Battlesteads Shortlist*

A ‘really good experience’, Dee and Richard Slade’s ‘well-run’ hotel, restaurant and village pub stand out for their ‘laudable’ approach to sustainable tourism. Modern menus, ‘well cooked and varied’, use locally sourced produce and the bounty from the kitchen garden and mushroom farm; the walled garden is a popular spot for birds and red squirrels; the dark sky observatory is simply ‘amazing’. Bedrooms are in the main building (part of an 18th Century farmstead) and in wood-built lodges to the rear. Some may be ‘on the small side’, while others, in the lodges, are ‘vast’. Rooms away from the road are quietest. A stroll from the the North Tyne River, hosts advise on the best walks for spotting wildlife.