Ballyfin: Ireland's historic luxury hotel and its village beyond Arriving after a 90-minute drive from Dublin, we drew up at an impressive entrance, with handsome lodge, and then, two miles farther on, we found an even grander gateway, opening onto 600 acres of private park and woodland. And there, at the end of a mile-long drive, overlooking a 28-acre ornamental lake, was the great neoclassical façade of Ballyfin, complete with sphinxes and huge portico. Ballyfin is considered one of the finest houses in Ireland, and in its restored state it is quite simply astonishing. The entrance hall contains an ornate mosaic floor brought back from the Grand Tour. The saloon and library are dominated by towering scagliola columns. The Gold Room takes its name from the gilded plaster ceiling and silk-covered walls. The rotunda has an inlaid wooden floor inspired by the Alhambra Palace. The furniture and paintings are worthy of a museum. Except for the slimline telephones and fully functioning plumbing, you could be enjoying life as it was lived here 200 years ago. Wandering through the grounds, you come across walled gardens, grottoes and a six-storey stone tower. With an estate like this, there is little incentive to explore beyond the gates - but to do so is to find delightful countryside and other great houses which make fascinating points of comparison. On a morning of mist giving way to bright sunshine, we followed a narrow, winding road over the gently rising Slieve Bloom Mountains which divide County Laois (pronounced "leash") from Offaly. From the top, at 1,500 feet, you can (on an unmisty day) see all four provinces of Ireland. Covered with forest and moorland, this is prime walking country: the Slieve Bloom Way, a 50-mile loop, starting from Glenbarrow, takes in the best of it. Ballyfin's scenic country landscape in County Laois, Ireland; photo: Alamy At Kinnitty we stopped to visit a classic Anglo-Irish folly: a tomb in the Church of Ireland graveyard designed as a 30ft scale model of the Great Pyramid of Cheops. For ambition, however, it does not compare with the observatory at Birr Castle, 10 miles away, built by the third Earl of Rosse in 1845. His 12-ton "Leviathan" was the most powerful telescope in the world for 70 years; today you can see a full-scale replica in the beautiful castle gardens, with the Heath-Robinson machinery needed to manoeuvre it. Birr Castle once housed the world's most powerful telescope; photo: Alamy South of Birr lies a castle of a very different kind - Leap (pronounced "lep"), reputed to be the most haunted in Ireland. The stories told about it range from the three cartloads of human bones found in the oubliette to the ordeal of two young soldiers who spent a night here: one died of a heart attack, the other went stark, staring mad. It is now owned by Sean Ryan, a renowned tin-whistle player, and those brave enough to venture past the rusty gates and death's-head door knocker can visit it by appointment. It certainly feels spooky; so have the present inhabitants been troubled by the ghosts? "No," says Sean Ryan. But they let us know they're there. Remarkable in a less frightening way is Roscrea Castle, on the road back to Ballyfin. Dating from the 13th century, and unusually well preserved, it contains behind its drawbridge and working portcullis a large and elegant Queen Anne house. As you enter the gates, you feel as if you're playing architectural pass-the-parcel. There is plenty more to see within easy reach. Emo Court, to the east of Portlaoise, is another great Georgian house; the Heywood Gardens, to the south, were designed by Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll. Cashel with its famous rock and Kilkenny with its splendid castle are only an hour away. Personally, if I were paying €450-plus for a night at Ballyfin, I would stay put - especially as the price includes all your meals (and drinks, except wine at dinner). Most of its guests, I imagine, will be international jet-setters for whom such a sum is small change. But if I had something to celebrate and a sudden windfall, Ballyfin would be top of my list of places to go. Aer Lingus (0871 718 5000; aerlingus.com) offers a return flight from Heathrow to Dublin, 75 miles north-east of Ballyfin, from £60. Sixt (0844 248 6620; sixt.co.uk) has cars for hire from £35 per day. Trains from Dublin Heuston to Portlaoise (10 miles east of Ballyfin) run frequently at peak times, but only once every two hours in the middle of the day; the journey takes approximately an hour and return tickets cost from €28.50/£24 (irishrail.ie). The most desirable of the five rooms at Ballyfin is the Lady Caroline Coote Room, with its lake view, four-poster and beautiful trompe-l'oeil wallpaper designed to look like silk curtains. The most unusual is the Sir Charles Coote Room, which has a concealed entrance beneath the main staircase and a bath made out of a Roman sarcophagus. For a truly spectacular night, choose the Westmeath Room, which has a domed and gilded bed festooned with silk. The Little Library, which was once the nursery, lacks the grand high ceilings of the other bedrooms, but has a particularly splendid bathroom. Birr Castle - still the home of the Earl of Rosse - is not normally open to the public, but a visit to it (and lunch with the family) can be arranged through Ballyfin. Anyone can visit the grounds (00353 5791 20336; birrcastle.com); don't miss the small but fascinating Science Centre, with its collection of astronomical instruments and early photographs. Morrissey's in Abbeyleix (Main Street; 5787 31281) is a real taste of Ireland as it used to be - a pub which is also a grocery store. Guided walks through the Slieve Bloom Mountains (8627 89147; slievebloom.ie;) take place every Sunday; from €5/£4 per person. One of Ireland's most elusive tourist sites, Stradbally Steam Museum (5786 41878), is open for only three hours a week, from 2pm to 5pm on Sunday afternoons (plus bank-holiday Mondays). It contains everything from a home-made tractor to a fire engine. The Kilkenny Design Centre, in what used to be the stables of Kilkenny Castle (5677 22118), is famous for selling the best of everything Irish, from knitwear and jewellery to china and Waterford crystal. It has a good restaurant, and Ireland's National Craft Gallery is next door. Tourism Ireland has a website specially aimed at visitors coming from the UK at discoverireland.com. 'Ballyfin: The Restoration of an Irish House and Demesne' by Kevin V Mulligan is a fascinating and beautifully produced account of the hotel's history. Great Irish Houses by the Knight of Glin and Desmond Guinness and Classic Irish Houses of the Middle Size by Maurice Craig put it in context. Finally, Patricia Cockburn's autobiography Figure of Eight gives an entertaining and illuminating account of Irish country-house life at the beginning of the last century. Sandymount House ££ A newly restored 1830s house just outside Abbeyleix, offering b & b and combining marble fireplaces with flat-screen TVs. All the bedrooms have en-suite bathrooms and views of the garden; there is also caravan parking and a self-catering log cabin (5787 31063; abbeyleix.info; doubles from €80/£68). Roundwood House ££ A country house - or rather pair of houses - yet to be fully refurbished; but the threadbare carpets are part of the Anglo-Irish charm. Between Mountrath and the foot of the Slieve Blooms, the original house (dating from the 1680s) is now hidden behind a 1730s addition with a pretty Palladian façade. Inside, there are intriguing oddities such as a Chinese Chippendale staircase. The food is excellent, and the atmosphere is exceptionally friendly (32120; roundwoodhouse.com; doubles from €120/£102). Ballyfin ££££ See main article. Ballyfin, County Laois (00353 5791 55866; ballyfin.com; from €475/£383). Emma's Café and Deli £ The ideal place for a quick lunch in the centre of Birr before visiting the castle gardens. Busy, friendly, and with nothing more ambitious on offer than home-made soup and panini - but all of it delicious (31 Main Street; 5791 25678). Campagne ££ A fashionable restaurant owned by one of Ireland's most respected chefs, Garrett Byrne, and somewhat surprisingly situated beside the old railway arches in Kilkenny. The interior is bright and chic, with large, colourful paintings and curving leather banquettes; the menu is intricate and imaginative, ranging from duck sausage to roast shoulder of suckling pig (5 The Arches, Gashouse Lane; 5677 72858; campagne.ie). Stradbally during the weekend of Ireland's hippest music festival, the Electric Picnic, in August. Being seduced by signs for the Slieve Bloom Village Trail - it's not nearly as enticing as it sounds. Trying to refill your hire car at Dublin airport. The road layout makes the only petrol station almost impossible to get to.