Yalbury Cottage
Dorchester, Dorset
Good Hotel Guide Review
‘An example of how really good management can make a stay memorable,’ writes a Guide regular this year, after visiting Ariane and Jamie Jones’s small thatched hotel in the heart of Thomas Hardy country. ‘Ariane and her staff took what appeared to be a genuine interest in us and they (lads under training) took the trouble to remember our names: a very personal experience.’ ‘Comfortable’ bedrooms, in a modern extension, display ‘a simple country style with floral prints’. All have tea and coffee facilities, fresh milk; a bathroom with bath and shower over. There may be a tiny price to pay for a room’s ‘lovely outlook’ over sheep-filled fields: ‘All very bucolic, until we were woken at 5.30 am by bleating right outside the window.’ Still, as a reader suggests, this is ‘really a restaurant-with-rooms’, with ‘emphasis on the excellent cooking’. In the beamed dining room, Jamie Jones’s locally sourced seasonal French dishes include roast lamb rump, yeast purée, sticky red onion, ricotta beignets, roast garlic and rosemary sauce. ‘Cheese soufflé, scallops and lamb were all faultless.’ Breakfast brings Bridport kippers, eggy bread with maple syrup. (Robert Cooper, PA, LH and JF)
Hotel details
Address
Lower Bockhampton
Dorchester
Dorset
DT2 8PZ
England
Telephone
01305 262382
Bedrooms
8. 6 on ground floor.
Open
all year except 23 Dec–17 Jan.
Facilities
lounge, restaurant, free Wi-Fi, in-room TV (Freeview), garden with outdoor seating.
Background music
‘easy listening’ in lounge in evening.
Children
all ages welcomed, no under-12s in restaurant after 8 pm.
Dogs
allowed in bedrooms, lounge, not in restaurant.
Credit cards
MC, Visa.
Prices
per room B&B single £75–£85, double £99–£125, D,B&B single £95–£115, double £165–£185. À la carte £34.50–£39.50.
Good Hotel Guide articles about
Yalbury Cottage
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