The best holiday homes to rent in the UK
Home-grown takeovers have evolved in recent decades from cutesy cottages with lots of pine to remote shepherd’s huts and converted windmills. Now they are even sharper and smarter with more design swagger.
In recent years, England's South West has been leading the way with stylish new holiday homes. While some of these take the form of shiny new abodes with glass frontages and sweeping sea views, others are passion projects from second- or third-generation owners, given a new lease of life to attract half-term broods and their floppy-eared friends. With the area's food scene catapulting back into the limelight in recent years, many travel this way to combine a sub-tropical climate with seafood feasts – best walked off along stretches of unspoilt coastline.
Further north, Norfolk is never a bad idea. Commit to an autumn escape and you know what you're in for; cosy cottages with fireplaces and open-plan spaces perfect for convivial dining once the inevitable drizzle gets too much. Further up still, Scotland awaits with wild landscapes and deer spotting opportunities through the windows of chocolate-box village stays.
Whether it's wintertime wildlife spotting, midsummer beach sessions or just a family reunion that requires little more than a stroll to the nearby countryside pub, these are the best holiday homes to rent in the UK right now.
Sue Vaughton PhotographyBittescombe Lodge, Somerset
During the pandemic, when the rest of us were perfecting our banana-bread recipes or organising quizzes on Zoom, Samantha Campbell-Breedon was learning how to make mirrors – painstakingly painting gold leaf onto vintage glass – and how to embroider, sewing initials onto pillowcases and hot-water bottles. The results of these newly acquired skills can be seen during a stay at another of her little lockdown projects. Along with her husband Richard, she transformed a dairy farm near Taunton into the quite remarkable Bittescombe Lodge, folded into a Somerset estate where the red deer and sheep roam. Samantha – often to be seen striding around in mustard-coloured vintage Hunters – has a background that took her from Portugal to a Chantilly hunting lodge and then to Hong Kong. It’s a narrative partly reflected in the interior design, which draws on Grand Siècle rustic scenes, heraldic crosses and family keepsakes such as an iron fireback dated 1660, but there’s also a ski-lodge cosiness, a nod to the couple’s other house in the mountains of Lech, with timber-clad walls, cushioned nooks and huggable fabrics.
Mixed in with all this is an unabashed sense of fun – Pop Art meets Louis XIV – evident in X-ray artworks of Superman and a VW van by Nick Veasey and the Jive Bunny album sleeve placed reverently on a sideboard. Two secret doors (one inside a bookcase) lead to the 10 bedrooms, each an individual design statement, ranging from a chapel-like room with high windows to one patterned in honeycomb with a terrace overlooking the ha-ha – the sort of rooms you’ll dash around trying to bagsy your favourite. In the main area, a well-stocked bar leads to a large entertaining space with a grand piano, snooker table, log fire, and wellies for everyone. Of course, the estate is there to be explored, with streams to jump and deer to stalk (for fun), while the team will rustle up clay-pigeon shooting and rifle shooting using a metal stag as a target. Later that day, under the vaulted ceiling of the former cattle stalls – now the dining room – venison, mushrooms and other produce from the farm are beautifully plated up, along with oysters from Porlock Bay. There’s a proper swimming pool, sauna and spa, and a whole barn full of activities, including the fast-growing sport of padel, a tennis-squash hybrid you’ll pick up very easily thanks to the in-house instructor. Though you may have to coax a pheasant or two off the court first.
Bittescombe is a rare UK entry in the newly launched Mandarin Oriental Exclusive Homes collection, in partnership with Stay One, the former of which advised the Campbell-Breedons throughout the design process and made sure the service is fully rounded while cheerfully personable – that man expertly mixing the pre-dinner Martinis might also be a dab hand on the polo field, while our driver gave us the inside track on village life. (“Nice to talk to people from other walks of life,” he remarked. “Makes a change from hearing about the price of sheep and fertiliser down the pub.”) This is a super-smart den on a fabulous scale, fully rooted in a surprisingly rugged Somerset landscape. Rick Jordan
Sleeps: 20
Price: from £10,440 per night (minimum two-night stay)
Viola, Glastonbury
Just a short drive from the characterful boutiques of Glastonbury, this palatial, six-bedroom house in the middle of bucolic Butleigh seems, once within, as though it could belong to another world entirely – offering those lucky enough to stay a halcyon holiday experience in utmost luxury. Ethereal in its very nature, balmier days here invite early morning laps of the heated outdoor pool, or a sunrise yoga session, followed by breakfast on one of the terraces (with a spread provided, in large part, by the generous welcome hamper, painstakingly sourced by estate manager and the property's friendly face, Sharon). Lethargic rotations of the private lake follow (storybook-style row boat provided) and sunset soaks in the sunken hot tub, complete with pea-light lit pool house, open fire and sun-kissing views back across the Mendip Hills. And though summer might envelope the house and its 11 acres of undulating gardens (complete with tennis court, ornamental fountains and greenhouse) in a golden glow, the space is meticulously well-prepped for colder climes too. Separate from the house, a converted barn houses a full bar, ping-pong table, fully-equipped gym and, the piste de resistance; two F1 racing simulators sit, encased by screens, ready to offer an exhilaratingly realistic driving experience. While inside, a crackling fire is ready-to-go within the sumptuous confines of the TV snug (though ‘snug’ perhaps undermines its larger proportions, a continual theme throughout), peppered with curiosities and a show-stopping sofa for the entire clan to curl up on.
The rest of the house too, which unfurls outward from the grand, double-height hallway, matches the same generous proportions, meaning that those staying have space to spread out not just between rooms but within rooms too. The kitchen for example, with views across all angles of the whimsical gardens, gives way to an intimate dining space, merging into a sitting area and then a light-filled orangery, the latter of which takes on a golden glow come twilight – and all without a wall between them.
Upstairs, toss a coin for the duck-egg blue master suite with its separate dressing room and giant, raised bath, each corner enjoying lofty views down over the swimming pool, lake and gardens. While distinctly-designed subsequent bedrooms are worthy in their own right too, playing with quirky wallpapers and their own unique features, from an in-room, freestanding tub to pops of pastel under varnished and vaulted oak beams.
A short meander up the tree-clad lane leads you to a tiny, unmanned farm shop, or more-aptly shed-shop, where freshly-baked baked goods, local cheeses and all manner of local chutneys, spreads and store cupboard essentials can be paid for via an honesty box in the corner. While slightly further afield, the Gothic peaks of Wells Cathedral, heady heights of Glastonbury Tor - a popular hill among walkers, topped by the roofless St Michael's Tower, a Grade I listed building - and historic market towns of Frome and Somerton, with its 17th-century architecture, can be found just a short drive away.
How a house manages to feel so elegant and graceful yet welcoming and liveable is not for us to question, ours is just to congregate round one of the (many) fire pits and wonder at how we got so lucky. Anya Meyerowitz
Sleeps: 12
Price: From £7,495 per short break
Chalet Saunton, Devon
Although Devon’s Chalet Saunton was rebuilt by owner Tim Fleming five years ago, the property he has transformed has been in his family since 1946. Not that his relatives would recognise it. Today it features six three-bedroomed apartments plus a two-bedroom penthouse and is as stark and stylishly contemporary as a New York loft or a Mayfair pied-à-terre. Inside, minimalist design meets state-of-the-art mod cons with subtle designer flourishes: the heating is underfloor, the bathrooms marble, the king-size beds are covered in white Egyptian cotton linen.
Outside, the building sits on landscaped grounds and offers guests direct access to the vast three-and-a-half-mile stretch of golden sand and the wild majesty of the Atlantic coastline below. For swimmers and surfers (whether two-legged or four, because pets are welcome), there is also an outside shower. And if you think the beach looks strangely familiar, you must be a music fan. Back in July 1987, English graphic designer Storm Thorgerson set up 700 wrought iron beds on Saunton Sands to create the artwork for Pink Floyd’s album, A Momentary Lapse Of Reason.
Also worth exploring is the nearby Braunton Burrows. Flanking the beach inland, it is one of the largest sand dune systems in the UK and a UNESCO-designated biosphere reserve. Privately owned, it covers more than 1,000 hectares and features a wide variety of animals and plant life. To explore it, take the South West Coast Path that runs directly past Chalet Saunton, walk through the nearby golf course (currently one of the top 100 18-hole courses in the country) and enjoy what is officially titled a North Devon Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Paul Henderson
Address: The Chalet, Saunton Road, Braunton EX33 1LG
Price: Apartments at Chalet Saunton start from £500 a night
Old Rectory, Northamptonshire
Best for: a regal English stay
Owner Sarah gave us the most friendly, vivacious and detailed tour we’ve ever experienced from any host or indeed hotel manager, making us feel incredibly welcome and a little extra excited about our stay – there was a hamper and bouquet upon arrival to boot. Unlike many anonymous rentals, here the walls are proudly teeming with family photos, artefacts and unusual keepsakes (note the crocodile in the downstairs loo and other actual taxidermy), making it feel more like a warm, loving home, packed with personality.
That said, it’s always been a very sociable, open-door-policy kind of home, with a grand dining room made for indulgent supper parties, complementing the relaxed dining space next to the working Aga in the notably well-stocked classic countryside kitchen. There’s also an outdoor pool available in the warmer months and a large al-fresco dining area, as well as a self-contained external games room ideal for those all-night pitch and putts or table tennis matches to the death. The decor is classically English and elegant, almost regal, especially in the flagship drawing-room, with plenty of patterns upon patterns, open fireplaces and deep, lush carpets. The linens and towels deserve special mention for being wonderfully high quality, and several of our party noted that the house’s main shower was the best they’d ever experienced ‘in their lives’, while the bath in the master’s ensuite was the fastest-filling we’d ever witnessed. Game-changing stuff.
The attractive Georgian renovated rectory is set on 10 acres of land with roaming bantam chickens and what was described as a ‘pond’ by the owner in a rather major understatement and is actually a lake, plus a lawn flat enough for croquet come summer, wooded areas and manicured shrubbery – and a very sweet den within a tree perfect for excitable children (or adults) to discover. Should you wish to explore further, you’re 10 minutes from Silverstone or 20 from the stately home and gardens of Canons Abbey, can charter a local canal boat with Stoke Bruerne Canal Boats, or wander beyond the little village of Maidford itself to traditional pubs The Old Red Lion or Bartholomew Arms, both a two-mile stomp away. By Becky Lucas
Sleeps: 12
Price: from £1,791 per night
Alexander CollinsAtlanta Trevone, Cornwall
Turning down an unsuspecting pass where a wooden bus stop shelters day-trippers on their way to nearby Padstow – of Rick Stein fame – guests of Atlanta Trevone are soon greeted with sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean and glimpses of silky sand once the winding slope of a road is carefully navigated.
Presided over by husband and wife duo Ash and Jessica, Atlanta Trevone is the latest collection of high-spec holiday rentals to pop up along the Cornish coast. Neatly arranged at the sea’s edge, these houses undoubtedly claim the village’s most coveted spot – and have done so since they were built in 1899 by previous generations of Jessica’s family.
This is a passion project for the couple, and it shows. Homes are exactly that, homely, with small touches designed to make that inevitable check-out all the harder. Welcome baskets are stocked with goodies including clotted cream shortbread, cake doused in an oat and maple syrup mix, and a bottle of fizz from the local Knightor Winery. While the lure of Cornwall's excellent restaurants is magnetic, nights in front of the crashing waves below (and Sky TV, should you wish) are just as magical. From the small but well-equipped kitchen, rustle up dinner and sit around the dining table before making use of the board games stacked high on the coffee table. A vintage copy of Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love was among the novellas perched on the master bedroom’s window sill in Atlanta View – the cherry on the cake for bookworms when the drizzly days postpone adventure.
If something comes to mind, look to the extensive property guide. Travelling masseuses, private chefs and babysitters all come recommended, while hours can be spent ticking off the charming shell-spotting guide during ambles along the surrounding coastal routes.
Atlanta View is perfectly spacious enough for groups of five, although the jewel in the crown is Atlanta Penthouse. Enter the second floor apartment to be greeted with uninterrupted views of the deep blue beyond the stately dining table and open-plan living space. Summer evenings can fly by on the inset balcony, while there’s no better place for some me-time than the bathroom to the left-hand side of the property; head down the stairs to find a cavernous bath, with a taps-to-ceiling window making the most of the setting. Connor Sturges
Address: Atlantic Terrace, Trevone Bay PL28 8RB
Price: From £1,200 per week (sleeps 5); short breaks from £600
ELLIOTT WHITEThree Mile Beach, Cornwall
One thing that’s immediately clear here are the global influences of owner Craig Burkinshaw, better known as head of Audley Travel, who started off his tour-operator business specialising in Central and South America. What he’s transplanted to the heather-covered dunes just behind a staggering stretch of buttery Cornish sand is the colourful exuberance of Brazil, Mexico and Costa Rica against a backdrop that would feel perfectly at home in the Hamptons. The 15 wood-clad beach houses – rainbow-hued on the outside, whitewashed on the inside – are packed with all the toys that a serial traveller might set their standards by. On the terrace, backed by rustling grasses, are a sunken hot tub and barrel sauna, and, if you wave and ask for one, a pizza oven and boxes of dough and ingredients to whip up your own. Call in the private chef Rob Michael for a hands-off feast, or be more 2021 and go seaweed foraging in the rock pools of Gwithian with local author Rachel Lambert.
Very little hasn’t been thought of, from the wetsuits and boogie boards to the better-than-at-home kitchen kit, the food truck at the top of the hill and the extensive welcome book outlining everything you need to know about the area, the best tables to book, trails to follow and surf schools to check into. The weather in this exposed spot is wild and changeable, but with St Ives’ Tate and the Barbara Hepworth studio just around the corner there’s plenty to keep busy with. Or light the Swedish log burner and grab a copy of The Salt Path from the bookshelf to remind yourself that you’re right on the South West Coast walking route but thankfully not having to sleep in a tent to experience its wonder. By Issy Von Simson
Address: Three Mile Beach, Gwithian Towans, Gwithian, Hayle TR27 5GE
Price: from £1,150 for seven nights (sleeps seven)
Russell Hogg / ABOYNE PhotographicsThe Queen's Hut at Dunecht Estates, Aberdeenshire
If you sat a clever child down with paper and pencils and asked him or her to draw an old-fashioned log cabin beside a Scottish loch, surrounded by pines and rhododendrons, the result would almost certainly look just like the Queen’s Hut on Birsemore Loch. There is a beautiful simplicity and elemental grandeur about it, together with a hint of fairytale magic, that make it something more than the sum of its uncomplicated parts. Annie Pearson, Viscountess Cowdray, built it in the 1920s for Queen Mary, consort of King George V, halfway between Annie’s house at Dunecht and Mary’s castle at Balmoral. The two friends would meet at the hut and take tea.
The Dunecht Estate, on which it is located, is still owned by the Cowdray family today. It is best known for Dunnottar Castle, a moody clifftop ruin, and for its superb salmon beats on the River Dee. To come here for a week and do nothing but visit the castle, fish the Dee and wander around the grounds would be a perfect antidote to daily life. Within the hut’s rustic wooden walls are a well-equipped kitchen, a neat little living and dining room, a bathroom and two bedrooms, one better suited to children, the other to parents, with its deep freestanding copper bathtub by a window and transcendent views of water and trees and sky. Though thoughtfully decorated, this is not a design sensation in the manner of the nearby Fife Arms. Yet with its quirky history and magnificent setting it is not only unique but also – in some mysterious way that is difficult to articulate but easy to appreciate when you are here – enchanted. Steve King
Address: The Queen's Hut, Aboyne, AB34 5ER, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Price: from £250 a night (sleeps four)
Gemma Lewis/Wattle & DaubLittle Whispers, West Sussex
With forget-me-not-fringed lanes, weathered stone cottages and a community-run larder stocking Goodwood Dairy milk and fat asparagus spears, the village allure of go-slow Lodsworth is hard to beat. Having completed renovations on their home here, Rachel and Barney Rowe turned their attention to the adjoining two-bedroom brick-and tile-clad annex. The project resulted in Little Whispers, where Ralph Lauren rugs, oak flooring and Farrow & Ball’s Inchyra Blue and Sulking Room Pink are balanced with rustic nods of wildflower – and pheasant-feather-filled vases and antique furniture. Rachel, who formerly worked for Japan Airlines, masterminded the interiors, while Barney undertook painting and landscaping. Thoughtful touches riff on their own travel highlights – zingy welcome lemonade made to a Ballymaloe recipe, French background music and lavender sprigs conjuring a Provençal guesthouse, a Shaker kitchen packed with vintage ceramics – but there are also local connections such as a bright print of nearby stately home Petworth House. Everything is highly styled but the intent is very much for guests to settle in, thumb through the cookbooks, get the log burner going and make the most of the garden. Breakfasts on the terrace with eggs from the chicken coop are as delightful as barbecues overlooking the khaki-bronze patchwork of the South Downs. The treehouse will have kids whooping, as will tossing a ball for Tilly, the Rowes’ tail-wagging dog. Rachel and Barney are intuitive hosts who may drop round a surprise ginger cake and offer brilliant tips. As this part of West Sussex gets ever more attention, with The Pig due to open in Arundel in September, here is a natty little secret address to have to hand. By Ianthe Butt
Address: Little Whispers, Lodsworth, Petworth, West Sussex
Price: from £400 for two nights (sleeps four)
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Alun Callender/Olive Chandelier by Cox LondonChapel Barn, Suffolk
Bought by the former owner of Foxtons estate agent Jon Hunt, the land at Wilderness Reserve’s Sibton Park has been steadily repurposed over the past few years. Beyond the gatehouse, and its Fifties-style glass-jar-sweet shop, there are now a number of incredibly pretty houses to rent. But the latest addition, opened in 2020, is nearby Chapel Barn Estate, at the centre of which lies this staggering sound-proofed party pad. Set on the site of a 15th-century barn, it has restored beamed ceilings and a stained-glass window commissioned to refract light along a banquet table. A quadrant of stables houses the bedrooms and three are given a floor each in a corrugated grain silo. Downstairs, off the cinema and games room, there’s a swimming pool inspired by the gold-tiled number at Hôtel de Crillon in Paris, as well as a sauna and steam room, and serious therapists on call – try the 111Skin facial for instant, impressive results. The grounds are made up of woods and lakes (lots of wild swimming and paddle-boarding), slotting neatly into the arable farmland – 100,000 new trees per year will be planted over the next decade – and on-site ecologists monitor bird and wildlife populations. Telltale signs of Hunt’s obsession with cars (remember the Foxtons Minis?) are visible as staff whizz around in Morris Minors, though guests are encouraged to hop aboard Pashley cycles to explore. The kitchen is stocked with Suffolk apple juice, Pump Street chocolate and homemade Victoria sponge, and while there’s no pub or restaurant, campfire feasts can be set up in the forest. Despite being close to the coast and delightful Aldeburgh, you’ll find little reason to leave. By Tabitha Joyce
Address: Chapel Barn, Halesworth Road, Suffolk, IP19 0EJ
Price: from £4,181 a night (sleeps up to 38)
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Fran MartThe Lodge at Dun Aluinn, Perthshire
‘Aberfeldy is the centre of the universe,’ jokes Infinite Scotland guide Tim Willis halfway up nearby Kenmore Hill as the morning mist rolls away, revealing Schiehallion and Ben Lawers on the other side of Loch Tay. And he has a point: it is at the heart of Scotland, meaning almost everywhere else, from the Cairngorms National Park to Oban, the gateway to the isles off the west coast, is within a couple of hours’ striking distance. On the edge of town, Dun Aluinn is a grand Victorian house, refreshingly filled with design finds, including a zingy orange Patricia Urquiola sofa and a sleek Italian Art Deco drinks cabinet, rather than the usual tartan and hunting trophies. Now The Lodge has been added, a minimalist four-bedroom cedar-clad cabin tucked away in its own wildflower-filled garden. It takes a similarly light-handed Scandi-Scot approach, with muted earthy textiles set against colour-pop sinks and simple leather sling chairs draped in sheepskin throws, all framed by huge picture windows. A decked terrace is cleverly covered so that the Tay Valley panorama can be enjoyed whatever the season – there’s a rattan swing chair, picked up by owner John Burke and his architect wife Susie Whyte in Ibiza, and thick Johnstons of Elgin blankets are piled up by the back door just in case. But the real specialness here is in the deep connections that John and always-on-hand butler Alister Reid have in these parts, fixing anything from a kids’ canoeing expedition with Wee Adventures to a time-travelling Iron Age evening at the Scottish Crannog Centre. Afterwards, head back for a sensational supper whipped up by chef Chris Rowley from nearby foodie mini-empire Ballintaggart Farm as dusk casts its magic light over the scene. By Fiona Kerr
Address: The Lodge at Dun Aluinn, Alma Ave, Aberfeldy PH15 2BW
Price: from £3,500 for three nights (sleeps eight)
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Helen CathcartHoneybridge Estate, West Sussex
It always makes such a difference when you stay in a house that’s been lived in and loved by the owners – there are napkins in the Welsh dresser, tea towels in abundance, board games in towering piles and, in this case, rather staggering art on the walls. Honeybridge has been a family home for more than 40 years and was recently reimagined into a fresh contemporary hideout by its owners, who are passionate collectors – guests can marvel at contemporary pieces in all mediums, offset with classic oils in the drawing room. That’s not to say this is like staying in a museum. It’s a solid, elegant, interesting place. The Edwardian building was remodelled by an enthusiast of Georgian architecture, resulting in lovely sash windows, floorboards reclaimed from the wooden ceiling of St Pancras station, alongside sculptures from Japan and Mexico, and a pool better than you’d find at most hotels. It’s a set-up that shouts out for a multi-generational gathering, with a cricket pitch, tennis court and zip wire, plus a treehouse and mini lake. There are provisions made for younger guests with high chairs and cots and a generous sense of do-make-yourself-at-home. Stash extra friends in the cottage and the barn for a full-throttle knees-up. There is an embarrassment of space, but it’s barely more than an hour out of London; the beach, the South Downs, Petworth, Cowdray and Goodwood are all an easy drive away. The views of Chanctonbury Ring from the satisfyingly square hallway are what sold it to the owners – it’s not hard to fall under the same spell. IVS
Address: Honeybridge Estate, Ashurst, West Sussex
Price: from £4,500 for three nights at the house (sleeps 12 adults and four children)
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Sophie KnightThe Gallery, Suffolk
It’s a classic arrival – a winding driveway leading to a grand Regency pile deep in the English countryside, but that is not the whole story. Tucked to the side, connected by a contemporary solid-oak door, is the converted and extended outhouse, stable and barn, now reimagined as a light-flooded weekend hangout. The two-bedroom space doubles as a studio for fashion and lifestyle shoots – it’s hardly surprising that photographer Julia Bostock and Ben Burdett, owner of London’s Atlas Gallery, should have opted for such a creative set-up. Exposed-brick walls painted the brightest white are framed by wooden beams that stretch from the polished – concrete floor to the high ceilings. A huge viewing window faces the garden, which in spring is shrouded with flowers freshly dampened by the rain. You’ll likely hear birdsong in the early morning, and the smaller bedroom overlooks nothing but oak trees and sky. Large glass doors lead onto a terrace strung with fairy lights and the shared garden has a fire pit for toasting marshmallows. There are nearby coastal towns to explore, gently rolling fields to amble through and pubs stocked with local cider for a proper Suffolk immersion. But back at the house, instead of a country-cottage vibe, the feel is eclectic and global: minimalist Scandi interiors juxtaposed with curios including an old number plate from Zanzibar, cloth paintings picked up in Antigua and Indian portraits from Cochin. Just outside the little pink-tiled kitchen hangs a photograph taken in Mexico by René Burri that was previously exhibited in the Atlas Gallery. An unexpectedly offbeat hideaway with a neat balance of artistic flair and rural cosiness. By Sophie Knight
Address: The Gallery, Suffolk
Price: from £250 a night (sleeps four)
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Ray MainCroyde Cottage, Devon
The pretty village of Croyde, with its lime-rendered thatched houses and old-world charm, is set on the wild west-facing coastline of Devon, with some of the UK’s best surf spots – Saunton Sands, Putsborough Sands and Woolacombe – right on the doorstep. But it’s not just for wave-chasers. The wide sandy beach and nearby Baggy Point, the headland that separates Croyde Bay and Morte Bay, make for spectacular land-based adventures too. One of the loveliest places to stay here, right next to the church, is this cottage dating from 1800. It was given a new lease of life by owners Daniel Voyce and his wife, interior designer Katharine Pooley, who is better known for elegant Knightsbridge townhouses than West Country boltholes. From the outside, it’s dreamy and utterly pristine. Step inside, and it’s as if you’ve landed in the Hamptons, with a base palette of taupe, grey and off-white and wide European-oak floors. There are plenty of nautical nods: a rope bannister winds up the stairs; hundreds of tiny seashells are stitched onto fabric blinds; and shellfish and all manner of ocean-shaped elements take centre stage, with a striking bespoke chandelier by Scabetti made of English fine-bone-china fish floating majestically above the dining table. The four bedrooms and four large bathrooms are great for families holidaying together, and the dorm with its quadruple bunk beds is brilliant for children but will also accommodate fully grown teens. The very private terrace has a top-notch pizza oven and a Big Green Egg barbecue fit for pros. But the masterstroke is the hot tub, ideal for sinking into after a windswept day by the sea. Karin Mueller
Address: Croyde Cottage, Croyde, Devon, EX33
Price: from £696 a night (sleeps eight)
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HaarkonSpinks Nest Cottage, Norfolk
The term spink is East Anglian vernacular for the common chaffinch. In the sleepy village of Hunworth, a historic spot deep in the Glaven Valley that’s listed in the Domesday Book, is a completely charming, bird-size hideout named after that rusty-red species. Owners Ana Perez and Alan Flett have transformed this one-bedroom dwelling into a bold space inspired by the marshes of nearby Cley next the Sea and Blakeney. Layers of original flint were revealed during the restoration process and are now celebrated inside and out; the glossy tobacco browns and electric fern greens of the paintwork and furniture are not too dissimilar to the mallards found beside the chalk stream that runs through town. A retro zinc countertop keeps it cool in the kitchen, where still-warm sourdough from nearby Siding bakery appears in the mornings among the enamel teapots and earthenware. Vintage fabrics feature strongly, with gorgeous Morris & Co curtains in the living room and thick tweed-covered chairs beside the log burner, while the bathroom with its sunken micro-cement bath is the most contemporary part of the place. Collectables and fine details add layers of interest everywhere: look out for the salvaged-elm shelves, delftware by artist Paul Bommer and delicate leaves etched into the locally made floor tiles. This tiny nook has just enough room for an out-of-town couple (plus dog) to hunker down, and plenty of quirkiness to make it really stand out under North Norfolk’s vast skies. By Katharine Sohn
Address: Spinks Nest Cottage, King St, Hunworth, Melton Constable NR24 2EH
Price: from £220 a night (sleeps two)
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ELLIOTT WHITEMolesworth Manor, Cornwall
Cornwall has had an extraordinary year. Nowhere has picked up more staycation fervour than this wild, beach-strung outstretched toe of the UK. While some will forever be loyal to the no-nonsense, sandy-sandwich simplicity of the old spots – all cork walls and shingle, open shelves and wonky floors – there is no doubt that a more spritzy wind is blowing. Here is a shiny new player, an upright, dashing village house that has focused hard on being smart but also with a surefire emphasis on its bacchanalian drive. Two cedar hot tubs sit cheek by jowl next to a sleek inside sauna. There’s a big outside space where all nights seem to begin and end. And with a tasting room and screening room and pool tables and several bars, it’s turbo-charged and very fun. While downstairs the sitting rooms are cool and clubby, upstairs the seven bedrooms all have fresh wallpaper and vast bathrooms. The home was originally built in the 17th century and updated in Victorian times, and the depth of heritage comes through in all sorts of lovely detail. It has no sea views, but you are a five-minute drive from Padstow and all that this hotbed of Cornish fame provides: great shops and pubs and walks and bicycle rides along the Camel Trail to Wadebridge, plus more Rick Stein fishmonger/ fine-dining/takeaway/tea-towel-souvenir shenanigans than you can shake a salt-covered chip at. But of course there is a more secret side too, and as the crowds gather in season it’s good to make the off-grid effort. The county is hitting top levels in terms of extraordinary homegrown wines and local produce, and a young generation with fire in their bellies is making the most of it. Check out the talent and charm at Prawn on the Farm and the Trevibban Mill Vineyard. Like Molesworth, the whole place is starting to feel sophisticated, with an excitable spring in its step. By Melinda Stevens
Address: Molesworth Manor, Little Petherick, Padstow PL27 7QT
Price: from £4,519 for three nights (sleeps 14)
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Hillside Cottage, Edington, Wiltshire
Across the road from local favourite pub and brewery The Three Daggers, Hillside Cottage, as the name suggests, is well placed with views of both the Salisbury Plain and Marlborough Downs. In prime position on said hillside are cabins concealing a sauna and steam room, along with an outdoor hot tub and icy plunge pool for dunking. There’s also a gin terrace and fire-pit for evening s’mores. This smart pad, which sleeps up to 12, is kitted out with tongue-and-groove wood panelling and William Morris wallpaper. The living room actually feels like someone’s home with bookshelves stacked with a mix of vintage reads and coffee-table titles, as well as a toasty fire for cold evenings. On a summer’s day, there are few spots as perfect for croquet than the grassy garden, plus there are sweet nooks with tables on different levels for groups not looking to be on top of each other during their stay.
When it comes to the bedrooms there’s no short straw: all are spacious, decorated with thick curtains and patterned headboards – though only one has a bath, so there may be a scramble for that on arrival. Hop across the road to the farm shop before breakfast and stock up on Priory Farm apple juice made in the village and homemade, flapjack-like granola and rhubarb compote to go with a very good flat white. The store also sells excellent doughnuts, banana bread and brownies come tea time. A lovely retreat for a gang of friends with any hosting admin removed by the pub, which has additional bedrooms should you need them and offers chef-prepared feasts delivered to the house. By Tabitha Joyce
Address: Hillside Cottage, Westbury Road, Edington, Westbury, Wiltshire, BA13 4PG
Price: from £1,500 a night (sleeps 12)
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Philip DurrantAnthology Farm, Gloucestershire
Forced to leave their fourth-generation farm in the Midlands by the construction of HS2, the Barnes family started afresh near Cheltenham in 2018, renovating two 18th-century barns at break-neck speed. ‘We had built up a shop and wedding-venue business in Staffordshire, so we had to diversify quickly here in order to survive,’ says Henry Barnes. The brief for London-based design agency Run for the Hills was to make it not so far removed that it might alienate a more traditional crowd, but cooler and more current than Cotswolds-cottage dove-greys and duck-egg blues.
So off-white sofas and pampas grass set off the exposed Grade II-listed brickwork, while contemporary art, black highlights and tribal patterns work together to create a sharp, fresh look. Cheer is injected with a distressed travel trunk here, a whimsical vintage fan there. The beaded leather pendant lights above the enormous raw oak dining table sold out in the UK, so they took a while to source – a friend-of-a-friend of the Barnes in the USA tracked a pair down and shipped them over. Gangs from both houses can pile in through the glass doors for supper on wishbone chairs, and despite the pristine feel, children are welcome. There’s a cot, but older kids will love den-making in the twin rattan beds under the eaves. Add to that a heated indoor swimming pool, cinema room and tennis court – and the patchwork quilt of yellow and green cubes of fields and clutches of woodland all around – and it makes for a great spot for all ages to decamp to. Designed and run by a big family for other big families. By Harriet Jones
Address: Anthology Farm, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
Price: from £4,450 for three nights (sleeps 18)
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Abbie MelleCotswold Farm Hideaway
The antiques honeypot of Tetbury is a 20-minute drive away, but the Swiss owners of these three quirky cottages have gone for a more eclectic look. The restrained edit of contemporary and vintage furniture would look more at home in a tall Islington townhouse along with its sustainable lime plaster walls and tourmaline-green tiles. The main farmhouse and its accompanying outbuildings, previously owned by an artist, are huddled together down a private lane in the cusp of the valley where llamas roam. It’s cut-off and quiet. North Country sheep speckle the hills. The biggest cottage, Whitehall, has a pitched roof and original details. This is a farm, so a large boot room makes a no-stress entrance for muddy wellies. Piles of logs and kindling already laid in the inglenook fireplace keep things toasty. Just-laid duck eggs, freshly baked bread and a bowl of lemons are left as a welcome.
Take Whitehall together with Willow, the smallest, which, with its mezzanine bedroom and baby football table, is good for the overflow; together, they sleep eight. And high-ceilinged Winterspring, previously the artist’s studio, sleeps four. A well-written little booklet about where to go and what to do is also included. The footpaths of the Cotswold Way run past the cottages, but it’s rare to pass even a dog walker. Ever so slightly off the beaten track, this feels like a thrillingly forgotten corner of the Cotswolds. By Emma Hiley
Address: Cotswold Farm Hideaway, Gloucestershire, England, United Kingdom
Price: from £580 per night for all three cottages (minimum stay two nights), excluding cleaning fee (sleeps up to 12)
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Douglas GibbLary, Aberdeenshire
This is a deliciously easy way into Scottish estate living. Driving up to the Lary Farmhouse and Steading may seem like you’re heading off-road into the wilderness, but it’s actually only four miles from the cheese- and wine-stocked George Strachan general store in the Royal Deeside town of Ballater. Instagrammer The Muddy Mummy, otherwise known as Emily Salvesen, clearly has an expert eye for styling. With her husband Hal she has completely transformed the property owned by his family, originally from Norway, and, consciously or not, given it a Nordic once-over. The houses, at one time used for the occasional shoot and get-together, have been refreshed.
This is Scotland, so there are plenty of relevant tartans and mounted antlers, but it’s cleverly mixed with a stripped-back aesthetic that brings unexpected light to the rooms, pale timber from Belgium lining the master bedroom’s vaulted ceiling and wonky beams running throughout. A huge taxidermied buffalo head keeps watch in the main drawing room with its Ralph Lauren hunting-lodge vibe, and the space also includes a library and masses of board games, backgammon and chess. A sheltered courtyard connects the two buildings, and the huge kitchen and dining room in the farmhouse is a great central party space for which a chef can be called in. Or just stay put and soak up the views. This is remote, raw Cairngorms countryside. From the windows all you can see are the hills and the valley below, the weather rolling in visibly. During a storm it feels as if you’re out at sea. By Miranda Mackaness
Address: Lary, Ballater , Aberdeenshire, United Kingdom
Price: from £1,000 per night (sleeps 20)
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HaarkonSettle, Norfolk
Jo and John Morfoot were already kitting out reclaimed railway carriages to rent on Settle’s peaceful patch of woodland, planted by John’s family in the 1970s, when they decided they also wanted to create a secluded hideaway for their wedding night. The Lakeside Cabin is the result: a Scandinavian-style forest escape for two. The building blocks – a mix of mid-century-modern neatness with the rustic details of a snug country hut – came from John’s nearby salvage yard and the inspiration from Jo’s design background. Dedication to sustainability is evident throughout: none of the elements were new, bar the enormous sliding doors that frame the open-plan living space which looks out across a lake full of squabbling ducks. Inside, an overstuffed leather armchair sits among a bounty of happy house plants. Earthy colours match the natural materials: there’s hardly a shred of plastic, ceramics are sourced from local potters and the welcome loaf of sourdough comes wrapped in a linen tea towel.
In the wholesome little kitchen there’s enamel cookware and wooden plates that were used for the wedding. Muttering Victorian radiators, indoor and outdoor woodburners, and a freestanding bath keep colder nights cosy; for warmer days, there are wicker chairs on the lakeside veranda and a rope swing over the water. You’re unlikely to bump into any other residents, except perhaps the site’s own bees. They’re the busiest creatures here: this place is precision-tooled for slowing down and bedding in, with little phone signal, no Wi-fi or TV, and not much to do within a short driving distance. Walk, cook, read, stare into the fire – it’s private, tucked away, next-level relaxing. By Sonya Barber
Address: Settle, Larling Road, Shropham, Attleborough, Norfolk, NR17 1EA
Price: from £250 per night (sleeps two)
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Rachel HoileDeer Park, Devon
This Georgian house near Honiton was run as a hotel for more than half a century before its owners changed tack. They had already begun a major revamp – adding a lofty orangery, restoring the walled kitchen garden, refreshing the bedrooms – with grown-up gatherings in mind, and now it works just as well for blow-out parties as it does for a low-key weekend with your favourite gang. Inside, cool twists lend personality to the traditional spaces: game-bird wallpaper in the midnight-blue living room; a mini art gallery of cricket-themed paintings. Outside, rolling lawns give way to wisteria-draped arches, the Italian garden, with its lavender beds and lion-head fountains, and orchards – ask to sample the cider, made on site from last year’s pickings, or the apple-and-fennel gin.
The Chauffeur’s Hideaway – named after the motor house where the classic-car collection is stored – can be set up for late-night suppers cooked over the fire pit and eaten around the huge oak table with lights strung up in the trees. For those who prefer to sleep away from the action, or for smaller groups, The Shed comes with a retro jukebox and dart board, and there’s a circular thatched treehouse for two and a three-bedroom Playhouse with a wooden deck – most magical on an early misty morning, when deer are often spotted in the distant fields. Staff can arrange fly-fishing on a stretch of the River Otter or a spin to Sidmouth in the Packard, while chefs knock up a simple steak pie or seven-course supper. No one needs lift a finger. By Emma Love
Address: Deer Park, Buckerell Village, Weston, Honiton EX14 3PG
Price: from £7,500 per night (main house only, sleeps 28)
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NORTH LODGE, COWORTH PARK, BERKSHIRE
Just a short distance from Windsor, Coworth Park is, of course, the hotel where Prince Harry – along with his best man William – stayed before his wedding in 2018, holing up in the sprawling estate’s Grade II-listed Dower House. The brothers have a close association with Coworth, having swung many a mallet on the polo field here; but the hotel wears its royal connections lightly, preferring instead to create a sense of Englishness without resorting to whimsy or pageantry.
A case in point is the new North Lodge cottage, the estate’s former gatehouse, which was unveiled just before Christmas and has been patiently waiting throughout lockdown for its first guests. With its twin gabled red roof and black-and-white façade, a gravel drive leading to a porch where over-sized candles flicker in brass casings, it would audition well for a traditional festive card. Inside, there’s a satisfying sense of well-honed woodiness, along with decor that won’t scare the horses but creates an unbuttoned feeling of the country-casual high life – the artisanal wherewithal of William Morris meets Noël Coward in slacks, perhaps.
Banistered stairs lead up to three bedrooms and as many bathrooms (two adjoining), all snug with flower-motif fabrics, brass bath tubs and views over the garden or meadowland. Downstairs is the timber-beamed living room with woodburning stove and board games (just the place for a G&T and a meaningful gaze out of the window) and an extensive kitchen space with the sort of gadgetry attendees at a Fifties World’s Fair would marvel at – a tomorrow’s home of instant boiling water, ice cubes and caffè-quality coffee at the touch of a button, a steam oven and sous-vide unit. Feasts can be delivered and set at the eight-seater table here, and barbecues sizzled outside on the decking; though buggies can be dispatched to take guests to the main hotel restaurant or more informal brasserie, as well as the spa. A reassuringly restful address for an out-of-London staycation. Rick Jordan
Address: Coworth Park, Blacknest Road, Sunningdale, Ascot SL5 7SE
Price: From £3,500 per night (five-night minimum stay). Sleeps six
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Chris HorwoodWolterton Hall, Norfolk
A long, looping driveway through a Charles Bridgeman-designed landscape leads to this Palladian-inspired stately. When the Walpole family handed it over in 2016, after almost three centuries in residence, it was time for a facelift. It’s impossible not to be drawn in by the stories of the charismatic owners, Peter Sheppard and Keith Day. ‘This 18th-century Chinese goldfish bowl was probably used to christen Nelson,’ says Sheppard as he wanders past a chair used in Prince Charles’s investiture, which sits beneath a Chris Levine holographic portrait of the Queen. These pieces are in the crimson royal room, the damask wallpaper of which was so lusted after by Sheppard that he sourced, bought and used the last rolls ever made.
The renovation of the mansion has been a huge success – a clever mix of textiles, styles and eras has created unstuffy, liveable spaces. The main part of the house, available to settle into this summer, takes centre stage. Walpole family paintings and intricate tapestries gifted by Cardinal Fleury lord over rooms illuminated by chandeliers and antique Venetian lampposts. Sheppard and Day’s additions soften the historic edges: hot-pink Gio Ponti chairs, contemporary English roll-arm sofas, Persian rugs curiously purchased from a Dutch Buddhist monk, and a healthy dose of up-to-speed engineering. One bathroom has a hidden Champagne fridge, and there’s a rain shower which cascades from the full-height Georgian ceiling.
Of the four apartments to rent, the East Wing is the largest. Selwyn Leamy artworks line the staircase to the loft, a triple-aspect zone of tranquillity, while the other bedrooms have period furniture pieces, Howard-style chairs and Colefax and Fowler fabrics. And for privacy, the Garden House, set away from the main building, has a walled garden for summer barbecues. A heritage hit with a grounded type of grandeur – modern yet still very much fit for a duke. By Paula Maynard
Address: Wolterton Hall, Wolterton Park, Norfolk, NR11 7LY
Telephone: +44 1263 76896
Price: From £2,630 for three nights in the East Wing (sleeps 14)
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Jake EasthamBibury Farm Barns, Gloucestershire
Owners George and Polly Phillips spent two years transforming this old farmyard – it took a couple of drawn-out appeals to planning, a few panicked conversations with the bank, countless interiors proposals and a seriously good deal from Cotswolds designer Pippa Paton to turn the family land into a perfectly of-the-moment business.
Across the five barns, now reimagined as sleek, crisp hangouts, Paton’s look is tougher than the area’s ubiquitous Daylesford narrative, with agricultural artefacts including stone troughs and pitchforks as art. They work just as well for hunkering down – log burners, deep sofas – as they do for gatherings, with cedar hot tubs, huge dining tables and doors that open out onto the courtyard and great field of a garden.
In Grain Store, the largest space with five bedrooms, the ground floor could hold 50 friends without blinking. A sense of solidity is prevalent: wide floorboards, big beds, lengthy kitchen islands, copper bathtubs, oversized showers and double-height ceilings, beamed with ancient oak and lit with industrial steel pendants or an antler chandelier. Sunshine floods in through walls of glass, casting shadows through the fiddle-leaf figs.
Bedrooms have a moody kind of light play: greys on grey, a tonal Kelly Hoppen taupe-ness with linen throws and leather piped cushions. Bathrooms are dark, warm, stashed with botanical 100 Acres products. Framed black-and-white photographs of the recent mud-splattered floors and aluminium roofs are an arty reminder of the place’s agricultural roots. Not that the cows next door will let anyone forget. One of the UK's prettiest villages Bibury is right on the doorstep – walk down after breakfast to explore before the crowds spill in. And the rest of the Cotswolds – with its pretty pubs such as Northleach’s Wheatsheaf Inn, antique shops, arboretum walks and charming towns – is there for the taking. Country smarts with heft. By Issy von Simson
Address: Bibury Farm Barns, Bibury, Gloucestershire GL7 5PB
Telephone: +44 1285 706188
Price: From £3,150 for a three-night long weekend in the Grain Store (sleeps 10)
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Rebecca Douglas www.coolstays.comKingshill Farmhouse, Kent
‘In summer it looks like the savannah,’ says Gareth Fulton, gesturing out the window to the widescreen Isle Of Sheppey skies and horizon-flat marshes, snaked with water and stalked by swans and grazing sheep. In the distance, a flight of swallows swoop over the Swale in the Thames Estuary beyond. It might only be just over an hour from London, but the 3,300-acre wetlands that make up Elmley National Nature Reserve feel far more remote. Fulton and his wife Georgina moved here in 2013, taking over her family farm set amid the bird reserve.
Since then, they’ve slowly added cabins and shepherd huts to overnight among the rushes. But for bigger broods there’s now Kingshill Farmhouse, which opened last summer. This elegant six-bedroom space was a brick shell when the Fultons started work, an original 18th-century farmhouse with a Victorian addition fused onto one end. They’ve taken it back to the bones, restored and modernised it, adding a glass-sided kitchen extension to make the most of the nature-filled views and sky-blazing sunrises.
The navy marble-and-brass kitchen is fitted out for lazy lunches and get-together suppers around the long table or out on the terrace (on the Fultons’ tip, pick up a joint from MB Farms en route). Alternatively, food can be brought to the door, including breakfasts of bircher muesli with Kentish apple juice and feasts of local lamb tagine or beef and root-vegetable stew. The covetable interior design by Francesca Rowan-Plowden has a layered, lived-in feel: oyster plates turned wall art; fluffy dried pampas grasses in Surrey Ceramics pots; rugs from Romney Marsh Wools; cushions by sustainable Whitstable studio Fable & Base. There’s help-yourself whisky in the snug for a nip in front of the wood burner, backgammon and bird bingo in the library, and books everywhere. Plus bedrooms to suit everyone, such as the garden-inspired one with a metal bath at the foot of the four-poster and the kids’ room in the beamed loft with twin raised beds. This is a pace-resetting spot to flock to in a special corner of the country. By Fiona Kerr
Address: Kingshill Farmhouse, Minster-on-Sea, Isle of Sheppey
Telephone: +44 1273 692300
Price: From £1,700 for two nights (sleeps 14)
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57 Nord, Wester Ross, Scotland
Spied from a boat on the far-stretching Loch Duig in the north-west Highlands, this is one of the best cabins in the UK. It sits above the loch shores, the silvery-glass and fine-grained larch exterior seeming to embody some spirit of sympathy with an eternal landscape, while also having boldness, youth and originality.
Inside is an open-plan masterpiece of air and light. Immense glass walls roll back to let in the breeze sweeping down from the vast scree slopes of the Kintail mountains, shutting firm against more dramatic weather – a given here. The whole vaulted-ceilinged structure feels thrillingly like a viewing platform: out to the 13th-century Eilean Donan Castle below, the lichen and irises fraying the edge of the water, the spreading circular ripples of water, waves bucking and slewing in a storm. Owner Mumtaz Lalani, who trained as a sommelier, and spent much of her youth in Norway and Finland, worked with young designer Suzi Lee (Outside In Studio) to embrace western Scotland’s Norse-Gael heritage.
That Scandinavian influence is reflected in the interior details: an opal-and-brass chandelier from Danish Nuura spreads a pale, snow-like peace. Curtains by Scottish brand Bute Fabrics are flecked in the swooning blue of a spring dawn, and yet the effect is one of intense amber warmth. Sliding doors between bedroom, bathroom and living room give the yawning openness of one relaxed and fluid space. The bespoke oak canopy bed is enormous – as if being in a wheelhouse that you can’t bring yourself to leave, lulled by how the sun hits the curved surface of a black table beyond. As much a sensory experience as it is a house. Gallery-like, and yet infinitely genial, domestic, welcoming. By Antonia Quirke
Address: 57 Nord, Wester Ross, Scottish Highlands
Price: Hill House, minimum three-night stay (sleeps four), prices starting from £1,650; Sky House, minimum three-night stay (sleeps two), prices from £1185.
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David Curran / Unique HomestaysThe Shipwreck, Cornwall
Set on the cliffside near the 17th-century fishing village of Portwrinkle, this cabin is more resurrection than ruin, entirely fashioned from wood recovered from Kodima, an actual shipwreck that sailed her last into nearby Whitsands Bay. It was crafted in the early 2000s and then bought and renovated in nine months by Plymouth couple Rob and Jo Kavanagh, inspired by their shared love of the sea, through his sailing and her childhood holidays. Now the home is a masterclass in maximising space.
A puzzle of pocket doors and loft cupboards; an old-fashioned trunk serving as a coffee table; a TV that swings between rooms; and a squeezed-in window seat for gazing out to sea. The kitchen is the beating heart of the place, while the sitting room has a prepped-to-go fire heater. There’s a custom-made Witt and Berg steel bath in the master, bunks for the children, and the shower room has a rock-pool-shaped basin, mirroring those glistening outside.
What pulls everything together, like the buttons on a sailor’s trousers, is the nautical theme. Spot illustrations of sails throughout the centuries on walls and the odd shell or message in a bottle on shelves – all without too much seaside schmaltz. Because it’s the real deal; the couple has made sure their home, which they intend to retract for their family’s sole use by 2025, is safe from whatever the elements may fling at it, as if it were a real boat. Besides, there’s just no escaping the sea here – its repetitive chorus fills your eyes, ears, lungs, bones. Watch a neon sun melt into it from the bath or bed, the slouchy sofa or bouncy wicker egg chair on the terrace. Or, on the beach itself, while feasting on all-local scones, clotted cream, raspberry jam and even Cornish wine from the weekend hamper. By Becky Lucas
Address: The Shipwreck, Portwrinkle, Whitsand Bay, Cornwall
Telephone: +44 1637 881183
Price: From £1,450 per short break (sleeps two adults and two children)
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River Cottage, Devon
The only way to reach the whitewashed farmhouse, at the foot of the Axe Valley where Dorset rolls into Devon, is by tractor. A bumpy approach passes paddocks of pigs and wandering cows in the 66 acres of West Country fields taken over by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. It’s been more than 20 years since the chef’s River Cottage programme first aired, following his mission to be self-sufficient with food.
Since then, his ahead-of-the-curve organic ethos has become mainstream, but River Cottage was championing local produce long before sustainability and zero waste became the zeitgeist of the restaurant scene. Fearnley-Whittingstall fronted campaigns to improve fishing practices in Europe and end supermarket food waste; opened a cooking school at River Cottage HQ to teach home chefs about seasonality and nose-to-tail recipes; and started supper clubs in the converted barn.
Now, for the first time, three bedrooms have been added for a full-on sleepover. The biggest one slopes wonkily from one end to the other, a reminder that this is indeed a 17th-century house, with a window seat overlooking the folding hills and a secret door leading down to the living room. House manager Nash Lewis-Oliver is around to pull out wellies for tramping on the grass and light the wood stoves, leaving the fridge stocked with elderflower Champagne and wine from Penzance’s Polgoon Vineyard.
A five-course homegrown supper (smoked beef brisket, roasted squash with labneh, brill with crispy roots) is whipped up by chefs in the kitchen, the door left open for nosy guests to take a peek, and served in the flagstone-floored dining room. It’s also where, in the mornings, there are endless supplies of sourdough toast, steaming pots of coffee and eggs from the chicken coop. For all its principles and ethical campaigns, the River Cottage is an absurdly comfy, fatten-you-up weekender. By Sarah James
Address: River Cottage, Trinity Hill Rd, Axminster EX13 8TB
Telephone: +44 1297 630300
Price: From £600 per night (sleeps six)
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Simon BrownNorth Farm, County Durham
The stirring sister of Yorkshire, this north-east county is far less genteel yet still poetic with its lumpen fields, Jurassic waterfalls and distinctive castles. And the moment you cross the threshold of the muscular farmhouse, 15 minutes from Darlington, it’s like entering a world where a NyLon sensibility meets an understanding of true Englishness.
Owner Rita Konig is a transatlantically renowned interior designer whose childhood holidays in Scotland, years living in Manhattan and patrician London upbringing (she is Nina Campbell’s daughter) all come into play in this reimagined space. Konig artfully delivers a new-but-been-here-for-generations feel. The star of the show is the apple-green drawing room with tapestry-style rugs, ornate carved side tables and heavy, double-lined curtains.
There is surprisingly varied art (large Japanese chrysanthemum prints; fin-de-siècle oil paintings; vintage film posters) and a hearteningly American attitude to hot water – Konig wanted each guest to be able to bathe if not simultaneously, then consecutively. And there are plenty of bathrooms but no en-suites, as she believes firmly in corridor life which is indeed rather jolly – particularly since North Farm’s hallways are covered in charming, faintly old-fashioned wallpaper. The kitchen is dominated by a large scrubbed table and looks out across fields and fruit trees. It is a real take on how to live: gather around the table while the clanking of the washing up happens in the pantry, and be unbridled in getting wet and muddy knowing that there’s a gleaming boot room in which to wash off the mess, then sink into those fabulous sofas and headboard-backed beds with their scalloped linen. Amid the rugged landscape, this is an example of country life that’s utterly effortless. By Annabel Rivkin
Address: North Farm, Walworth, Darlington, DL2 2LY
Telephone: +44 7775 815669
Price: From £2,500 per week (sleeps 14)
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Martin MorrellThe Bunny, Oxfordshire
Best for feasting
Before bare-brick walls, pearly soft furnishings and locavorism became ubiquitous, there was Daylesford organic farm near Kingham, which opened a little shop in 2002. It has since become an empire of deli-cafés, spas, clothing and body lines, and spoon-whittling workshops – all manna for the Chipping Norton set. But owner Lady Carole Bamford is now just as well known for the Wild Rabbit, the Daylesford-served gastropub with rooms in the village itself, which has gained Michelin rosettes and spawned imitators since opening in 2013. Now, the Wild Rabbit has opened five cottages. Across the road at the Bunny – there’s also the Dove, Robin, Little Owl and Lark – the connection is instant: not just that signature creaminess, but the organic milk in the fridge, the home-made flapjacks beside the Aga, the Bamford bath products in the bathroom. Stairs with branches for spindles lead up to two beamed bedrooms, with views onto a lavender-edged garden. The living room, with its open fire, cowhide rugs and cashmere throws, is tailor-made for a certain kind of soft-focus cosiness. Outside, Kingham is the Cotswolds in distillate form: all stone and thatch with just one shop but two big-hitting gastropubs (the other, the Kingham Plough, is still excellent despite The Fat Duck alum Emily Watkins selling up) and Alex James’s cheese farm. The nearby villages of Stow-on-the-Wold and the Slaughters are dreams of England. Like the Bunny, they’re either too perfect, or just perfect enough. By Francesca Babb
Address: The Wild Rabbit, Church Street, Kingham, Oxfordshire, OX7
Telephone: +44 1608 658 389
Price: From £400 per night for two nights minimum, including breakfast (sleeps four)
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The Pump station, Kent
Best for bunker hunkering
They call it Britain’s fifth quarter: the shingle expanse of Dungeness on the Kent coast, a nature reserve and pharmacopoeia of plants and occasional houses wrought from Victorian railway carriages, all jutting from flint, glittering with rain and Channel tides under pewter skies. A vast nuclear power station dominates the promontory – neither Rivendell nor Mordor, it’s something in between, twinkling mythically through the long evenings. No trees obscure the view from the Pump Station. It is a Delphic, one-storey curiosity; a poured-concrete cube that was used for a covert D-Day project during World War II. Converted by interior architect Fiona Naylor and her photographer husband, it retains its utilitarian façade, but with immense windows at the back, hugged by Corten steel. It seems to float in its setting; unlike Derek Jarman’s famous shingle garden nearby, here the pebbles, studded with willow shrubs, thistle and borage, stretch into infinity, turning to silhouettes as the sun clambers down the sky. Before dusk, a dusty ruby glow surges through the windows. The 108-square-metre space inside is mostly open-plan oak and original arched-concrete beams, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Part beach hut, part bunker, it is peaceful, warm as toast; fabrics are the colours of coastal plants, bird’s eggs and stone. Looking from a distance – the sea is 10 minutes’ walk away, and the nearby Dungeness Snack Shack, selling just-caught-lobster rolls – you notice how the steel has oxidised to the shade of russety lichen, and that the original pebbledash rhymes, sublimely, with the shingle. By Antonia Quirke
Address: Dungeness Estate, Kent, TN29
Telephone: +44 1227 464 958
Price: From £900 for three nights (sleeps eight)
Price: From £400 per night for two nights minimum, including breakfast (sleeps four)
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Thorpe Manor, Oxfordshire
Best for house parties
Georgian high society was never much into Swedish hot tubs, Negroni sharpeners and fire-pit suppers. But what’s clever about Henry and Natasha Teare’s conversion of this Grade II-listed manor house on the edge of the Cotswolds is that they’ve created a vibe of unstuffy modern hedonism, without compromising the place’s red-stone splendour. When Henry inherited the 17th-century Banbury pile from his stepfather Derek Ancil, a jockey and horse trainer who once won the Hennessy Gold Cup, it was as tired as Red Rum in the early 1990s. He and Natasha quit jobs in the city to spend three years overseeing a top-to-toe renovation that included unearthing the original flagstone flooring in the entrance hall. Each of the 14 bedrooms has been named after one of Ancil’s horses: such as Prince Bon Bon, with its wildflower pictures on pale-pink walls, and cosy Merryman, with mustard headboards and lemon-and-white striped curtains. In one bathroom there’s an avocado-coloured Roman bath, in another a set of jockey scales. Butlers are on hand with morning flat whites, sipped beside the drawing-room log fire with the papers – and they double as cocktail makers in the velvet-filled bar. When it’s time to eat, everyone gathers in the kitchen as the chef slow-cooks lamb over the fire pit. Clay-pigeon shooting, falconry and archery are all available on the 200-acre estate, but simpler pleasures are closer by: afternoon games of croquet; lazing under tartan blankets in the oak-panelled cinema. For all its history, it’s a house for hunkering down with friends and forgetting the world. By Emma Love
Address: Banbury Ln, Thorpe Mandeville, Banbury, OX17
Telephone: +44 1295 711 006
Price: From £10,000 for a three-night weekend stay (sleeps 28)
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Glenfeshie, Cairngorms
Best for wildlife spotting
The general narrative for smart Highlands stays in recent years has been to play with tradition rather than stick to it. Indeed, Glenfeshie Lodge’s owner Anders Holch Povlsen, a Danish businessman and Scotland’s largest landowner, has been part of that trend, bringing various degrees of Scandi minimalism to his four other rentable houses set on 221,000 acres. But Glenfeshie Lodge, near Braemar, is the one that sticks most closely to its 19th-century roots. The grey-stone hunting lodge, standing proud over a mist-cloaked valley, is said to be where Sir Edwin Landseer painted The Monarch of the Glen, the stag on Walkers shortbread tins. There’s a strand of Scottish Victoriana to the house and its surrounding 45,000-acre estate – from being met by head gamekeeper Davie McGibbon, in Glenfeshie tweed plus-fours, to sleeping in a floral-print, four-poster bed. But a more timeless plan underpins this place: striding up the 1,118-metre Sgor Gaoith for views down to Loch Einich and across the Moine Mhor (Great Moss), McGibbon explains how his team are keeping deer numbers down to regrow these woodlands and welcome red squirrels, pine martens and endangered black grouse and capercaillie. A golden eagle, flying towards an afternoon sun over Coire Garbhlach, appears like a totemic endorsement of Holch Povlsen’s scheme to rewild all of his land. At dinner, chef Richard Turner serves local venison with hedgehog mushrooms and purple sprouting broccoli foraged from the walled gardens of Aldourie Castle, about an hour’s drive away, and eaten with stag-antler cutlery. It tastes like the Highlands, done just right. By Gabriel O’Rorke
Address: Glenfeshie Estate, Kincraig, Kingussie, Scotland, PH21
Telephone: +44 1540 661 619
Price: From £9,500 for two nights full board for eight people (sleeps 10)
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Justin BartonThe Riding House, Dorset
Best for eccentric character
There is a faint smell of a tack room in the comfortable sitting room of the Riding House. The leathery scent comes from a far wall, where there are rows of shiny saddles on sturdy beams, a reminder that this is indeed a 17th-century stable block. The building is the latest piece of a massive restoration on Dorset’s Shaftesbury estate. Nick Ashley-Cooper became the 12th Earl of Shaftesbury in 2005 when his older brother died of a heart attack at just 27. Ashley-Cooper had been a successful DJ and music promoter in New York before moving back to the crumbling ancestral seat. In 2010, he and his wife Dinah Streifeneder, a vet, began turning the main house, St Giles, into a home as colourful as its past. Now, the next-door stables have been converted into an eight-bedroom guesthouse. It is a place of new and old, where the brick floors, intentionally rough paintwork and frayed-wood partitions remind you that you’re sleeping in ancient stalls. Theatricality runs through it all, with Pierre Frey velvet used as wallpaper hung on wrought-iron poles and a giant, bronze horse head in the entrance hall. Other touches are faintly spooky, such as the mantrap hanging beside the bar, or the leg emerging from a wall in one room. ‘We didn’t want it to be safe,’ says Ashley-Cooper of the project. ‘We wanted it to be bold, brave, an experience.’ Stays on a country estate have never felt so thrilling. By Sally Shalam
Address: The Riding House, Wimborne BH21
Telephone: +44 1725 517 214
Price: From £1,800 per night (sleeps 18)
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Gregoire KaltGlen Affric Estate, Inverness-shire
Best for outdoor adventures
Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth, gave the world some lasting gifts in the second half of the 19th century. The banking scion, East India Company director and Liberal politician also dabbled in canine genetics, breeding the first golden retrievers. In 1872, he completed a Highlands hunting lodge beside a loch in Glen Affric, gifting it to his daughter. Like the golden retriever, the 10,000-acre estate has aged well, and remains popular with the huntin’, shootin’, fishin’ set. The current laird and lady are David and Jane Matthews, Pippa Middleton’s in-laws, who own the Eden Rock hotel in St Barth’s. Management is overseen by Masterpiece Estates, an offshoot of the Oetker Collection, which, on top of the Caribbean mainstay, runs Le Bristol Paris and The Lanesborough in London. The Victorian feel of the lodge has been preserved, with some thoughtful contemporary additions, and now guests are provided with a designated host. Mine was James Middleton, Kate and Pippa’s bearded brother, a genuine outdoorsman who clearly loves the land in a way that goes well beyond the payroll. What to do? This is the serious Highlands, about an hour’s drive south-west of Inverness. So you stalk deer or shoot partridge – or clay pigeons, if you are squeamish. You fish, ride, hike, sail on the loch or sunbathe on its startlingly lovely beach. You eat and drink like a Tweedmouth. Or you simply sit still and gaze out of a window, almost moved to tears at what some say is the most beautiful glen in Scotland. By Steve King
Address: The Glen Affric Estate, Inverness-shire IV4
Telephone: +44 20 7079 1621
Price: From £67,200 for exclusive, seven-night use of the estate for 10 people (sleeps 20)
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Maarten Van MeerbeeckGairnshiel Lodge, Cairngorms
Best for European crafts
This 18th-century hunting lodge, set in a heathery valley near the confluence of the River Gairn and River Dee on the vast Invercauld Estate, was taken over by a family of low-profile Belgian billionaires. Gainshiel has been painstakingly revamped in a pared-down European style – furniture is mid-20th-century classic, often in dark, matte tones, offset by intriguing, eclectic vintage pieces such as the gorgeous reclaimed wardrobes, with hand-forged nails as knobs, by Belgian dealer-designer Joris Van Apers. All eight rooms are similarly lovely, though they vary considerably in size; and the social spaces are at once smart and cosy, while the kitchen gives the entire place a wonderful sense of groundedness and warmth. The shooting is excellent in the right season but the estate is blissfully quiet the rest of the time, its gently undulating, picturesque hills perfect for exploring on foot or by bicycle. Its neighbours include the Queen, the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and Swiss art dealers Manuela and Iwan Wirth. Although an invitation to Balmoral or Birkhall might be too much to hope for, you may well bump into the owners at the butcher’s shop in nearby Ballater. And there are the contrasting styles and attractions of the Wirths’ astonishing Fife Arms. In terms of its proximity not only to exceptional natural beauty but to assorted royalty, plutocracy and art-world aristocracy, Gairnshiel Lodge might just be one of the hottest houses in the UK right now. The Highlands have not been so chic since the days of Victoria and Albert. By Steve King
Address: Gairnshiel Lodge, Cairngorms AB35
Telephone: +44 7512 246 363
Price: From £16,200 for seven nights, including breakfast (sleeps 16)
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Nick IsdenBledington Barn, Oxfordshire
Best for off-beat country kicks
What do you get when Catherine Chichester, formerly of Christie’s auction house, turns a Cotswolds cowshed into a cosy, modern cottage? The answer isn’t just a fine piece of alliteration, but a stay full of surprise. There are aspects of this 300-year-old stone barn, which was renovated in 2008 with the initial intention of hosting visiting family members, that follow a certain thread: original beams and doors; rustic ladders turned into towel rails; a large painting of a cow. Upstairs in the church-like space, the three bedrooms – heavy on upcycled wood – look out beyond the house’s garden and a little stream. But the real fun of Bledington Barn is where it goes left-field. The light-flooded, brick-paved living area in the open-plan ground-floor space is overlooked by a Buddha-head statue peering down from the mezzanine. On one wall hangs an 18th-century suzani, an embroidered tribal rug from Central Asia; on another, a contemporary spaniel painting that is just the right side of kitsch, but might nevertheless raise Chipping Norton eyebrows. This place feels personal rather than designed for beige safety. The kitchen could be the setting for a rustic cookery show, with its Gaggenau oven and hamper packed with prosecco from Lady Carole Bamford’s nearby Daylesford Organic Farm. But the barn is also deep in gastropub territory, with Bledington’s 16th-century King’s Head Inn, named Britain’s best in The Good Pub Guide 2018, just a stumble away, as well as the famed offerings in Kingham, a bracing two miles north. This is the Cotswolds at its quirkiest and most fun. By Francesca Babb
Address: Bledington Barn, Oxfordshire OX7
Telephone: +44 20 8740 3097
Price: From £2,014 for seven nights (sleeps six)
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Eden Hall Cottage, Norfolk
Best for seaside stays
Arriving at this flint-stone building, near Bacton Beach on Norfolk’s north-eastern curve, is like approaching the schoolmaster’s house. The cottage, first constructed in the 18th century, was once part of a boarding school. But inside a different scene emerges: less serious institute, more modern Montauk beach hangout, filled with space and sunlight, in neutral indigos and Edwardian greys. Vicky White, who converted the house with her husband Chris, runs Plum & Ashby, which trades not only in seaweed-and-samphire candles and pomegranate body washes, but also a certain post-Kinfolk aesthetic, treating its near-30,000 Instagram followers to greyscale kitchens and cute photographs of Bertie, the couple’s fox terrier. It was when out walking Bertie that the Whites found the building on a relatively undiscovered stretch of Norfolk coast, somewhere between elegant Holkham and the pleasure-beach scene of Great Yarmouth. They knocked down internal walls while retaining some wonky floorboards and beams, eventually opening the five-bedroom spot to guests a few years ago. Now, it is curated but understated: salt-battered oars in the living room; column radiators and brushed-brass fittings. The kitchen, once three pokey rooms, is barn-like with under-floor heating. Marshmallow-soft sofas welcome dogs as readily as hygge-peddling influencers; children can get lost in the house, if not on expeditions to see seals on the beach at Horsey Gap, or to the curious lighthouse at Happisburgh. Other than Plum & Ashby hand wash, the connection is inferred. Nonetheless, the vibe here is that of a very 2019 lifestyle brand planting a flag in this unlikely location. By Paula Maynard
Address: Eden Hall Cottage, Norfolk NR12
Telephone: no telephone number
Price: From £1,100 for seven nights (sleeps 10)
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The Balancing Barn, Suffolk
The first Living Architecture project was commissioned in 2008 from Dutch architects Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries, who very sensibly decided to let themselves be known as MVRDV. It is located in a silent nature reserve and reached by a 300-metre rough road, and its immediate aspect suggests a chicken shack run by CERN, polished steel tiles taking the mood of the sky and contrasting in any weather with the lush landscaped greenery surrounding it.
Then you realise that first impressions were very misleading. It is not a small shack, but an exciting, 30-metre-long structure which, for half its length, is audaciously cantilevered out over a plunging decline. Within, despite the emotional warmth of the wood finishes, the uneasy psychology of balancing in space provides a delicious thrill. This is enhanced because, to make sure the point is not missed, the living-area floor is glazed. It is just one example of how architecture can create mood: unsettling, but delightful.
Address: The Balancing Barn, Thorington, Suffolk IP19
Telephone: no telephone number
Price: From £759 for four night (sleeps eight)
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The Shingle House, Kent
The architects of The Shingle House are NORD, a young Glasgow practice of irreverent reputation. Inspiration came from the traditional tarred wooden fishermen's huts you still find on this shockingly inhospitable and sinister shingle spit. Some are set at crazy angles to the hammering of the wind. Others have been set upon by a romantic and hardy metropolitan elite: Derek Jarman's celebrated Prospect Cottage, with its masterpiece garden, is almost next door.
The Shingle house has crazy angles all of its own. Inside, the spaces are uncompromisingly new and satisfyingly complex for what is quite a small building. Although austere, The Single House is luxurious in the context of Dungeness's epic scruffiness. But the calm beauty of the house filters the harsh landscape and the ramshackle neighbours. Then there is the power station: our bedroom had a spectacular view of Dungeness B. An advertisement for the nuclear age is not, perhaps, the most obvious holiday neighbour, but the effect is transgressively pleasing. At night, the distant orange sodium lamps and the suggestion of occult power are strangely comforting. As with other Living Architecture houses, the contrasts are there to be savoured.
Address: The Shingle House, Dungeness, Kent
Telephone: no telephone number
Price: From £657 for four nights (sleeps eight)
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The Dune House, Suffolk
Thorpeness village was a 1910 recreational project, a commercialised garden city, two miles north of Aldeburgh, the Suffolk coast's celebrity town. It is a strange, even creepy projection of Edwardian fantasies about village life. Built as a totality by Scottish barrister and railway entrepreneur Glencairn Stuart Ogilvie, it is joke-oak cottages around an artificial lake with civic buildings in a ripe Lutyens Tudorbethan style. Primped, manicured and swept, Thorpeness has an unusual number of notices beginning 'Private'.
And on the southern approach to this numbing suburbanity in excelsis is the glorious intrusion of The Dune House. It is on one of those coast roads where old Transits and caravans are parked in front of grim bungalows and bungahighs, while wind whistles in the cables overhead. The designers are a Norwegian firm, Jarmund/Vigsnaes, whose reputation is based on buildings responsive, they say, to the drama of the wild Nordic seasons.
Thus, The Dune House is an assemblage of complex, aggressive, angular geometry set in rustling marram grass. On the upper levels, four vast prisms contain four double bedrooms with free-standing baths and shower rooms: each has a resonant sense of privacy and notable views. The structure is a shuttered concrete core, wholly glazed on the ground floor so that the upper parts - black timber panels and bronze-tinted stainless-steel cladding - appear to float above very little. Inside, the textural language is different: plain concrete for upstands, polished concrete floors, and everywhere else wood, mostly ash. That, and light in its infinite possibilities. The furniture and fittings are like IKEA with a PhD: Arne Jacobsen lights, artisan Norwegian blankets, and chairs including Sam Hecht's award-winning Branca and Jorge Ferrari Hardoy's classic Butterfly.
Address: The Dune House, Thorpeness, Suffolk IP16
Telephone: no telephone number
Price: From £783 for four nights (sleeps nine)
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David Curran for Unique Home Stays - www.uniquehomestays.comSeren Mor, Pembrokeshire
Best for families
On first approach, especially on a dark Friday night, it’s hard to tell that Seren Mor is a house; from behind, it could just be a forgotten slab of Welsh industrial concrete. However, the inside is all timber and views, with terraces wrapping around the two storeys, meaning that each of the five bedrooms has its own space for gazing at the Newport estuary panorama. In the guestbook, everyone writes about the light, and there is indeed something magical about the way it dances on the tidal sands. Horses canter at sunrise and dog walkers brace mid-morning winds; come dusk, the workaday city of Newport, on the other side of the water, fades gently from view. The team behind this project, which has received a Royal Institute of British Architects award, clearly designed it for family life, down to the minutest detail. The walnut-wood, open-plan kitchen has drawers for everything – spice jars have their own slots, and there’s even a filing cabinet for chopping boards. Book shelves are neatly stacked with Evelyn Waugh titles and compendiums of bird names; the Xbox and board games such as Risk are beautifully tucked away. A welcome hamper includes local bacon so thick it would be classed as gammon in England. The beach is just a few steps down the steep garden, past waiting kayaks, an intriguing stained-glass window and a boat house, and onto the miles of sand that stretch and recede with the pull of the moon. Because this sweep of South Wales coast has never quite had the reputation of the west or the north, a stay at Seren Mor feels like uncovering secret treasure. By Becky Lucas
Address: Seren Mor, Pembrokeshire SA42
Telephone: +44 1637 881 183
Price: From £3,550 per week
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Beach House Brancaster, Norfolk
Best for interiors shopping
The driftwood and razor-clam shells of Brancaster, that great expanse of North Norfolk sand, are a 20-minute walk away from this beach house, yet it seems as if they follow you into its gallery-like, whitewashed space. A sculptural floor light in the mezzanine entrance hall is built into washed-up wood; at the foot of the stairs, there’s a shimmering artwork of donkey-ear shells; on the kitchen walls there are nostalgic seaside photographs, including one of Great Yarmouth’s Britannia Pier café. The house is the creation of Davina Barber, who left a career as an art dealer in London to return home to the East Anglian county and start Norfolk By Design, an agency championing local artists and makers. The Beach House is its manifestation: almost everything can be bought, in line with a wider global trend for shoppable stays. A house filled with regional art could spell kitsch danger, but the prevailing sense is of playfulness and taste; in the living room, a baby-blue, abstract line drawing by photographer Harry Cory Wright is eminently buyable, as is Frank Falvey’s wonky ash bench and the reissued Seaweed wallpaper in the master bedroom, first designed by Edward Bawden in 1927. But, more than an exhibition, the five-bedroom pad is a family home-from-home, with cheeky children’s bedrooms and a kickabout-ready walled garden. A hamper of goodies from nearby Creake Abbey food hall (sea-salt chocolate brownies, Norfolk Kiwi ale) provides sustenance for coastal-path walks through salt marshes and reed beds, spying oyster catchers on the way to the wide beach. A move to Norfolk’s salty wilds may end up being as tempting as a piece of art. By Paula Ellis
Address: Beach House Brancaster, Norfolk PE31
Telephone: +44 7967 369 573
Price: From £1,500 for seven nights (sleeps 10)
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