IT has been a couple of seasons since we were with the North Tipps and a visit was overdue, so when we heard through the grapevine that a very special lawn meet was upcoming at Loughton House, we jumped at the opportunity. The grapevine in this case consisted of Arabella Scanlon whom we met last year in East Clare.

Loughton is probably one of the finest houses anywhere, set in fabulous parkland straddling the Tipperary/Offaly border. Likewise it is on the border between North Tipperary and Ormond hunt country and is just a stone’s throw from the Barak Obama Plaza. It runs to 18 bedrooms set in more than a hundred acres of park and farmland.