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Glenfinnan House Hotel, the Highlands
Glenfinnan House Hotel, overlooking Loch Shiel and the Jacobite monument, is one of Scotland’s most celebrated properties. On a clear day, you can see Ben Nevis from here, too. Glenfinnan viaduct, which attracts Harry Potter fans hoping to glimpse the steam train, is a short walk away. The family-owned country house dates from 1755 and has had a major refurbishment this year, reopening under new management.
The 14 bedrooms have been refreshed, with light, shimmering wallpapers. The handsome wood-panelled restaurant serves Peterhead cod with mussel cream, lamb rump with dauphinoise potatoes and Isle of Skye lobster. The bar menu includes steak sandwiches and local seafood. When the Glenfinnan Ceilidh Band are in session, it’s a cracking night out.
Restaurant mains from £22, bar mains from £10, doubles from £135 B&B, glenfinnanhouse.com
Coorie Inn, Perthshire
In Scots, to coorie in is to be cosy and snug inside, often sheltering from the weather. The newly opened Coorie Inn, near Crieff, embodies this hug of a phrase with an exceptionally warm welcome. It is the only place for a pint in the sleepy village of Muthill (pronounced Mew-thil), about an hour’s drive from Glasgow and only a little longer from Edinburgh. This quiet corner of Perthshire is known for golf, fishing and fine dining: both of Scotland’s two-star Michelin restaurants – Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles and The Glenturret Lalique – are nearby. A stay at Coorie Inn is much gentler on the wallet, though, and the food is fresh, creative and delicious.
When we arrive the bar has a welcoming buzz and the wood-burning stove is easing the early autumn chill. A mounted stag’s head looks inquiringly at a sculpture of a golden bottom: this mix of traditional and modern art continues throughout the hotel. A house whisky sour is a strong start, with sweetly spiced local Glenturret, and there are fat olives and toasted nuts to snack on.
In the dining room the menu shows a French influence, though the produce is proudly local. Prior to opening the Coorie Inn, chef-owner Phillip Skinazi was executive pastry chef at Gleneagles, so he knows the Perthshire larder well. Plump hand-dived scallops are soft and succulent, served with thin discs of daikon and a bouncy nori-crusted prawn bun. Across the table, Perthshire lamb tartare is rich and deeply savoury with anchovies and crunchy lamb-fat croutons. The catch of the day is wild trout with grilled summer peach, braised lettuce and peas and, intriguingly, sea fennel. The buttery halibut, with mussels, leeks and cucumber, is also outstanding.
Vegetable sides are generous: green beans with shallots, and broccoli, sourced from nearby Tomnah’a Market Garden, with hazelnut brown butter. I ask if we should add potatoes: “Not if you want to make it to pudding,” is the sensible advice. Even without potatoes three courses is a stretch, but it’s an enjoyable endeavour. I’m won over by an outrageous sticky toffee pudding with date and whisky sauce, caramelised pecans and ice-cream.
The inn has six lovely rooms, all recently redecorated. Ours is painted in heather hues, with a super-kingsize bed. Alongside the usual tea and coffee is a homemade fruity flapjack that I squirrel away for the drive home, though not before a return to the dining room for a big breakfast.
Muthill makes a brilliant base for exploring pretty Perthshire: walking the banks of the River Earn to Crieff, or enjoying the formal gardens at Drummond Castle, or visiting Perth Museum, which reopened in spring and is now home to the Stone of Destiny, back in Perthshire after more than 700 years.
Mains from £22, doubles from £155 B&B, coorie-inn.com
Ailsa Sheldon
The Leddie, East Lothian
This handsome hotel in the village of Aberlady was built in 1638 and for the past few decades was the popular Ducks Inn. It is now under new management, refurbished and renamed after the old name for the river that runs through the village. The 27 rooms, some of them dog-friendly, have a breezy coastal feel, with sage-and-sand decor.
The restaurant and bar is light and contemporary, with wide leather banquette seating. The menu is fairly traditional but well executed: a deep bowl of sweet Shetland mussels with white wine and garlic is a generous starter, and grilled mackerel with a sofritto of celery and courgette with crisp potatoes is a hit. Around the busy restaurant, groups of locals, visiting golfers and cyclists and hotel guests tuck into chicken pies with huge puff pastry crowns and fish and chips, or enjoy the south-facing sun trap of a beer garden. There are walks to the beach at Aberlady through a nature reserve or along the sands at Gullane.
Mains from £16, doubles from £162 room-only, theleddie.com
Cross Keys Inn, Scottish Borders
This 17th-century coaching inn in the village of Ettrickbridge was saved from ruin, renovated and reopened last year by a local couple, Rory and Vicki Steel. The beers are local, too, and the welcome warm and genuine. Head chef Chris Percy-Davis keeps to a menu of mainly traditional pub favourites, such as burgers, fish and chips, and a mac and three cheese, using the best Borders produce but with the stated aim of keeping dining affordable and waste to a minimum. “And if an angler would like us to rustle up their catch, we’ll of course oblige,” says Rory.
The seven guest rooms are freshly redecorated, with local artists featured on the walls, and there’s also a guest library. Despite only opening in 2023, the Cross Keys has already won a Visit Scotland award for best Scottish pub. Ettrickbridge village is surrounded by rolling Borders countryside, with walks in every direction. In autumn, salmon can be seen leaping up the River Ettrick on the nearby Philiphaugh estate.
Mains from £15, doubles from £89 B&B, crosskeysinnettrickbridge.com
The Hive, Ceredigion
The coast road south from Aberystwyth offers magnificent views of Cardigan Bay, then suddenly drops down into the busy, brightly painted Georgian harbour town of Aberaeron.
A stroll around the neat streets reveals lots of fine Regency architecture and, on sunny days, a lot of activity around the ice-cream parlour on the harbour wall. Behind that is a restaurant with commanding views of the River Aeron and the harbour. The Hive started many years ago, selling honey ice-cream (the bee hives were on the sea wall), then picked up speed as a restaurant when local brothers Rhys and Rhodri Davies took it over. Unpretentious and friendly, the restaurant can be deceptive – fish and chips and burgers on the menu – but sit down and tuck in, there is more to it. The top-notch beef comes from Golwg Y Mor, a butcher with a farm up in the hills; the mackerel paté starts life out in Cardigan Bay; and there’s even local wine from Llaethliw, whose vineyard two miles inland has built a strong reputation for its Solaris whites.
The high standard of the ingredients shines through in every dish. This is seriously good fare, in portions that might defeat weaker constitutions – working up an appetite on the coastal path (south to New Quay is particularly scenic) is a good idea. There’s a conservatory-style main room, plus outdoor seating, and a more formal dining room upstairs in what was once a dockside warehouse where sailing ships unloaded.
The Hive recently opened six guest rooms across the quay in a fine Regency building. At Townhouse by Hive, polished wood and bare-stone features are matched with warm soft furnishings and beautiful bathrooms. Shuttered windows give fine views of the river and harbour, including the significant remodelled sea defences.
Aberaeron was the brainwave of local clergyman Reverend Alban Thomas Jones Gwynne, who decided to sink his inheritance into a model town in 1805, little knowing that rising sea levels might one day threaten this vision. When finished, the works will add a 220-metre-long breakwater and walkway out into Cardigan Bay, and the quaint harbour next to the restaurant will become a marina.
The Hive still makes great ice-cream and, better still, all residents get a complimentary cone of their choice.
Mains from £14, doubles from £170 B&B, thehiveaberaeron.com
Kevin Rushby
Inn at the Sticks, Carmarthenshire
On a plug of land between the rivers Taf and Tywi sits Llansteffan, once a major river crossing, now a lovely tranquil village with an impressive Norman castle and an excellent pub, the Inn at the Sticks. Originally from the area, Teej Down arrived back in 2023 and has been busy building an enthusiastic new team and refurbishing the place, using her long experience with Spanish wine and food. “We love unpretentious, sociable Mediterranean dining,” she says, “and local ingredients, especially seafood.”
Customers choose small plates – local oysters or lobster with Welsh laverbread perhaps – and match them with an eclectic selection of wines, none of which you would find in a supermarket. There’s an outside bar and deli too. The five bedrooms in the eaves have been newly refurbished with rugs on polished floors, exposed beams and period furniture.
Small plates from £9, doubles from £120, innatthesticks.com
The Cuan, County Down
On the shores of Strangford Lough, the Cuan is a small, family-run hotel in a building dating from the 1800s. Since reopening in 2021 after a £1m makeover, the hotel has been winning over locals, hotel guests and food critics alike with a menu that makes the most of the coastal location, from seafood chowder to beer-battered fish and chips. After a day spent exploring sandy beaches, castles and Game of Thrones filming locations, visitors can return to one of nine cosseting bedrooms, decorated in muted shades of blue.
Mains from £17, doubles from £109 B&B, thecuan.com
The Ashford Arms, Peak District
Ashford in the Water has for the past 20 years been my traditional morning stop before a day’s fishing on the River Wye at Monsal Head. Just outside Bakewell, a left turn opposite the cricket green takes me into the village of limestone houses and the general store, where I pick up a coffee and put together a loose bankside lunch of pork pie and whatever sandwiches are available.
Directly opposite the village shop is the Ashford Arms. This foursquare 17th-century inn had been shuttered since 2020 and seemed a sad signifier of rural decline. Four years after it pulled its last pint, however, I am looking out of one of its bedroom windows on to a scene befitting a Richard Curtis film – a vintage Morris Minor Traveller in racing green with ash panelling is parked outside the village store.
The colour of the car almost mirrors the feature wall of patterned wallpaper in my room in the eaves of the reopened pub with rooms. The Ashford Arms opened its doors again in March after a £1.6m facelift by local pub business Longbow Venues, which also owns the Maynard in Grindleford and the George in Hathersage.
It’s mid-afternoon on Sunday when I arrive and there’s no space in the car park, so popular is the roast dinner run. The downstairs of the pub is Tardis-like with a series of rooms leading from the small reception to the plant-adorned restaurant and conservatory and a large garden area. The snug with exposed stone fireplace and flagstone floors is a good place to thaw out after a walk on the Monsal Trail or a visit to nearby Chatsworth House or Haddon Hall.
Aside from the generously portioned Sunday roasts, the menu features local favourites such as wild mushroom and blue stilton Derbyshire oatcake, homemade pie of the week (steak, mushroom and red wine on my visit), and bakewell tart with creme anglaise and raspberry ice-cream. There are also modern twists with local ingredients, such as pork belly with gochujang and sesame seeds, and rabbit ballotine with maple carrot puree. Draught ale is from the Thornbridge brewery in Bakewell.
Upstairs, there are nine bedrooms, ranging from my top o’ the tower billet to a suite with freestanding bath. All come with a retro-style Roberts radio. Mine was tuned into the cricket coverage. Another little echo of Richard Curtis.
Mains from £17.95, doubles from £110 B&B, theashfordarms.com
Andy Pietrasik
The Langford Inn, Somerset
On the edge of the Mendip Hills, south of Bristol, this pub in Lower Langford village has been serving weary travellers since the 17th century. Today’s visitors are more likely to be looking for respite from the nearby M5 than a change of horses – just as well as the stable block of this handsome red-stone building has long since been converted into stylish bedrooms. After a renovation a couple of years ago, the pub and its guest quarters strike a perfect balance between smart and cosy, with no shortage of comfortable corners where you can sit with a newspaper or a pint.
The home of cheddar cheese, Thatchers cider and Yeo Valley dairy, this corner of north Somerset has some serious foodie credentials. The inn is managed by Butcombe Brewing Co, which offers monthly tours of its brewery in nearby Wrington. The menu makes the most of local and seasonal produce. On a recent visit, crispy pig cheek terrine with burnt apple ketchup and Ston Easton farm lamb belly were among the starters. A delicate main course of stone bass with cider-braised fennel top was just light enough to justify delving into a decadent dessert of sticky figgy pudding with cinnamon ice-cream.
Most guest rooms are in the former stable block, accessed via the pretty pub garden, and come with nice touches such as homemade biscuits and Bramley toiletries. The Blagdon Suite has exposed stone walls, a kingsize bed and a mezzanine with sofabed – perfect for families.
Cheddar Gorge and the caves of Wookey Hole are a short drive away.
Mains from £18, doubles from £130 B&B, langfordinnsomerset.co.uk
Nest Farmhouse, Norfolk
Nest Farmhouse opened this summer on a working farm in the village of Docking – a countryside sibling to London restaurants Nest and the Michelin-starred Restaurant St Barts. The emphasis at this restaurant with rooms is on “farm to fork” eating, with everything from the bread and butter to the ice-cream made in-house. The open kitchen restaurant showcases a seasonal selection of Norfolk’s finest produce, from Wells crab to locally shot venison, and wine from nearby Cobble Hill vineyard.
The website proudly proclaims that the farmhouse is situated on Norfolk’s highest point – no danger of altitude sickness then, but you can expect far-reaching vistas of those famously big East Anglian skies from the five luxurious guest bedrooms.
Bracing beach walks at Hunstanton and Brancaster, and birdwatching at Titchwell Marsh RSPB reserve, are a short drive away.
Mains from £20, doubles from £200 B&B, nestfarmhouse.co.uk
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The Halfway at Kineton, the Cotswolds
Since taking over this 17th-century pub in February 2023, chefs Nathan Eades and Liam Goff have put the Gloucestershire hamlet of Kineton on the foodie map. The bar and snug tick all the boxes for a rural inn – open fire, flagstone floors, simple decor and a great list of beers and ciders – but it’s the food that really sets the place apart.
Drawing on their background in Michelin-starred kitchens, the pair offer elevated pub food at reasonable prices. The menu changes daily and local game and seasonal food get a starring role – venison cottage pie with buttered greens, or celeriac and mushroom pie with mash, braised red cabbage and mushroom sauce.
Kineton feels off the beaten track, but there are lots of great walks from the doorstep and the honeypot villages and towns of Bourton-on-the-Water, Stow-on-the-Wold and Winchcombe are within easy reach. With just three snug bedrooms, it’s wise to book well in advance.
Mains from £18, doubles from £145 B&B, thehalfwayatkineton.com
The Haughmond, Shropshire
The village of Upton Magna is a popular stopping-off point for cyclists on National Cycle Route 81 and walkers on the Shropshire Way. Most head straight for the Bakery & Pedal Stop, a new pitstop offering everything from coffee and pasties to bike pumps and inner tubes. The cafe is the latest venture from the Haughmond, a restaurant with rooms which has recently had a revamp.
Those looking for more than a quick caffeine and carb fix can book dinner in this former coaching inn’s renovated restaurant, Hafren at the Haughmond, before retiring to one of seven bedrooms named after the deer that roam nearby Attingham Park. The medieval market town of Shrewsbury and the world heritage site of Ironbridge are nearby.
Mains from £16, B&B doubles from £130, thehaughmond.co.uk
The Queen’s Head, Wiltshire
What do Toyah Willcox, Anthony Eden, Cecil Beaton and Terry Pratchett have in common? At first glance, not a lot, but at various times each has been able to call the Queen’s Head in Broad Chalke their local. Surrounded by Wiltshire’s rolling Chalke valley, the inn has been at the heart of village life since the 19th century.
Last year it was taken on by the Chickpea Group, a young and expanding hospitality business which runs a handful of pubs with rooms in Wiltshire and a couple of pizza places. It launched its first pub just before the pandemic hit in 2020, but despite the unfortunate timing, the Bell & Crown in Zeals was soon winning accolades. No wheels were being reinvented here. Instead, the emphasis was on getting the basics right: a welcoming bar with a good selection of local ales, unfussy pub food done well, and reasonably priced comfortable bedrooms.
The Queen’s Head stays true to this formula. In the bar, the beamed ceilings, fireplace and flagstone floors are offset by colourful rugs, lamps and modern artwork. On sunny afternoons you can sip a pint of local Cow Down pale ale in the meadow garden across the road, watched by cows in the neighbouring field. However, it’s when the nights draw in and the candles and wood burner are lit that this place comes into its own.
The menu ranges from “pub bangers” (scotch egg and beer-battered fish and chips) to more adventurous options: courgette and chickpea fritters with lentil dal, perhaps, or gnocchi with merguez sausage. We shared starters of oozy rarebit croquettes and zingy gin-and beetroot-cured trout gravlax with horseradish and pickles, followed by mains of Brixham hake with braised fennel and a hearty beef and stout pie with buttery mash.
Thankfully, it’s just a short walk from the bar to an annexe of four bedrooms that overlook the courtyard garden. Our family room had comfortable beds, soft white cotton bed linen, heavenly scented toiletries and homemade shortbread.
A faultless full English breakfast the next morning was the perfect set-up for a walk across the chalk downs of Cranborne Chase, with its rolling hills, thatched cottages and chalk streams. The cathedral city of Salisbury is a 15-minute drive away and Stonehenge about 30 minutes.
Mains from £17, doubles from £88 B&B, queensheadbroadchalke.co.uk. Chickpea Group will open its first pub with rooms in Somerset, the Manor House in Ditcheat, later this year.
Joanne O’Connor
The Brackenrigg Inn, Lake District
The team behind Another Place, The Lake – a boutique hotel on the shores of Ullswater – have recently restored an old lakeland pub, the Brackenrigg Inn. A short walk from the hotel, in the village of Watermillock, the pub opened in the spring, with a cosy bar filled with books, games and maps, and views across Ullswater.
After a walk across the fells, glorious in autumn shades of gold and purple, dinner might be a Cartmel Valley venison burger, lamb shank or mac and cheese by the fire. Tuesday night is pie night, and on Friday nights there’s live acoustic music in the bar.
Upstairs, the bedrooms come with floral prints, wallpaper made from the pages of Lake District books and antique furniture – six of the seven have lake views. Best of all, guests staying at the Brackenrigg can make use of all the hotel’s facilities, including its indoor pool, hot tub, outdoor swimming lake, kids’ zone, restaurants and library.
Mains from £18, doubles from £180 B&B, another.place/the-lake/the-brackenrigg-inn
The Falcon, North Yorkshire
Unlike many seaside towns, Whitby gets a new lease of life – or should that be death? – in autumn. The atmospheric abbey ruins, which inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula, glower under moody skies, while boat masts clank mournfully in the harbour below and thousands of black-clad individuals descend for the Whitby Goth Weekend in November.
If that all sounds a bit gloomy, head 10 miles south to the Falcon Inn near Cloughton. The pub reopened earlier this year with a new look and new owners. The food is hearty – this is Yorkshire after all – with crowd-pleasers such as fish pie and slow-cooked pork belly providing fuel for walks across the North York Moors.
Overnight guests can choose between 12 country house-style bedrooms with woodland views, or one of 13 cosy wooden glamping pods.
Mains from £16.50, doubles from £100 B&B, glamping pods sleeping four from £75, the-falcon.co.uk
The Masons Arms, Devon
With its stone walls, thatched roof and endless nooks and crannies, the 14th-century Masons Arms in the coastal village of Branscombe comes pretty close to most people’s idea of pub heaven. The pub and its guest rooms were sensitively updated a couple of years ago and now offer a warm and welcoming bolthole for an off-season break involving long walks on the South West Coast Path – the walk to the village of Beer is particularly rewarding.
The food menu is similarly comforting, from the crab and lobster bisque starter to the pork and apple sausages with cheddar and sage mash. There are family rooms, dog-friendly rooms and three superior rooms with roll-top baths and patios.
Mains from £14.25, doubles from £165 B&B, masonsarms.co.uk
Updown Farmhouse, Kent
The east Kent coast has seen a number of good restaurants open over the past few years, but few offer good rooms to go with them. Updown Farmhouse, just outside Deal, is a delightful window on to the Garden of England, with four stylishly decorated rooms in the 17th-century farmhouse, plus a gardener’s cottage and gatehouse in the grounds. Three more rooms are due to open on the seven-acre site before the year is out.
On a sunny autumnal weekend, the conservatory restaurant is the perfect place to enjoy delicious Italian-inspired food before taking a stroll through the gardens. But as this is England, they also have rainy days covered, with a cosy library with board games and books to entertain and an honesty bar.
Mains from £26, dinner B&B for two on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays from £265, updownfarmhouse.com
The Ropemaker, Hampshire
The fishing village of Emsworth, near Chichester, has a nautical tradition dating back to the middle ages, when its busy harbour imported wines for the noble classes. Later, the village was known for its oyster beds, boat building and ropemaking – a tradition that’s celebrated in the name of its newest bolthole, the Ropemaker.
This large pub with rooms reopened in July after a major makeover. The style is more boutique hotel than rustic inn, with 43 smart bedrooms and an airy dining room with curved banquettes and booth seating. There’s also a bar with open fireplace and a back garden with three heated beach huts, offering private dining for groups of up to eight. Menu highlights include bouillabaisse with saffron potatoes and braised fennel and a pistachio souffle.
With its Georgian houses, antique shops and galleries, Emsworth is a great place to mooch around. Oyster production is no more but you can follow the oyster trail historic walk from the Emsworth Museum.
Mains from £13.95, doubles from £149, B&B, ropemakeremsworth.com
The Kirkstyle Inn and Sportsman’s Rest, Northumberland
On the Cumbria/Northumberland border in Slaggyford, the Kirkstyle Inn and Sportsman’s Rest has been in business since the mid-1800s and reopened after refurbishment in 2023. The pub sources all ingredients within a 50-mile radius, specialising in wild game and moorland-reared meat, and fish from the Northumberland coast, an approach that has helped earn it a place in the Michelin Guide this year. Seasonal highlights might include roasted venison haunch, with butternut squash and pickled walnut, or gnocchi with artichoke and wild mushroom. There is also a tasting menu (£75), with a wine flight and regular foodie events, such as a game tasting evening (21 Nov).
The four guestrooms feature Hypnos mattresses and a restful palette that reflects the greens, purples and moody blues of the moorland and the River South Tyne, which flows through the village. Ebikes can be hired to explore nearby Hadrian’s Wall and the Pennine Way hiking trail passes nearby.
Mains from £20, doubles from £170 B&B, theksi.co.uk
The Bull’s Head, Herefordshire
In the shadow of the Black Hill and Offa’s Dyke, the Bull’s Head is in borderland country, for centuries isolated and remote. The ancient pub, in the village of Craswall, retains a little of that atmosphere in the bare stone walls and service through a hatch where beers and ciders are chalked up. But this is no backwater when it comes to food, sustainability and biodiversity.
A deep commitment to regenerative agriculture means all the meat and most of the vegetables come from the proprietors’ own 300-acre farm. Other local producers send items such as apple juice, yoghurt and honey. The quality of everything, and excellence in the kitchen, shows in the fact that the place is always busy, despite being far up a single-track lane.
The Golden Valley Pilgrim Way is also nearby, and walkers can recuperate in one of four new cabins in the meadow. They have excellent hot showers, comfortable beds and views down the valley. There are also plans to install a sauna by the river.
Mains from £22, doubles £210 B&B (15% discount for two nights), wildbynaturellp.com
Reporting by Ailsa Sheldon, Kevin Rushby, Joanne O’Connor, Andy Pietrasik, Max Benato and Rachel Dixon
