Farlam Hall

Despite a change of ownership, this quintessential country house hotel in a peaceful Cumbrian village is still in safe hands, report readers. After 44 years in the Quinion family, the Relais & Châteaux member is now owned by Joseph Walter and Kathy Mares, previous guests of 20 years’ standing, who ensure that the creeper-covered Victorian house maintains ‘its sense of tradition’. Furnishings are in keeping with the period of the house – patterned and striped wallpapers, substantial sofas, fires in the sitting rooms – but with a light touch. Evening meals are ‘a proper dining experience with canapés and petits fours’ and might include Cumbrian venison tartare followed by shin of beef, as well as ‘a proper cheese course’ and a wine list with ‘a good selection by the glass’. Large bedrooms are firmly traditional with big-patterned wallpapers, pelmeted curtains, armchairs and sofas, and a mix of reproduction and antique furniture. All rooms have garden views; most have a bath as well as a shower. ‘Clearly a hotel with loyal guests,’ concludes a reader who met one who returns every year ‘despite the long drive from London’. (John Barnes)