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Nuremore Hotel & Country Club

This fine owner-managed country hotel just south of Carrickmacross is set in a parkland estate, with its own 18-hole golf course, and serves the leisure and business requirements of a wide area very well. As you go over the little bridge ("Beware - ducks crossing") and the immaculately maintained hotel and golf club open up before you, worldly cares seem to recede - this is a place you can get fond of.

The hotel invariably gives a good impression on arrival and this sense of care and maintenance is continued throughout. Spacious, comfortably arranged public areas and generous bedrooms with views over the gardens and lakes are regularly refurbished and it would make an excellent base to explore this little known area - and there is plenty to do on site.

The superb country club has a full leisure centre and a wide range of related facilities - including a gymnasium and spa - and there are conference and meeting rooms for every size of gathering, with state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment available.

Conference/banqueting (600/400); business centre, secretarial services on request, video conferencing; broadband wi/fi. Leisure centre, swimming pool, spa; beauty salon; golf (18), fishing, walking, tennis, garden; snooker. Children welcome (cots available, €13; baby sitting arranged). No pets. Heli-pad.

Rooms 72 (7 junior suites, 11 executive, 5 family, 42 no smoking, 1 disabled). 24 hr room service. B&B €130 pps, ss €50. *Short breaks offered, including spa and golf breaks; details on application. Open all year.

Restaurant:

The restaurant is to be refurbished shortly after the Guide goes to press but it will retain its pleasant layout, with a couple of steps dividing the window area and inner tables, allowing everybody to enjoy the view over golf course and woodland.

This is the leading restaurant in the area, and the head chef, Raymond McArdle, has earned a national reputation for the hotel, which is now on the must-visit destination list for discerning travellers in Ireland. Proprietress Julie Gilhooly has lent every possible support to this talented protegé since his arrival here in 2000, and his spacious, state-of-the art kitchen is the envy of chefs throughout the country.

Raymond sources ingredients meticulously, using local produce as much as possible in top rank daily set lunch and dinner menus, a separate vegetarian menu, a 'grown-up' children's menu, and an evening á la carte. Everything, it seems, is similarly impressive and difficult choices must be made on every course.

This is exceptional cooking and, under the supervision of restaurant manager Frank Trutet, service is in line with the high standard of food.

And there's many a treat in store on the extensive and well-organised wine list, which includes a good house wine selection and a further Sommelier Recommendation in the €30 bracket, an unusually wide choice of dessert wines and half bottles, a fair number of magnums and a menu of Cateréde armagnacs going back to 1920.

This is a restaurant offering outstanding value for money, especially at lunch time.

*Raymond McArdle was our Chef of the Year in 2005.

Seats 100 (private room, 50). Air conditioning. L Sun-Fri, 12.30-2.30; D daily 6.30-9.30 (Sun to 9). Set L €25 (Set Sun L, €30); Set D €52 (Vegetarian Menu about €25, Children's Menu €17.50); Prestige Menu €80. House wine from €26; sc discretionary. Closed L Sat. Open all year. Amex, Diners, MasterCard, Visa, Laser.

Directions:

Just south of Carrickmacross, 88km (55 m) from Dublin on N2 ot take M1 from Dublin and turn off at Ardee/Derry exit.