House Party
Escaping with friends or family? In the first of a two-part series on the world’s best holiday homes, Lauren Hadden finds Britain’s finest cottages, stately piles and even treehouses.
The Scottish Castle Ackergill Tower, Highlands
Ackergill’s 15th-century coastal tower performs an acclaimed double act. Just 25km from Scotland’s northern tip, it’s both a five-star hotel and exclusive 17-room rental – with further rooms available in estate properties. Helicopter coordinates are provided but arrive by land and there’s a glorious two-hour drive from Inverness airport crossing wooded lowlands and dramatic inlets. The reward is a castle all to yourself, with baronial chic rooms and extensive grounds, including a sundial lawn and sunken garden. As north Scotland is yet to issue a sunshine guarantee, there’s a womb-like drawing room for afternoon
tea – Scottish style, drop scones included.
THE AREA With shooting, sea fishing and even cookery classes available on site, there’s no need to leave your estate. But you really are at journey’s end here, not far from John O’Groats, so ‘remote’ actually means something. As well as watching the local wildlife, from whales to basking sea otters, it’s worth exploring the majestic coastline – including the nearby ruin of the 12th-century Castle of Old Wick, a stronghold in a far less happy state than your own.
Travel Details
Exclusive use of the castle for 32 guests, in 15 double and two single rooms, from £4715 (£147 per person) a night, with meals cooked by the tower’s own head chef. Alternatively you can enjoy the grounds on a budget in a ten-person self-catering cottage, a New England-style cocoon with white wood panels, an Aga stove and sea views, from £350 a night. www.clarenco.com
The Flexible Farm Rental Barsham Barns, Norfolk
Barsham’s supremely tasteful, highly versatile accommodation comprises five immaculate barn conversions swaddling a central courtyard. You can rent the lot for a celebration for 48 guests, or mix and match the five properties that each sleep between four and 14 guests. These former granaries and stables, with spectacular river valley views, have been alchemised into light, bright, wideopen contemporary spaces with underfloor heating and woodburning stoves – a warming antidote to those brutal North Sea winds. Extra flourishes include a spa spool, steam room and wellequipped games rooms. All combinations of accommodation have been cleverly designed by the architect owner to offer communal areas for group dining and activities, as well as smaller spaces for private escapes. Bigger parties can call upon a local chef to deliver meals or provide high quality in-house catering.
THE AREA Located right by the medieval village of Walsingham, you won’t have to walk far to see the famous shrine to the Virgin Mary, retracing the footsteps of numerous English kings and queens, including Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. A more recent addition is a farm shop, which bakes its own pork pies and has an impressive kitchen garden that supplies the highly rated Norfolk Riddle Restaurant (norfolkriddle.co.uk). Try pan-fried ox liver at its bistro tables or locally sourced fish and chips to take away. Another ace in Barsham Barns’ pack is its superb location in a softly rolling valley that’s close to both the Norfolk Broads, and heavenly stretches of coast. Just five miles away under a vast canopy of sky, its marshlands and tidal flats are punctuated by epic stretches of sand, including Holkham, the backdrop to a famous scene in Shakespeare in Love. Picturesque Blakeney village offers glimpses of a seal colony and fishing boats while Wells-next-the-Sea, a focal point for Norfolk’s ever-growing food scene, is a short drive, or longer hike away, with another super stretch of sand, colourful beach huts and lazy-day cafés. Head inland and it’s a 35-minute drive to Sandringham House. This royal retreat offers year-round access to the ground-floor rooms and much of the 60- acre garden, which has two waymarked nature trails.
Travel Details
Hire all five barns to sleep 48 people in 20 double rooms and four twins, from £5,395 (£112 per person) for three nights (minimum stay) or hire individual barns like Long Meadow, which sleeps eight guests in three doubles and one twin, from £760 for three nights. barshambarns.co.uk
The Cotswold Estate Southrop Manor, Gloucestershire
Welcome to a gourmet bolthole with a twist – it encompasses an entire manor estate. The owners have slowly bought up a Grade IIlisted splatter of honey-stoned properties and carefully refurbished them using local materials, then added a cookery school with lessons from experts, including Food and Travel contributor Xanthe Clay. Other buildings have been transformed into comfy cottage accommodation, with a tasteful contemporary take on the English country house. The decor is an eclectic mix of antiques and art, with many works by local Cotswold artists, alongside four posters with sumptuous linen, chandeliers and wool fabrics from the estate’s own upholsterer. Of the various self-catering accommodation options the latest is Thyme House, which sleeps 16. Overlooking the walled herb garden, it has its own cinema snug and giant kitchen whose sliding doors pull back to seamlessly link the interior and outdoors. You can also add on rental services, including private catering, daily maid service, and in-room massages by a holistic therapist.
THE AREA The local pub and restaurant, The Swan – yet another part of the estate – is just a few minutes’ walk from the main buildings. Southrop is certainly not the area’s only beauty spot. The nearby villages of Bibury and Fairford are also well worth a visit. It’s hard to imagine the perennially popular Cotswolds as unfashionable, but when Arts and Crafts genius William Morris visited in the 19th century, the area had fallen out of favour with the Victorians, its villages dismissed as places of ‘stone and sorrow’. Morris’s assessment of Bibury as ‘the most beautiful village in England’ changed perceptions and the famous Cotswold stone hasn’t altered much since then – other than growing ever more handsomely weathered with each passing year. Visitors often find it oddly familiar– many film and TV adaptations have been shot there.
Travel Details
Thyme House sleeps 16 in eight ensuite rooms, from £3,800 (£238 per person) for a two-night weekend. Add in the Barn Courtyard and Old Walls, for exclusive parties of up to 34, from £3,850 (£113 per person) per night. thymeatsouthrop.co.uk
The High Life Treehouses at Chewton Glen, Hampshire
This super stylish, leafy property in the New Forest is perfect for those who can’t abide full self-catering but still want serious privacy – a real family escape. It’s a treehouse on steroids, or at least very strong stilts, with two double rooms and four bunks for children. And that’s just the start. It perches above a five-star spa hotel and has a hot tub on the spacious terrace. There’s also a wood burning stove, underfloor heating, marble floors in the bathroom and lush carpets in bedrooms, along with stand-alone baths, walk-in showers, and hitech gizmos, from flat-screen TVs to iPod docks. There are daily deliveries of breakfast hampers and a kitchenette, and guests can also make use of Chewton Glen’s award-winning Vetiver Restaurant and its renowned spa, which offers bespoke treehouse therapies.
THE AREA William I designated the New Forest his own hunting grounds in 1079 and it’s easy to follow in his footsteps, with clay pigeon shooting and falconry. It’s a 15-minute stroll through hotel grounds to lovely beach walks, but you’re also on the edge of a stunning area of pasture grazed by ponies and cattle, alongside forests of vertiginous oak and beech that are home to wild deer (dusk is optimum viewing time). History lovers can explore the handsome hamlet of Buckler’s Hard – once a centre of timber shipbuilding – which is home to heritage-listed pub The Master Builder’s and the launch point for cruises on the Beaulieu River.
Travel Details
A treehouse sleeps up to eight in two doubes and a bunk area, from £1,300 per night, or £163 per person per night (minimum two-night weekend stays). chewtonglen.com
The Architectural Wonder The Single House, Kent
Stay in a singular building in a singular place: Dungeness, the largest stretch of shingle in the world. Last year Scottish architects NORD won a Royal Institute of British Architects award for this house, a deceptive structure covered in tarred black shingles. Dark on the outside, it’s light and white indoors, and in its stark simplicity somehow manages to fit in with the area’s traditional fisherman’s huts – while offering radically different interiors. A huge concrete fireplace dominates the main living space, alongside cooly modernist furniture and expansive views across the flat coast. The blazing log fire invites a good book – writer Alain de Botton is part of the team behind the house – and, as well as local travel guides, there are tomes on architecture and philosophy. Even better, the remote location means there’s no wifi, so guests have no choice but to switch off. The property sleeps eight very comfortably and the high point has to be the sunken black bath with a breathtaking view to the sea.
THE AREA Famously the home of late film-maker Derek Jarman
(his garden is still open to visitors), Romney Marsh draws numerous other artists who appreciate the area’s haunting beauty – this really isn’t your typically twee, cosy English countryside. The nature reserve has two lighthouses and is home to some unusual flora and fauna, but it’s the landscape’s bare austerity that really stands out. As 19thcentury writer and wit Thomas Ingoldsby proclaimed: ‘The world, according to the best geographers, is divided into Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Romney Marsh.’
Travel Details
The Single House sleeps eight in four doubles from £700 (£88 per person) for four nights. It’s often booked far in advance, so reserve early. living-architecture.co.uk
The Welsh Townhouse Great House, Carmarthenshire
Elegant heritage interiors, a walled garden and rich local history are on tap in this Georgian pile in tiny Laugharne on the Pembrokeshire coast. Magnificently restored and reimagined by the owners, there are high ceilings and light-filled windows galore, complemented by four posters and a sleek hi-tech kitchen. A highlight is a splendid bathroom with a roll-top bath opposite a fireplace, surrounded by panelled walls filled with paintings to amuse the bather. Three large double bedrooms are topped up by a book-filled cosy attic that converts into a four-person suite. Give notice and they’ll make sure there’s a generous spread of tapas laid out on arrival.
THE AREA Poets and painters alike have fallen for this place. The village has a rich artistic history, with Turner popping up to paint Laugharne Castle in 1795 and Dylan Thomas so enamoured with the area that he convinced his benefactor to buy up one of the prime views over the Taf Estuary in the form of The Boathouse. He spent the last years of his life here, writing, and anyone who wanders the often deserted Pendine Sands or encounters the view from his old studio (now a museum) can see why.
Travel Details
Great House sleeps ten guests in four rooms from £1,159 (£116 per person) for three nights. sheepskinlife.com
The Cape Cod Retreat New England Beach House, West Sussex
A laid-back beach vibe mingles with capacious grandeur in this New England-style getaway. It might be in West Sussex, weary Londoners' favourite county for a quick city escape, but step through its door and you're instantly transported to Rhode Island. A former clubhouse and lido for the Angmering-on-Sea Country Club in the 1930s, its lavish all-white refurb retains the glamour and fits up to bathrooms. The best feature, however isn't he calming, yet modern decor. It's the direct access to the shore from a private deck– and the first floor balcony and wrap-around garden (with hot tub) that allows the endless beach to dominate every point in the house. The Titanic Room's bathroom has a super sea view from the tub.
THE AREA Get a blast of fresh air from a horse ride along the beach arranged by the nearby equestrian centre, or a ramble along the seashore from Angmering-on-Sea to Littlehampton for fish and chips at the East Beach Cafe. Alternatively drive to nearby 11th-century Arundel Castle, the imposing seat of the Dukes of Norfolk, with 40 acres of rolling grounds. If it's summer, you could also swap the beach for one of the 19 days of racing at Glorious Goodwood, one of England's most beautiful race courses.
Travel Details
The beach house sleeps 16 in seven rooms from £2,400 (£150pp) for weekends. luxurybeachhouserental.com
The Elizabethan Escape Lanyon Manor, Cornwall
Experience the results of a labour-of-love renovation project on an Elizabethan estate. Fittingly a family crest hangs over its manor house entrance – it’s still a parents and daughter-run affair. The manor, barn and coach house sleep 12, 14 and four respectively, and each have their own private walled garden. The style is country traditional: restored oak floors, panelling and open fires (logs provided). Wet rooms and a heated outdoor pool add modern luxury. Babysitting, supermarket deliveries, catering and food hampers can all be arranged to take the strain out of the escape.
THE AREA Lanyon is close to the tip of Cornwall, and so it’s near some of the UK’s most renowned restaurants and beaches. Visit in winter and you’ll often have the latter all to yourself, save for some hardy surfers. Hayle estuary, a ten-minute drive away, offers wide sandy shores or head north to the long stretch at Perranporth and, after a brisk walk, drop into The Watering Hole, which claims to be the only bar right on a UK beach, for a hot chocolate – or hot toddy. For something more substantial, drive 25 minutes west of Lanyon to St Ives and try Porthmeor Café, best for breakfasts and tapas, or eco-aware Cornish meat joint Blas Burgerworks.
Travel Details
Lanyon Manor sleeps 12 in three ensuite doubles and three twins from £1,104 (£92 per person) for two nights (minimum stay). lanyon-holiday-cottages.co.uk
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