Macdonald Leeming House Hotel, Ullswater As of July 2017, the Lake District national park became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In so doing it became the 31st UK site, a “cultural landscape reflecting the combined works of nature and man”. The beauty of the landscape plus thousands of years of agriculture and industry has inspired generations of artists, poets and writers. …
A grand stay at the Wensleydale Heifer
A grand stay at the Wensleydale Heifer The Wensleydale Heifer is a restaurant with rooms in the Yorkshire Dales. It’s a transformed seventeenth-century inn at West Witton, four miles from Leyburn. From the outside, it looks rather like any typical traditional Dales pub. However, the inside is quite a different matter. The only clue to this before you enter is …
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The Wild Duck Inn at Ewen
The Wild Duck Inn at Ewen The Wild Duck Inn is a quintessential Cotswold country inn, dating from 1563. It’s found near to the source of the River Thames, at Ewen, just three miles from Cirencester. Having walked along the River Thames National Path (some 184 miles from source to sea), I was keen to return. So the Wild Duck …
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The bucolic delights of the Cottage in the Wood
The bucolic delights of the Cottage in the Wood If there’s a restaurant with rooms that can offer a better Lakeland view than the Cottage in the Wood, then I’d like to know about it. Sitting on a terrace surrounded by trees, with a glass of Champagne and the mighty Skiddaw in the distance is my idea of perfection. At …
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Ravenstone Lodge weekend break, Bassenthwaite
Ravenstone Lodge weekend break, Bassenthwaite Ravenstone Lodge is a small hotel in the northern Lake District on the shores of Bassenthwaite Lake, some five miles north of Keswick. Nestling at the foot of the mighty Skiddaw mountain range, this was once a Victorian coach house and occupies five acres of unspoilt countryside. It’s a three-star hotel with an AA Rosette …
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Wentbridge House Hotel
Wentbridge House Hotel Where the A1 meets the M62, you pass through a part of Yorkshire known best for mining and industry. It would be easy to look at Ferrybridge power station and the spaghetti of motorway intersections and dismiss this area as one being without charm. In fact, that assumption couldn’t be more wrong. Within the area bounded by …
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Lakeside Hotel & Spa, Windermere
Lakeside Hotel & Spa, Windermere Windermere is known for its tourist hustle and bustle in the towns of Windermere, Bowness and Ambleside. However, Britain’s largest natural lake is tranquil at its southern end, yet only twenty minutes from the M6. The scenery may be less dramatic than that of the mountainous north, but it remains breathtaking. On this southern shore, …
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Swinton Park memories
Swinton Park memories North Yorkshire is quintessentially English. The heather-clad moors and rolling farmland are dotted with hedgerows, woods, and picture book villages. Swinton Park is a jewel in this landscape, a mile or so from Masham in Wensleydale. The first sight when entering through the gatehouse is astonishing. Swinton Park is a magnificent castle. With ivy-clad turrets and castellations, it’s …
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