Best hotels for fishing

Overlooking the River Hodder in the Forest of Bowland, this sprawling 18th-century manor house is joyously traditional, with stone-flagged floors, open fires and bags of atmosphere.

With breakfast served until noon, afternoon tea by the drawing room fire, shooting, fishing and communal dining, a house-party atmosphere prevails at this Georgian country house.

Set back from the road in its own mature grounds, Sonia and William Marshall’s Victorian house stands on the edge of a swathe of the ancient Scots pine woodland, haunt of the capercaillie, that surrounds Grantown.

‘An enchanting destination’ is how readers describe Olga Polizzi’s Regency hunting lodge, which stands by the River Tamar in an Elysian landscape designed by Humphry Repton.

You could not wish for a more glorious location than you find at Lorraine Hinkins and Alex Yorke’s 18th-century farmhouse B&B, with views to Cader Idris and Tal-y-llyn lake.

‘A long private road through woodland’ leads to Henry and Lucy Hodgson’s Victorian country house, ‘lost in time’ in 180 acres, overlooking Lough Corrib.