We have readers who return year after year to this ‘delightful, comfortable’ B&B with panoramic views across the North Yorkshire countryside. ‘Warm’, ‘friendly’, ‘restful’, they write of it. Natural hosts Phillip Gill and Anton van der Horst devote time and attention to guests, greeting returnees ‘as old friends’, baking cakes for tea by the fire, squeezing oranges for breakfast. The architect-designed 1960s house, with big picture windows, stands on a south-facing hillside, more and more at one with a garden densely planted by Anton with shrubs, roses, honeysuckle. The public rooms are filled with antiques and objets d’art. Bright, spacious, spotless bedrooms – one with double-aspect windows – are supplied with luxury toiletries, fresh milk for morning coffee. At night Phillip cooks a four-course dinner of fresh, seasonal produce, with wines available from a well-chosen list. Perhaps local asparagus, pancetta-wrapped guineafowl, panna cotta, then a cheeseboard, served at tables set with silverware and crisp linen. In the morning there are Craster kippers, local sausages, home-made jams – and, in prospect, maybe a drive to York or to the romantic ruins of Rievaulx Abbey. (AW)