We might not have the climate on our aspect, however on the subject of countryside getaways, the UK can sq. up with the most effective of them, whether or not it’s lording it up in a grand nation pile or getting mucky down on the farm. Right here’s our choose of the most effective nation home accommodations for a restorative rural retreat…
HECKFIELD PLACE
Hampshire
At nearly a dozen years within the making, the deep-pocketed house owners behind the rebirth of Heckfield Place have been clearly eager to make sure all the things was simply so. And it was actually time – and a phone-number-length finances – effectively invested.
The highest-to-toe makeover of this splendid Georgian mansion has seamlessly blended ethereal modern design into its centuries-old bones. The Grade II-listed interiors, from authentic panelling to sweeping staircases have all been painstakingly preserved, however with a soul-lifting heat and lightness of contact all through.
This rezhuzhed nation pile shows a nothing-less-than-total dedication to sustainability, too. That is most evident within the eating, with an onsite biodynamic farm supplying a lot of the kitchen’s produce. Something not grown right here is sourced virtually inside strolling distance.
With Skye Gyngell on the helm, their Marle restaurant has even proved itself worthy of a Michelin inexperienced star. Surrounded by 400 acres of Hampshire countryside, there’s an abundance of greenery outdoors too, from heady lavender-scented gardens to historic woodlands thick sufficient to get misplaced in.
CLIVEDEN
Berkshire
No keep can maintain a candle to Cliveden House in Berkshire on the subject of historic grandeur. This actually fit-for-royalty property oozes stately glamour from each neoclassical pore, from its sweepingly cinematic facade to its immaculately timeless interiors to the manicured majesty of its gardens. Peppered with priceless tapestries, fits of armour and vintage portraits, there’s no escaping the property’s profound sense of historical past. However don’t assume its standing as a Nationwide Belief treasure stifles its sense of decadence.
Well-known for being the place the seeds of the Profumo Affair have been first sown, the outside swimming pool has since been joined by a pair of scorching tubs and is a wonderful spot for summer season poolside tipples.
Eating, too, is suitably indulgent, with chandelier-lit seven-course tasting menus in its eating room and a hearty marriage of English and American cooking within the Astor Grill. And to essentially indulge your aristocratic fantasies – and that is the place for it – suites are lavished with all of the requisite tasselled material, velveted upholstery and opulent antiques.
LIME WOOD
New Forest
A driveway winds lazily by sprawling nation property, wild pastures on one aspect and leafy New Forest woodland on the opposite, earlier than looping across the swathe of manicured garden and sculpted shrubbery of Lime Wood. It’s a moderately pretty introduction to this Nineteenth-century nation home, with its wisteria-clad cream-coloured facade and understated Georgian structure.
As soon as dwelling to a Thirteenth-century looking lodge, the good-looking property’s final main overhaul was in 2008 and so they’ve stored issues recent and really a lot freed from stuffiness ever since.
There’s so much packed into its modest-for-a-manor proportions, too. Unfold throughout three flooring, its supremely serene Herb Home spa alone is the explanation why many go to. A 16-metre heated indoor swimming pool bordered by garden-view glass panelling is a specific deal with, particularly when it opens over balmier months.
Plus, in the event you’re right here for a well being kick, guilt-free eating is available at their Uncooked & Cured restaurant. For heartier fare, their principal restaurant is an excellent marriage of Italian cooking and impeccably sourced British substances.
THYME
The Cotswolds
Not a rustic home lodge per se, Thyme is moderately a set of Seventeenth-century buildings – cottages, barns and different cosy rustic snugs – that type a cluster within the significantly charming Cotswolds village of Southrop.
The hamlet-like lodge advanced from a cookery faculty and this, along with an on-site farm and bounteous kitchen backyard, places meals on the coronary heart of issues right here. The Nineteenth-century Ox Barn is its gastronomic centre, with a brief ever-changing menu primarily based on what’s harvest-ready.
A part of their multi-award-winning Meadow Spa, the Botanical Bothy, is a fabulously flowing area with warmed benches and an out of doors area with a roaring fire and baths for natural soaking. A swimming pool is crammed with spring water and heated over the cooler months. All sound moderately idyllic? Effectively, that’s as a result of it’s.
CHEWTON GLEN
New Forest
What does it take to be voted ‘Finest Lodge within the British Isles’? It may have been Chewton Glen’s light-flooded spa boasting Europe’s largest hydrotherapy circuit, an enormous indoor swimming pool and all method of scrubs, wraps and pamperings.
They’re no slouch within the eating division both, with the fabulous five-room Eating Room serving top-notch seasonal fare or the extra informal open-plan Kitchen, whipping up wood-fired pizzas and superfood salads. There’s even an onsite cooking faculty presided over by TV’s James Martin.
However it’s what’s on the surface that issues too. The retreat is about amongst some 130 acres of rolling New Forest countryside with a dizzying array of actions to whereas away your keep from croquet to clay pigeon taking pictures, artwork lessons to archery. An unspoilt stretch of Hampshire coast can also be a straightforward stroll away.
However what can we love most about Chewton Glen? It needs to be the treehouse suites, set on stilts within the wooded cover on the sting of the New Forest.
THE PIG
Hampshire
Since first opening in 2011, the Pig has gone on to spawn a litter of comparable piggies round southern England. Firmly imprinted of their DNA is a plot-to-plate eating ethos, and nowhere extra so than the Hampshire authentic.
The kitchen depends on a gentle stream of seasonal produce from its walled backyard to populate a continually evolving menu and there’s a 25-mile journey restrict on the rest. A Victorian greenhouse has been recreated to supply a beautiful light-filled eating area, scattered with their signature – and now much-imitated – mismatched furnishings.
From super-snug rooms in the primary home to secluded wooden huts hidden among the many grounds, there may be actually no scarcity of pigsties to select from. In fact, any room with a freestanding roll-top bathtub will get our vote, and there are just a few.
For additional pampering, head by the walled gardens and over the lake to the Potting Shed for a choose of trotter-to-tail remedies.
NEWHALL MAINS
Black Isle
A few of the fancier accommodations make provision for the arrival of VIP friends by air with a helicopter pad, although only a few can declare their very own runway. Transformed from prime barley fields, Newhall Mains’ grass airstrip places it in that unique membership. However it’s solely a comparatively small swathe of the 900-acre property surrounding this county-house lodge, set in Scotland’s sleepy and scenic Black Isle.
Born from the rejuvenation of derelict 18th-century farm buildings, the lodge’s eye-pleasing stone quadrangle is made up of 5 cosy cottages and 4 spacious suites. Toe-warming rugs are spun utilizing wool from the farm’s personal Jacob sheep, which you’ll usually see grazing in adjoining fields. Farmhouse eating attracts on regional treats reminiscent of Hebridean dived scallops and domestically reared beef.
A Japanese-inspired whisky bar tempts you with an extended checklist of spirits from all corners of the world. Although possibly don’t overindulge in the event you’re planning an airborne tour from the cockpit of the lodge’s single prop the subsequent morning.
LUCKNAM PARK HOTEL
Wiltshire
Ready on the finish of a mile-long driveway lined with lime and beech bushes, Lucknam Park Hotel by some means manages a steadiness between understated and stately. The ivy-clad Tub stone facade and the superbly symmetrical Palladian structure of this Georgian manor home appear to take a seat nearly modestly amongst exquisitely crafted gardens.
Inside, too, the smattering of chandeliers, wood-panelled lounges and ubiquitous etchings level to an unassuming, unstuffy grandeur significantly conducive to straightforward unwinding.
What actually units this nation pile aside is its equestrian providing, with stables dwelling to round 30 horses. The property’s 500 acres of land are perfect for a day trot whereas extra skilled riders have the swoony expanse of the encompassing Wiltshire countryside to discover on horseback. And while you return, you possibly can soak drained haunches within the luxe spa earlier than nosebag within the type of Michelin-starred eating.
FOREST SIDE
Lake District
Castellated parapets, slender chimneys and local-quarried slate all mix with splendidly Gothic aplomb at Nineteenth-century nation mansion Forest Side. Whereas a to-the-bones overhaul preserved the house’s atmospheric Victorian side from the surface, you step in to disarmingly ethereal, instantly-mood-lifting interiors.
Unique fireplaces, oak flooring and Lincrusta wallpaper nonetheless supply common reminders of its Victorian heritage, however softened with strokes of Farrow and Ball and carpets woven from Cumbrian wool.
Eating is rooted within the Cumbrian countryside, too, and what eating it’s. Helmed by chef Paul Leonard, the lodge’s restaurant is named one of many best within the Lake District. Over half of the fruit and veg is grown in their very own backyard with all the things else sourced from close by farms.
And after an eight-course tasting menu for dinner, you possibly can retire wanting ahead to an equally belly-patting breakfast of foraged wild mushrooms, farm duck eggs and domestically reared bacon. In any case that, it’ll be time for a calorie-crunching ramble across the gorgeous Lake District locale.
DOUBLE RED DUKE
Oxfordshire
As soon as the house of a Seventeenth-century wool service provider, Double Red Duke is a captivating Cotswold stone residence that was later repurposed because the native inn. Boutique hoteliers Sam and Georgie Pearman have actually stayed true to its earlier incarnation, albeit revamped with armfuls of up to date panache. A comfy warren of low-ceilinged areas gives prompt pub-snug issue, added to by heat wooden panelling, crackling fireplaces and gnarly beams.
Trendy-rustic visitor rooms characteristic a roll-call of British manufacturers like Fermoie printed materials and Rapture & Wright wallpaper, complemented by classic finds and quirky particulars.
Eating right here attracts from British classics, too, with dishes reminiscent of devilled kidneys and sticky toffee pudding to go dewy-eyed over, to not point out severely scoffable Sunday roasts. Questioning concerning the title? Double Purple Duke is a personality from Oxfordshire folklore. So now you already know.
BOYS HALL
Kent
With its stone-and-brick gables, mullioned home windows and a beneficiant creep of wisteria, this historic manor home is as picture-perfect as any nation home you’ll discover in Kent. Boys Hall‘s storied previous consists of subterranean smuggler’s tunnels, its use as a stopover for a fleeing Charles I, and a less-hurried superstar visitor in Samuel Pepys.
A 3-year overhaul stripped again outdated plasterboard and frayed carpets to disclose the Seventeenth-century former residence’s venerable oak-timbered ceilings, wooden panelling and beautiful picket flooring. A gently understated however oh-so-tasteful modernisation have stored these on the fore.
A hovering oak-beam-and-glass eating room with big fire sits within the lodge’s centre and serves friends and non a seasonal menu brimming with produce from the Backyard of England.
Food and drinks can be loved in a splendidly wild English backyard, although extra seemingly the English climate may have you rubbing shoulder with the locals with a cask ale or English wine within the lodge’s cosy pub.
COOMBESHEAD FARM
Cornwall
When you’re in search of extra of a modest farmstead keep over a stately dwelling, then Coombeshead Farm may very well be the slice of rustic idyll you’re after.
Set in 66 acres of meadows and woodland deep within the Cornish countryside, this former dairy farm continues to be alive with the sounds, sights and smells of genuine nation residing. Smells are nonetheless fortunately largely confined to freshly baked sourdough from the onsite bakery and much-lauded cooking by co-owner and award-winning chef Tom Adams.
Including to the guesthouse’s make-yourself-at-home ambiance, an honesty bar is stocked with home made spirits, there are corners to be curled up into, and a studying room with books you’ll really wish to discover. A working farm has reemerged, too, with pigs, sheep, chickens and even a number of bee colonies, all contributing in their very own approach to this moderately blissful nook of Cornwall.
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