20 of the best British B&Bs
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Bowness-on-Windermere
‘The Kennedys certainly know how to welcome their guests and to make every minute special,’ report visitors staying for lunch this year.
Stoberry House - Four Nights for the Price of Three Special Offer
Wells
‘Fabulous views’ over the cathedral and the Vale of Avalon to Glastonbury Tor await at Frances and Tim Meeres Young’s 18th-century coach house, run as a ‘faultless’ B&B.
Jeake’s House
Rye
A cinematic street of cobblestone and gently listing cross-beamed houses hosts this ‘beautiful, comfortable and relaxing’ B&B, once a haunt of Malcolm Lowry and Radclyffe Hall.
The Lynch Country House
Somerton
Lynne Vincent is the perfect hostess and a mine of information at Roy Copeland’s Grade II listed Georgian country house B&B on the edge of a market town, the former capital of Wessex.
Blackmore Farm
Cannington
On the family farm on the edge of the Quantock hills, Ann and Ian Dyer run this 15th-century manor house with chapel as a ‘warm, welcoming’ B&B.
Underleigh House
Hope
‘Near the end of a quiet cul-de-sac lane’, within the Peak District national park, Vivienne and Philip Taylor welcome guests to their farmhouse B&B, ‘overlooking the beauty of Hope valley’.
Shallowdale House
Ampleforth
Phillip Gill and Anton van der Horst’s ‘warm welcoming’ B&B is adored by a cohort of regular returnees. ‘It felt like coming home,’ writes a reader after this year’s visit.
Number Thirty Eight Clifton
Bristol
Understated contemporary style is mixed with splendid views at this honey-toned former Georgian merchant’s house.
Brownber Hall
Kirkby Stephen
Soul-stirring views of the Howgills and space to spread out in a luxurious, eclectically furnished Victorian country house make Brownber Hall a special place for private gatherings of family and friends.
The Pig in the Wall
Southampton
A Georgian house ‘charmingly set into the ancient city wall’, this little Piggy is wee, wee, wee – at least, compared with its country cousins.
Duke House
Cambridge
Liz and Rob Cameron’s ‘beautifully presented’ B&B is ‘well located’, in ‘walking distance of the whole city’.
The Old Rectory
Hastings
Trusted friends of the Guide rated this boutique B&B, on the fringe of the Old Town, ‘the nicest’ they had stayed in.
From £90 per night
Riverwood
Pitlochry
A contemporary Arts and Crafts-style house, in large grounds on the edge of a conservation village, is home to Ann and Alf Berry’s ‘tranquil’ B&B.
Coes Faen
Barmouth
Coes Faen means ‘leg of stone’, bringing to mind Shelley’s Ozymandias, but there is no vainglory at Sara and Richard Parry-Jones’s adults-only hotel overlooking the Mawddach estuary.
Craigatin House and Courtyard
Pitlochry
A lofty glass-fronted, cedar-beamed extension creates a cathedral of light, drawing visitors to this B&B in a former surgeon’s house set amid two acres of gardens and woodland on the fringe of the Highlands.
New House Farm
Cockermouth
A cream tea on arrival and a hot tub in the grounds are among the pleasures that make Hazel Thompson’s B&B, in fans’ eyes, ‘the best in the Lakes’.
Padstow Townhouse
Padstow
Chef Paul Ainsworth’s parents owned a Southampton guest house, where dinner might be dad’s corned beef hash with Bisto gravy. His own enterprises are more high end, the rooms here complementing Michelin-starred Paul Ainsworth at No. 6 in downtown Padstow.
38 St Giles
Norwich
Built in 1700, and once home to the Lord Mayor of Norwich, this ‘well-placed’ luxury B&B is run ‘with enthusiasm’ by father and daughter Dennis and Holly Bacon.
Austwick Hall
Austwick
The Guide’s recommendation inspired one gratified reader to book a stay at Eric Culley and Michael Pearson’s characterful B&B in a Yorkshire Dales village: ‘I’m pleased to be able to agree with the enthusiastic comments.’
