Roundwood House

Roundwood House is an eighteenth-century Georgian home set in around 18 acres of woodland and meadow at the foot of the Slieve Bloom Mountains, near Mountrath in County Laois. The main house holds six bedrooms, a mix of doubles, a twin and two triples, each finished with period furniture and heritage paint colours rather than a matched hotel look. The Yellow House adds four further bedrooms for family groups already booked into the main house. Two cottages, the Forge and the Writer's Cottage, sit apart in the woodland with their own wood-burning stoves and kitchens. Guests are welcome from 2pm, and a fire is already lit in the Drawing Room by the time bags come in, with tea and biscuits to follow. Frank's Library holds more than 2,000 books, gathered over decades and open for browsing at any hour. Dinner is a four-course set menu, cooked by Paddy and built around local produce, usually taken together at one table. You can hear him play a tune afterwards, if persuaded. Outside, a level perimeter walk crosses meadow and old farm track past a flax mill, and the Slieve Bloom Mountains offer walking and cycling routes within a short drive. The house has been run by one family since 1983 and is now looked after by Hannah and Paddy Flynn.