The Pig at Combe

The Gloriana of Robin Hutson’s Pig hotel collection (see index), this Grade I listed Elizabethan beauty stands in ‘wonderful grounds in a special location’ in the peaceful Otter valley. Judy Hutson has hammed up the decor, with oak-branch chandeliers, lampshades fashioned from old silk saris, Zoffany fabrics, French antiques, oil portraits of bewigged bigwigs. Bedrooms are decorated in restful pastels. The smallest have a monsoon shower; some comfy-luxe rooms have a freestanding bath in the window. Among super-king four-poster rooms, the Laundry, with its own lounge, has a bathroom with circular copper tub. For the ultimate in rustic chic, the Horsebox, with cobbled floor, incorporates the old stable partitions. Whether you eat in the restaurant or outside, there is an ‘impressive commitment to local sourcing’ with much produce supplied from the three walled kitchen gardens. Dishes might include three-corner leek and ricotta gnocchi with garden kale, or organic lamb leg with lentils. ‘The restaurant was busy, but the service was excellent and the food good.’ Wood-fired flatbreads are served in and outside the once derelict Folly.