‘This continues to be a very dependable oasis,’ writes a trusted reader and regular visitor to this country house hotel (Relais & Châteaux), between the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage site. It has been run by the Quinion family since 1975 with some staff having worked at the property for over 30 years, and offers ‘a truly exceptional experience’. The interiors of the creeper-clad bay-fronted manor house are traditional and elegant, with marble fireplaces, paintings, antiques and ornaments. Guests arriving in the afternoon are served tea and home-made cakes in one of the lounges. Bedrooms, mainly in peachy shades, are large and comfortable, with armchairs, sofas, garden views. Those in the stables are reached via an exterior stone staircase – ideal if you’ve been out late on the razzle. From the dining room, tall windows look on to an ornamental lake. Dinner, at 8 pm, includes such ‘beautifully cooked’ dishes as Yorkshire venison, juniper and port wine sauce (give notice if you’re vegetarian). Farlam, concludes our reader, is ‘one of those now endangered species, a Proper Hotel’. 
(Chris Savory)