New brooms Jamie and Jenna Shail have refreshed this Georgian manor house since taking over in 2016, but traditional values have not been swept away. ‘We were impressed,’ say regular Guide correspondents in 2017. ‘It’s good to see this long-established hotel being maintained at a high standard, and updated with significant investment.’ Some of the ‘comfortable, well-equipped’ bedrooms have a balcony with views to Wansfell Pike across landscaped gardens. In the refurbished dining room, new chef, Daniel McGeorge builds menus around seasonal and local ingredients; there is a fine vegetable garden. ‘The food here has always been good, but this time it was exceptional: modern, delicious, stimulating.’ Recently praised: lamb with peas puréed, foamed and au naturel; a ‘stunning’ lavender and vanilla panna cotta. By day there may be a hum of cars on the nearby road, ‘but by night all is quiet’. Besides, ‘you can easily escape the traffic and walk along the river, past the remains of a Roman fort, to the top of Lake Windermere’. (Stephanie Thompson, Keith Sutton, Pauline and Stephen Glover, and others)