Clare: The award goes to...

Gregan’s Castle Hotel, Ballyvaughan, Co Clare, Tel: [phone], gregans.ie

THE Burren is one of the most beautiful, possessing places in Ireland. Even in this summerthat-never-was it shone, glowing stony whites and greys in that luminescent Atlantic light after the rain had passed over.

In so many nooks and folds — fairy glens if ever there were some — it is so beautiful that it is hard to believe it has not got an internal life; hard not to imagine that it looks upon our visits as a fleeting imposition to be endured until winter drives most of us clomping, panting tourists away.