Standing high on verdant, hog-backed cliffs above the Exmoor coast, Huw Rees and Sam Prosser’s rectory-turned-hotel is wonderfully remote. The bedrooms, in the main house and coach house, are a blend of contemporary and traditional style, with a modern bathroom, Noble Isle toiletries and spring water on tap. A new annexe duplex suite this year offers two bedrooms, a lounge with a log-burner, a bathroom and shower room. The conservatory is a comfortable jumble of sofas overlooking mature gardens with a stream and waterfall. At afternoon tea, cakes freshly baked by Huw are a dangerous temptation. Guests gather for drinks and canapés before a dinner of local and home-grown produce and day-boat fish, cooked by Michael Caines alumnus Thomas Frost: maybe Ilfracombe crab, a fillet of Devon Red Ruby beef with chateaubriand sauce or a vegetarian choice. At breakfast there is local apple juice, eggs Florentine or the full Devon, with Exmoor honey, jams and Marmite. ‘Very good 
as per your comments. Food is exceptional,’ 
writes a reader this year, short and to the point. (Alan Renwick)