‘A superb hotel,’ reports a trusted reader in 2019, of Robin Hutson’s Elizabethan manor at the end of a mile-long drive.

‘There is a timeless feel and magic about the setting’ of this Jacobean manor house. It stands in 'immaculate gardens in Thomas Hardy’s ‘vale of little dairies’.

The Mount is St Michael’s, a tidal island best viewed from your bedroom balcony or the terrace of this hotel overlooking the bay.

‘Such a romantic spot.’ Deep in the Nadder valley, amid narrow country lanes that are ‘a pleasure to get lost in’, this 17th-century house is owned by Grahame and Prue Senior and Simon and Charlotte Greenwood.

‘Expensive certainly, but it’s worth paying for quality.’

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.

Maureen Rowlatt is the ‘charming’ hostess at this B&B in a private valley, surrounded by gardens that extend into woodland and fields – an ideal spot for exploring Dartmoor and the Tamar valley.

‘An idyllic place. . . absolute heaven.’ So say regular visitors to Martyn Scarterfield and Petra Lampe’s dog-friendly B&B with ‘fabulous views’ over Bigbury Bay.

Built as a fishing lodge for Georgiana, Duchess of Bedford, and formerly home to the local fishing club, Olga Polizzi’s Regency cottage orné is surrounded by parkland landscaped by Humphry Repton, with the Tamar running through. Guests can fly fish for salmon and sea trout on eight miles of riverbank – tackle and ghillie provided.

There are ‘no airs and graces’ at this Georgian rectory-cum-hotel in the gentle South Hams countryside between Dartmoor and the South Devon coast.

‘Very much the country pub, with a warm buzz to it’, this old coaching inn, built around a cobbled courtyard, stands at the heart of a historic stone village.

An Edwardian hunting lodge, rumoured to have served in the 1960s as an MI6 training centre, is today a welcoming country house hotel where sleepers wake to glorious views over Exmoor.

Blow all cares away with a welcoming glass of champagne on arrival at Andrea and Simon Copper’s sleekly designed, child-free retreat.

In ‘glorious’ grounds’ Martin Barlow’s hotel, golf resort and spa on the Helford river returns to a full entry this year thanks to a trusted reader and frequent guest who loves ‘the personalised hospitality and the attention of good staff’.

With full-time instructors, a tackle shop in an old cock-fighting pit and 20 miles of river bank on the Tamar and six tributaries, the Fox-Edwards family’s hotel has been a fisherman’s friend for more than 50 years. Its own, crystal-clear Tinhay Lake is fishable all year.

With thrilling views over Lyme Bay, the Jurassic Coast and the Cobb, Kathryn Haskins's luxury hotel and restaurant is swaddled by lush cliff-top gardens.