Region guide

Sporting Hotels in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the quieter corners of the British sporting calendar, and very much the better for it. The wooded estates of Tyrone, Fermanagh and Down hold well-keepered driven pheasant and partridge days, while the bogs and turlough margins of the west are perhaps the finest snipe and woodcock country in these islands. Add the salmon and sea trout of the Foyle, the Bann and the loughs, the Mournes and the Sperrins for a backdrop, and a country famous for its welcome, and a sporting trip becomes something rather more than the days in the diary.

A Northern Irish sporting hotel is at its best when it sits close to the ground, takes dogs as a matter of course, and gathers a shooting party round a long table at the end of the day. A turf fire helps; local game on the menu more so.