Askham Hall

With topiary garden, 17th-century pele tower and French drawing room, Askham Hall sounds grand and formal; not a bit of it. The ancestral home of the Lowthers, run by Charles as a Michelin-starred restaurant-with-rooms, is relaxed and unpretentious with dogs and children mingling among family heirlooms. Comfortably cluttered with books and modern art, one drawing room has doors to a classic English country house garden. This is a ‘lovely building’ in a ‘wonderful setting’. Main house bedrooms – some with leaded windows and fireplace – mix antiques with modern pieces, those in the courtyard have a rustic style. Bathrooms may have marble washbasins and roll-top bath. Most are spacious but one couple found their standard room ‘undersized’ for the price with ‘limited hanging space’. Chef Richard Swale is ‘a real wizard’ creating dishes with produce from the kitchen garden and family estate: beef fillet with cèpes, crab with lovage and blackcurrant, and salt-baked celeriac with truffle. Book dinner ahead, warns one reader. Overall, it’s a ‘wonderful experience’, with an honesty bar, ‘affable’ host and ‘great breakfasts’.