Dog friendly, fun and relaxing, this rosy-stone ancestral pile is billed as a Michelin-starred restaurant-with-rooms, but it is so much more, with manicured gardens, walking trails, rare-breed animals, pool, play area and café. Ullswater is a walk away.

Pavilion rooms with a separate lounge area and private patio afford plenty of space to relax at this dog-friendly restaurant-with-rooms. Explore the wonderfully unspoilt North Norfolk coast and work up an appetite for Galton Blackiston’s Michelin-starred menus.

Olga Polizzi has created a hotel in her signature casual chic style, from a collection of cottages and former yacht club, for the perfect seaside break. You can eat on the terrace in summer, and the classic yacht Pinuccia will take you on a trip round Falmouth Bay.

Anglers can fish in the Tamar, which runs through landscaped pleasure grounds designed by Humphry Repton, at Olga Polizzi’s dog-friendly ducal cottage orné turned stylish but laid-back hotel. Afternoon tea by the fire in the library is a special indulgence.

Sleep in a thatched dovecote in the kitchen garden, linger over the full ‘pig out’ breakfast, take a country ramble or follow the beach path to explore heritage coast. Cocktails and wood-fired flatbreads await your return.

There are cosy lounges, blazing log fires and a choice of 250 whiskies at this Victorian former hunting lodge on the shores of Loch Gairloch. A 25,000-acre estate offers country sports, walking, falconry, fishing, canoeing and kayaking – 90 minutes’ drive from Inverness Airport.

Lord Byron’s marriage to Anne Isabella Millbanke, formalised in the drawing room of this Georgian Mansion, was not to prove happy, but we don’t believe in ill omens. An exotic spa, cliff-topped gardens, friendly staff and fantastic food augur well for wedded bliss.