals bar, restaurant, attractive bedrooms and a menu strong on fish and seafood.

A private drive loops through native woodland and pastures to this classical mansion overlooking a ruined Knights Templar castle and teeming fishing lake in W B Yeats country.

Solitary Nephin, Ireland's highest stand-alone mountain, provides a dramatic backdrop to this classic, pink-washed Georgian country house in wooded grounds on Lough Conn.

There are no TVs or minibars at the Leslies' ancestral country house on an estate with lakes and woodlands, but interiors are a trove of Grand Tour treasures, every house bedroom comes with some extraordinary tale, and estate-to-plate dishes are served in the restaurant.

More Hogwarts than Dotheboys Hall, this Victorian Gothic schoolhouse is now a quirky hotel with classic and contemporary bedroom styling, a garden for playtime, a blackboard menu of cocktails, plus a bistro-style menu served in the spectacular Gastrobar or alfresco, beside the canal.

Set on a 300-acre working farm, this legendary country-house hotel began life in 1964 as a restaurant run by farmer's wife Myrtle Allen, using produce from the farm and walled kitchen garden, and has grown into a thriving business, with cookery school, café and arts venue ,while keeping faith with its founding principles.

In 30 acres of private gardens, this pink-washed Georgian manor house overlooking Ballinakill Bay has the warmth and ambience of a much-loved home, its traditional interiors filled with artworks, antiques and curios. An eclectic, daily-changing menu of locally sourced dishes is served in the dining room.

Travellers have been enjoying the traditional comforts of this coaching inn along the Causeway Coastal Route since the 17th century, and still feel revived by its robust food, bonhomie, blazing turf fires, cosy nooks, live music in the Gas Bar at weekends, and spacious bedrooms.