The majestic Birr Castle in County Offaly is the home of the 7th Earl of Rosse and his wife. As Catherine goes hunting for pheasants, Paul contends with some strange ingredients in order to create a meal from a 17th-century cookbook, including a potato pie from a 1666 recipe.

This 120 room aging mansion is home to Thomas Pakenham a passionate gardener and author of "Meetings with Remarkable Trees", who has filled the estate with exotic plants from his world travels. Tullynally Castle Menu First course White Soup Roast Shoulder of Mutton Soused Turkey like Sturgeon Side dishes Boiled Cauliflower Sallad Water Souchy for Perch Second Course Pidgeons à la Braise Calf's Foot Mince Pies Cheesecakes Lamb Bits Lemon Pudding Apple Snow

The chefs serve up a variety of 1870s fare at County Monaghan's Castle Leslie, one of Ireland's most exclusive hotels and the home to Sir Jack Leslie. They fish for pike and stalk deer, as well as admire one of Winston Churchill's baby dresses and discover the best use for the discarded canopy of a Harrier Jump Jet.

At beautiful Westport House, the ancestral home of the Earls of Sligo, the chefs hear tales of sugar plantations and slavery from Sheelyn Brown, the many times great-granddaughter of pirate queen Grace O'Malley. They also attempt to catch salmon from the Delphi River and lobsters and oysters from the wild Atlantic Ocean.

The chefs travel to Ballywalter Park on the beautiful Ards Peninsula in County Down, the home of Lord and Lady Dunleath. Hands on food gathering includes plucking a turkey and hand churning butter.

Cappoquin House is home to Sir Charles Keane, whose family were forced from their native Derry estate during the 16th century and had their beautiful Waterford home burned by Irish Republicans during the civil war of 1922. At this storied structure, the chefs create a meal using recipes from a very famous cookbook written by a very famous chef, Hannah Glasse, in 1747.

Alex and Clare Durdin-Robertson farm and work the estate which has been their family home since the 17th century – Paul Flynn and Derry Clarke serve up a sumptuous feast that includes a whole roast pig on the spit, boiled goose and sheep’s feet! Yum… In the kitchen, Paul is pushed to the limit by a lengthy – and frequently baffling – 17th century menu, while Derry has to get hands-on, butchering a lamb in Murphy’s Butchers in Tullow and fruit picking a Malone Fruit Farm in Ballon.

The chefs visit Ballymacmoy House, the home of Hennessy Cognac. Catherine Fulvio catches salmon and lobsters, and camps out in a field of grain with a member of the Federation of County Cork Gun Clubs, who is culling pigeons to protect the crop. Derry Clarke prepares stuffed lamb's ears.

Tourin House is a stunning house on the banks of the Blackwater is home to the Jameson sisters whose father was the driving force behind the formation of Irish Distillers. The feast created by Catherine Fulvio includes a macabre dish of lamb’s head which makes for quite the centrepiece.

Fred Madden’s great great grandfather traversed the globe before turning his attention to the upgrading of the family home in Monaghan which Fred’s father Johnny Madden refers to as an iced-cake. Derry Clarke holds the ladle for the recreation of a hunt supper from 1908 featuring such delicacies as Pudding à la Diplomate and Turkey boiled with oysters. Paul hunts for a herd of wild pigs on an island in Lough Erne with Pat O’Doherty, producer of the famous Fermanagh Black Bacon, gets a lesson in cheese-making at Corleggy Cheese in Belturbet, Co Cavan, and collects a special order of cockscombs and turkey testicles for one of Derry’s less appetising recipes.

Top chefs Derry Clarke, Catherine Fulvio and Paul Flynn visit Ballinlough Castle in Co Westmeath, where Nicholas and Alice Nugent host the annual Body & Soul Festival.

Chefs Derry Clarke and Catherine Fulvio visit Enniscoe House in County Mayo, built on the banks of Lough Conn by The Kelletts of Mayo. Catherine recreates an 18th-century meal.

Derry Clarke, Catherine Fulvio and Paul Flynn visit Clonalis House in Co Roscommon, ancestral home of Ireland's last high king, and prepare a 14th-century feast.

Chefs Derry Clarke and Paul Flynn serve up a lavish 15th century Anglo-Norman banquet plus pastry castle at Borris House, Co. Carlow, ancesteral home of the Kings of Leinster.

Chefs Derry Clarke, Catherine Fulvio and Paul Flynn visit Killruddery House in Co Wicklow, and prepare a Tudor banquet with pigeon and marrow pie, wild boar and a jelly chessboard.

Paul Flynn and Derry Clarke serve up a 17th-century banquet at the 97-room Temple House, featuring crayfish in jelly, boiled snipe and pickled turkey.

Fermanagh, Catherine Fulvio and Derry Clarke prepare an 18th century menu including eels in white sauce, chickens boiled in bladders and duck-shaped cabbage.

Catherine and Paul serve up an elaborate 19th century dinner at Drishane House in Cork, featuring a macaroni tower, Irish moss blamanche and a Florence Nightingale rice dish.