WE arrive at the Ice House in Co Mayo to a welcome so warm it belies the name, and not one, but two glasses of bubbly. This, actually, is an oversight — the better half had ordered tea (of which a selection is brought) — but it’s my kind of oversight. I happily compare and contrast the white and rosé as we sit in one of the signature river-facing rooms: A great glass extension to the old Victorian house which forms a core around which the hotel’s spa and guest rooms have been added in such a way as they all face the river. The original building is built over three cellars, which give the place its name.

Two restaurants in the North were ordered to close tonight by health officials inspecting gas appliances around the area where two teenage friends died from carbon monoxide poisoning.