Shining a light on weird and wonderful hotel stays

IF 2020 has been the year of discovering great hotels on our doorstep, then 2021 will no doubt provide an opportunity to delve even deeper into the welcoming world of domestic hospitality.

Every year, The Good Hotel Guide cherry picks the best properties on offer in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and never before have its expert recommendations been in more demand.

We asked the editors to select their top quirky overnight stays – from lighthouses and windmills to former railway carriages, because right now, we could all do with a bit of escapism. Here’s a selection of the most imaginative sleeps beyond your wildest dreams.

THE OLD RAILWAY STATION

A FIRST-CLASS stay at this converted station is just the ticket, especially if you book one of the rooms in the four romantic Pullman carriages, with their colonial-style furniture, mahogany fittings and plantation shutters. Breakfast, drinks and afternoon tea can be delivered to your carriage door. Two more rooms can be found in the original Station House, of which the largest, with an impressive vaulted ceiling, is up a spiral stairway.

Doubles from £150, B&B (oldstation.co.uk).

TALLAND BAY HOTEL

WHETHER you’re sitting on a zebra-print sofa looking at the 3D Mickey Mouse on the wall, or are perched on a wooden bench with giant budgies in the garden, you’ll find this hotel with a spectacular setting by the coastal path ‘curiouser and curiouser’. It is a fun place, although owners Teresa and Kevin O’Sullivan are very serious about hospitality. The service is slick, there is locally-sourced food in the restaurant, and some of the light, airy rooms have sea views. You can take your four-legged friends, too. Doubles from £160, B&B (tallandbayhotel.co.uk).

TWR Y FELIN HOTEL

IT’S not every day you find a contemporary art museum in a Georgian windmill. On the edge of the UK’s smallest city, Twr Y Felin houses more than 150 original works, some of which you will find adorning the walls of the contemporary restaurant and vaulted lounge. A dozen artists were specifically commissioned to create works inspired by the surrounding area. They include Marcus Oleniuk, who photographed St Davids peninsula; and there are magnificent views of the real thing from the observatory that forms part of the Tower Suite. Doubles from £220, B&B (twryfelinhotel.com).

ST CUTHBERT'S HOUSE

YOU can seek sanctuary in Jeff and Jill Sutheran’s imaginatively converted 19th-century chapel, with its arched windows, wood flooring and doubleheight living room, complete with cast iron pillars. Even the original carved pulpit and the harmonium are still present. Some of the six country-style bedrooms are quite snug, but they do come with bathrobes, coffee machines and digital radios. Breakfasts are taken seriously here, with homemade kipper pâté, kedgeree made with oak-smoked haddock from the Seahouses smokehouse, and a full Northumbrian on the menu. It’s just a short stroll to Bamburgh Castle. Doubles from £130, B&B (stcuthbertshouse.com).

NO.15 GREAT PULTENEY

THE Georgian facade of this Grade I listed building may be traditional, but there’s a world of eccentricity within: the spa is in a former coal cellar, room keys are kept in a doll’s house, and The Dispensary restaurant holds the contents of an antique chemist’s shop. There is artwork everywhere you look. The elegant rooms range from cosy doubles with murals on the wall to junior suites in the neo-Gothic coach house, with large pieces of statement art, coffered ceilings and fireplaces.

Doubles from £184, B&B (no15greatpulteney.co.uk).

THE LATEST EDITION OF THE GOOD HOTEL GUIDE REVEALS THE QUIRKIEST PLACES TO REST YOUR HEAD. SARAH MARSHALL REPORTS

THE DIAL HOUSE

MOST rooms are geographically themed at this Georgian house on the market square. You can pick from Africa, with vaulted beams, bright patterns and a free-standing bath, Parisian Garret with its antiques, or China, a celebration of Willow Pattern. A revolving bookcase reveals a secret dining room, where the menu features local produce cooked over sustainablysourced charcoal. There’s even a retail wing, Vegas Vintage, which sells everything from antiques to aged biker jackets and Eighties puff-ball gowns. Doubles from £125, B&B (thedialhouse.org.uk).