Birdsong fills the air around the Wood family’s ‘really lovely hotel’, which stands in large, peaceful grounds on the edge of the North York Moors. The Grange started life as a 16th-century farmhouse and was made over in the country house manner in the ’20s. Today, brothers Bertie and Tom Wood and their mother, Jane, ‘make the place’ with the warmth of their welcome. Some may find the setting old-fashioned – a grandfather clock stands in the hallway, a dark wood dresser holds a china collection, and floral bedspreads cover the beds in the ‘comfortable bedrooms’ – but fans come for the ‘outstanding service’ and staunchly traditional atmosphere, where ‘everyone immediately knows your name’. Enjoy tea on the terrace or by the fire, with scones perhaps still warm from the oven. In the evening, sit down to a nightly-changing menu of straightforward but tasty dishes: poached halibut, Pernod hollandaise, say, or fillet steak, salpicon sauce. The chefs are happy to oblige, too: when recent guests especially loved a halibut dish one night, the kitchen cheerfully repeated it the following evening. ‘Superb walking’ starts right at the door.