The Bowe family has been providing ‘prompt and attentive service’ in their ‘beautiful’ Regency-style mansion, which stands in woodland and extensive formal gardens, for more than 35 years. Guide inspectors found ‘a guest-centred, ambitious hotel’ whose ‘inviting public rooms’ are filled with ‘interesting artwork, and fittings to fascinate the eye’. Bedrooms are traditionally styled with antiques and paintings. ‘Our pleasant garden-view room had three easy chairs and a large Victorian wardrobe, a well-lit marble bathroom, and a super-king-size bed for a most restful sleep.’ In the frescoed Conservatory restaurant, Ruadhan Furlong’s ‘Division 1’ cooking might include such modern dishes as roasted Irish veal sirloin, apple and potato purée, charcoal oil, turnips. ‘We could happily have eaten our way through the menu over successive nights.’ More casual options (perhaps smoked chicken breast, warm Puy lentils, chorizo) are taken in the airy Duck restaurant, in converted fieldstone stables by the vegetable and rose garden. At an ‘excellent breakfast’, feast anew on home-made preserves, leaf teas, local yogurt, ‘sumptuous’ smoked salmon and scrambled eggs. ‘Atmospheric’ wooded walks await.