For many of those who have grown up in or near Rutland, Barnsdale Lodge will long have been a fixture. In my memory it played host to a hunt bash where I was taken with someone particularly unsuitable, but thankfully those murky days (well, they were also quite fun) are…
In John Martin Robinson’s magnificent book A Guide to the Country Houses of the North West (1991), there are many examples of the private mansions of Lancashire that no longer stand or have been ousted into commercial or municipal use. Against this backdrop of progress, the 14th-century Inn at Whitewell,…
As one gratefully breaks away from the M1 and sets sail west past Chesterfield’s crooked spire, it is when the hedges give way to stone walls that the transition to the Peak District is marked. I spent much of my childhood yomping around bits of Derbyshire as my father was…
The Arch at Fonthill is cartoon grand: a soaring masterpiece built in 1755 to mark the entrance to the original Fonthill estate and welcome a steady flow of Georgian A-listers from Turner to Byron who visited this rolling corner of Wiltshire. THE ARCH, FONTHILL Perched on the hill beyond is…
I’M PRETTY sure the Elizabethans would have experienced the same bonhomie on welcome when The Pig at Combe was first built, in 1580, as we did on arrival. Walking through the front door into the 16th-century hall, there is no stuffy reception desk but a buzzy bar area, roaring fire,…
IT can be trying to find the right place to stay in London; too corporate, too poky, too faceless. But there is one place that seems to encourage a head nod of universal approval: The Goring. A quick straw poll elicited enthusiasm from everyone to whom the name was mentioned.…
ON a dreich evening, what better than the lights of a decent pub, and even more so when that pub offers everything required of a proper sporting pit stop. Charming and unfussy, The Duncombe Arms is the type of establishment all those ‘olde English inns’ yearn to imitate with little…
THERE are some reasons to turn left when you get to Glasgow, and eschew the well-trodden A9 north. Keep driving west, skirt Loch Fyne and keep the coast in sight, up and over the old bridge at Inveraray, and you finally reach a corner of Argyllshire that can lay claim…
The Editor spends the night at Hambleton Hall in Rutland, and finds an elegant country house hotel where chef director Aaron Patterson has a passion for game, which is reflected on the menu. Alexandra Henton makes a sporting pit stop at SCHLOSS Roxburghe, somewhere that holds fieldsports and feel-good in…
A sporting pit stop that holds fieldsports and a feel-good atmosphere in equal measure making it an essential destination for likeminded sporting enthusiasts. Read below for further details. SCHLOSS ROXBURGHE The planning before a trip north is usually quite simple; west coast or east coast. The former tends to play…
