Maybe, just maybe, you have woken up this morning, realised that it is indeed a bank holiday Saturday and thought: "Wouldn't it be nice to just jump in the car and be somewhere calm in an hour or so and chill out for the weekend? Someone else to cook, somewhere peaceful to walk?
Certainly it would, so why not do it? "Seize the Weekend" should be your motto. Advance planning is always an advantage, but hey! a bit of spontaneous combustion is good for the soul too, so don't be so sensible. Get out there! With country houses emerging from their winter slumber, now is the perfect time and there are low-season rates to be found.
Here are some especially good destinations, the first quartet being suitable for weekending couples, the second four for weekending families. As houses and hotels throughout the country begin to open up, we will describe more of them in coming weeks.
Without The Kids:
Echo Lodge, Ballingarry, Co Limerick. Tel: 069-68508 Fax: 069-68511
Dan Mullane's house is a design-lover's idea of heaven, complete with a corridor devoted to artefacts of various religions. The wit and warmth of the design and the welcome makes for a place which is spiffingly comfortable. Spring prices: dinner, B & B £75-£90 per person sharing
Liss Ard Lake Lodge, Skibbereen, Co Cork. Tel: 028- 22365 Fax: 028-22839
The rooms in Liss Ard are little empires unto themselves, which are radical in design. The gardens, likewise, are inspiring. Here is someplace to get utterly lost. Spring prices: up to the end March - £90-£110 per person sharing. From April, £110-£130 per person sharing (dinner £33).
Watermans Lodge, Ballina, Killaloe, Co Tipperary. Tel: 061-376333 Fax: 061-376333
Brid Ryan's lovely house is inviting and deftly luxurious, enjoying a high chill-out quotient complemented by Thomas O'Leary's cooking. Spring prices: £40 per person, dinner £26.50. Weekend rates: two nights plus one dinner, £90 up until end April.
Roundwood House, Mountrath, Co Laois. Tel: 0502- 32120 Fax: 0502-32711
Frank and Rosemary Kennan's Palladian house has always seemed to me to be nothing less than a grand kids' house. Light-hearted, captivating, slightly frayed at the edges, it manages to enchant everyone. Spring prices: £38 per person B & B, £22 dinner. If staying three nights or more there is a 20 per cent reduction off accommodation.
With The Kids:
Ballymaloe House, Shanagarry, Midleton, Co Cork. Tel: 021-652531 Fax: 021-652021
Children love this little republic of pleasure, just as much as adults do. Ballymaloe has a calm maturity which never fails to seduce. Spring prices: Two-day special up until March 31st: dinner, B & B £155-£175 per person sharing (£5 single supplement). Three-day special up to April 30th - dinner B & B £249.75-£283.50. Prices for children, £10 for each cot or bed sharing room.
Temple, Horseleap, Moate, Co Westmeath. Tel: 0506-35118 Fax: 0506-35118
Declan and Bernadette Fagan's house might be near Moate, but the minute you drive up that driveway, you are a million miles away. Kids love the friendliness, while grown-up kids love the aromatherapy and the relaxation programmes, and Bernadette Fagan's smashing cooking. Spring Prices: Two nights' dinner, B & B £96 per person sharing. Full Board Weekend Relaxation programme £150 per person sharing (£175 single). Children, half price, if sharing room
Lettercollum House, Timoleague, Co Cork. Tel: 023- 46251 Fax: 023-46270
Seize the weekend and enjoy Con McLoughlin and Karen Austin's smashing food: millefeuille of lamb sweetbreads a la creme; monkfish with coriander and lime; spinach and ricotta gnocchi with tomato and basil; plum clafoutis.
Spring prices: March 13th-May 29th weekend breaks, two nights' B & B and one dinner £49 per person sharing. Mid-week break, three nights' B & B and two dinners £75 per person (rates not applicable on public holidays). Children under three free. Older children, sharing £12.
Longueville House, Mallow, Co Cork. Tel: 022-47156 Fax: 022-47459
Longueville is home to both William O'Callaghan's extraordinary cooking, founded on the fact that the estate is almost completely self-sufficient, and the instinctive hospitality of the O'Callaghan clan - a heady double act. Spring prices: Two nights' stay at £86 per person sharing up to April 30th. Children free under 12 years.