2009 Award Winners COUNTRY HOUSE OF THE YEAR 2009

Ballyvolane House

A gracious mansion surrounded by its own farmland, magnificent wooded grounds, a trout lake and formal terraced gardens… the Green family’s home, Ballyvolane House, is the quintessential Irish country house, and has welcomed guests since 1983.

Elegantly furnished and extremely comfortable, it has big log fires, roomy bedrooms furnished with family antiques, superb walled kitchen gardens and private salmon fishing on the great River Blackwater… delicious food is a high point, of course – home- and locally-produced foods are served in style at separate tables or around a long mahogany table, depending on the occasion, with roast rib of Lismore butcher McGrath’s Hereford beef a speciality, served classically with béarnaise sauce.

And then there’s the exceptional hospitality of the Green family - Justin and Jenny Green and Justin’s father, Jeremy - which, above all, keeps people coming back to this wonderful place.