5 Best Hotels in The Midlands, Ireland

Barry Keenan is the fifth generation of his family since 1838 to run this first-rate hotel overlooking the Shannon, with a quality restaurant perfectly capable of challenging the Purple Onion next door for culinary polish and panache. It's a popular stop off for river cruisers so there's a constant, convivial vibe in season. The bar is a mini museum filled with memorabilia and a "Wall of Fame" featuring some well-known celebrity visitors over the years. Bedrooms are painted in calming beige and cream, with black curtains, and dark-wood furnishings, and were given a makeover in 2019.

Ask for a room where you can watch sunrise over the Shannon from your small flower-filled balcony—an ideal spot to gaze at the river and listen to birdsong.

Originally a coach house, this unpretentious country hotel in Birr's central square, just a five-minute walk to Birr Castle, began life in 1747 and has retained its old-style homeyness with well-appointed rooms decorated with neutral furnishings. An open fire and relaxed welcome invite you in; the bustling bar and coffee shop are popular with locals and serve lunches. For a more formal dining experience, you could try the Emmet Restaurant, where lamb rump, roast duck, supreme of chicken or striploin steak are main course highlights. The hotel has added the atmospheric Bianconi Courtyard, a bar where, in favorable weather, you may indulge in alfresco dining, and in 2019 modernized its Coachhouse Bar for casual snacks and drinks.

“The best of everything” is the maxim of affable owners Dinah and Jerry Campion and that is certainly evident the minute you step inside this elegant Georgian town house next to the Portlaoise train station—open fires, antiques, and sumptuously cozy sofas await you in the beige-on-brown, wood-accented sitting room. Upstairs, luxurious drapes grace the sash windows of the spacious bedrooms, most of which are done in dramatic hues such as red, pink, and emerald, which have all been repainted. An avalanche of plump cushions scattered on your antique bed reinforces the tone of rest and relaxation while pocket-sprung mattresses add to a good night's sleep. Guests find it hard to choose from all the goodies on the scrumptious breakfast menu, but few can resist scrambled eggs with smoked salmon washed down with leaf tea.

On the outskirts of Mullingar, this stylish hotel has built up a solid reputation, both for its inviting accommodations and the high quality of its cuisine. The double, twin, or family guest rooms are decked in golds, creams, and beiges, or if you feel like a splurge, the decadent park suite is replete with a super-king four-poster and a deep soaking bath. The menu of the sleek Terrace Restaurant might include pork belly, pan-roasted scallops, Slane Valley lamb, steak, or chicken. For a more informal bite, the casual Horseshoe Bar serves beef burgers, pasta, or Thai chicken curry, and features live music on Saturday night. To burn off all those extra calories, there's a gym and the Azure Leisure Club with a pool, sauna, steam room, and a range of Thalgo treatments in the beauty rooms.

The exquisite 400-year-old house, once owned by the Earl of Longford, has been restored to its former charm; the bedrooms are full of character and have impressive period wallpapers and antique mahogany wardrobes and beds. Breakfast is served in a vaulted room cheerily painted in Wedgwood blue. Try the Viewmount Boxty Benedict of smoked bacon, poached egg, and tomato. The 4 acres of grounds that surround the house are a gardener's paradise with an old orchard, a formal garden, and a Japanese garden complete with full-size pagoda. VM Restaurant, in a converted stable block, serves flavor-filled delights such as quail with smoked potato and apple, pork belly with lentils and potato mousseline, or pan-roasted halibut, all prepared by the restaurant's new Dutch chef, Marcio Laan. At €60, the five-course dinner menu is a great value; even better is the three-course early-bird (6:30 to 7:30) dinner at €35 served Wednesday--Friday.