The country house with something for everyone

Bovey Castle is a shining example of the UK's best country estates. With great golf, a gorgeous spa and wonderful restaurants, who wouldn't want to spend a weekend in the country?

Regional development agencies have for years been pouring taxpayers' money into various attempts to encourage businesses and directors to re-locate their lives—both working and domestic—to some rural idyll or other. Often a major part of the sell is that the desired bucolic bliss is achievable within short enough distance from the city to make visiting "the big smoke" for lunch a civilised affair. But despite these best efforts, the reality of a daily or even weekly struggle with an unreliable travel infrastructure leave many of us wedded to the outer limits of our cities.

Such thoughts crossed my mind on a damp and windy Friday evening as we departed London's Paddington station for a weekend at Bovey Castle, near Exeter. Within a little over two hours we had reached our destination and after an impressively quick flit through the country lanes were soon tucking into a glass of champagne in front on a roaring fire at Bovey. If it's this easy, why do we remain city-bound?

Of course, few of us can afford to live like you can at Bovey all the time. The Castle was built in 1907 by Viscount Hambledon and after a long spell under the ownership of Peter de Savary it was given a major re-fit by new owners, Hillwood Resorts. But it retains most of its original features and thanks to panelled wood corridors, plenty of tartan soft furnishings and an excellent whisky collection the place has the air of a Scottish manor house.

This creates a strangely unreal feeling of having been transported into another world in just two hours on the train. And a glimpse out of the window at the seemingly endless wild countryside does little to break the spell. Standing on the edge of its own valley, in 400 acres of the Dartmoor National Park, with the restored Edwardian gardens, a gorgeous golf course with the river Bovey running through it all, the estate enjoys splendid isolation. There are endless walks around the grounds, both for those carrying golf clubs and those not. 

Regardless of how you like to spend your weekends, from a few rounds of golf, to some pampering at the spa and swimming pool, a trot out on a horse or some good, old-fashioned hunting, shooting and fishing, Bovey Castle is an ideal place to come.

The Scottish connections are also present on the golf course, as the 18-hole championship course was designed as a sister course to Gleneagles by J.F. Abercromby and is the only one in South West England that offers a full golf concierge service. It has won numerous accolades through the years, including Henry Cotton's assertion that the 7th was the finest par-4 in the UK.

Thanks to excellent expert tuition, it's also possible to try your hand at something new. I turned my hand to archery and even managed to hit the intended target, several times. 

The spa is run in conjunction with Elemis and offers the usual range of massages, facials and treatments. But even here it is possible to sense the extra bit of quality that makes a weekend at Bovey so memorable. The quality of staff training, and the considered nature of the advice they dispense, add up to something beyond the usual descriptors of heavenly and blissful. Is this the UK's most intelligent spa? It may not be the biggest spa, but the service is appreciably better than at many similar hotels.

And finally, after a day of activities, in some of the freshest air in the country, you are naturally going to be in the mood for a decent meal. Which is where things go wrong for many of these all-action country hotels. Happily, this isn't the case at Bovey. The Mulberry, the hotel's fine-dining experience is an intimate affair, the room we were in seated about 20 people. And the food was simple, well thought out and nicely constructed. Better still, there was little of the sort of messing about with foam that some hotel kitchens use to prove their fine-dining status.

If the menu didn't excite the way some in fancier restaurants might, locally sourced ingredients (including sea bass from nearby Brixham and tender, juicy steak from Dartmoor cattle) did all the talking. A word of warning on the desserts, which not only didn't live up to the rest of the meal, but more annoyingly left me so full I had no space to indulge in the spectacular cheese trolley that suddenly appeared from nowhere at the end of the meal. There's also more traditional British food on offer in the Edwardian Grill and the modern, informal Bistro, both of which serve up a wide range of high-quality dishes.

As well as bedrooms in the castle itself, Bovey also offers two- and three-bedroom lodges. Close enough to the main hotel for convenience they also offer guests an element of flexibility, privacy and self-catering, with fully fitted kitchens and a very comfortable lounge in each one. But while the lodges will appeal to many family visitors, there was no way of escaping the grandeur and splendour of the enormous rooms in the main house. With seemingly as much space in the bathroom as in many London flats, I wondered again why so many of us spend so much time hunched together in cities. Perhaps the RDAs should spend their money subsidising stays at Bovey. It's a great advertisement for the quality of life in the country.

Richard Cree

After Hours is delighted to offer readers a special exclusive reader offer consisting of accommodation in a Castle room, including English breakfast, plus two rounds of golf and a one-hour spa treatment (choose from Bovey Bliss, Bovey Sensory Heaven, Elemis Skin Specific Facial, Exotic manicure or pedicure). All for just £299 per room, per night (based on a couple sharing) including VAT.

Offer subject to availability. For more details contact Bovey Castle on 01647 445000, quoting After Hours Magazine.