Bridgestone's 100 Best places to stay in Ireland 2006

The BrookLodge Hotel is so famous it has become the object of satire. Come on down, Ross O'Carroll Kelly.

Evan Doyle's country hotel is so famous that it is already, only five years after opening, the subject of satire. When Sorcha, the wife of the legendary Ross O'Carroll Kelly, uber-oaf creation of The Sunday Tribune's Paul Howard, takes a few days off for some "pampering, roysh, some me time as she calls it", then where does she go? That's right: "BrookLodge in Wicklow". As one would expect with Ross O' C K, he can't get the name correct.

But, the BrookLodge In is indeed where Dubliners go for the "me time", to enjoy superb cooking, a glorious green-field environment, a chance to escape for the maddening city that is Dublin. The success of the BrookLodge Inn is such that it tends to be taken for granted but what Evan Doyle and his crew have achieved in Macreddin is one of the great feats of Irish hospitality. The BrookLodge Inn succeeds because it is a centre of culture, a place where Irish hospitality is at its very best.