Hilton Park, IRELAND

Children: No children under 8 years, there are no disabled facilities due to the reception rooms being on the first floor.

Golf: The lodge is very close to the practice ground of the Clones Golf Club, arrangements can be made for guests to play. There is also an 18 hole golf course on the estate.

Hilton Park extends to 500 acres of woodland, lake and pasture. There is a boat on one of the lakes for rowing and fishing and the swimming in pure lake water is peerless.

Hilton is situated at the head of the great valley of the Erne; one of Ireland's most beautiful and least frequented lakes. Day-boat and trips can be arranged for a modest fee. Bicycles may be hired locally to take advantage of the easy lakeside riding on small, unfrequented roads; the more ambitious can attempt the Kingfisher cycle trail or head up into the drumlin hills of Monaghan and Cavan.

Painters find the light exceptional and if they can drag themselves away from the beauty of the grounds, there is lakeland, river valley, drumlin and upland moor all within a half-hour's drive.

Shoppers need not feel left out either; Belleek pottery, Cavan crystal, Clones lace and Magee's tweeds are some of Ireland's finest and are produced in the region.

History: There has been a house at Hilton Park since the early 17th Century, though its name was changed to its present at the end of the 18th Century. After being burnt down in 1803 the house was rebuilt over the next 15 years or so. The two principal bedrooms and the dining room remain intact from this rebuilding, as does the north end. In the 1870s the owner transformed the house into an Italian palazzo; this involved digging out the basement so that it became the ground floor, introducing a new hall, inner hall, staircase and gallery, as well as a ballroom and boudoir.

Special Events: Hilton Park is available for exclusive rental and is the perfect venue for private house parties, family celebrations or a weekend break in Ireland. They can guarantee exclusivity, total privacy and seclusion (their avenue is one mile long) and a completely relaxed ambience in beautiful surroundings, inside and out. Hilton can be taken on an exclusive basis for corporate entertainment, business meetings and brainstorming sessions, providing total privacy and seclusion for the most sensitive of situations. The old gate lodge, renovated in 2008, is available for rental on a self catering basis.

Nearby Attractions: Hilton is a superb centre for touring and much of the Northwest and Northeast are easily reached. The west and east coasts are one and a half-hours distant, the Giants' Causeway two hours and the Mourne Mountains one and a half-hours. Towns are approximately the following times away; Clones 10 mins, Monaghan, Cootehill and Cavan 30 mins, Carrickmacross, Enniskillen and Armagh 45 mins, Drogheda, Athlone and Donegal 90 mins, Sligo, Dublin and Belfast 2 hours.