The Devonshire Arms

The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire’s luxury hotel has come a long way since starting life as a 17th-century inn. On the 30,000-acre Bolton Abbey estate in the Yorkshire Dales, it features decor overseen by the Duchess which blends contemporary style and comfort with ‘quality period furnishings’. Walls are hung with works from the Chatsworth Devonshire Collection, and some pricier rooms, in the 18th-century wing, have a four-poster. Even the cheapest ‘classics’, overlooking the Italian box garden, have a coffee machine, minibar and fresh milk. An atmospheric spa can be found in an adjacent barn. Our inspector took a drink in the cocktail bar, its walls ‘festooned with canine silhouettes’ (courtesy of Osborne & Little). In the restaurant, Peter Howarth’s tasting menu might be ‘almost curt in its brevity’ (including St Austell Bay mussels, sardine purée, Barolo and, for vegetarians, confit fennel, smoked ricotta, dill, apple, quinoa), but dishes are long on flavour and high in quality. The wine list comes ‘in an enormous folder’. You can eat more cheaply in the modern brasserie. (See also The Cavendish, Baslow.)