Top hotel award for romantic retreat on moor
ADEVON hotel is “elated” to have won a prestigious national award for its intimate feel, scenic location and quality service.
Lewtrenchard Manor, in Lewdown on Dartmoor, received a Cesar Award from the Good Hotel Guide 2021, being named the Romantic Hotel of the Year.
The Cesar Awards are named after famed hotelier Cesar Ritz and regarded as “the Oscars of the industry”, and the hotel was chosen for the award from more than 750 hotels, inns, B&Bs and guest houses featured in the guide.
Owner Duncan Murray said: “We were really elated when we found out. We’ve won awards from the Good Hotel Guide before but never a Cesar – that is a very big deal indeed.
“We are a very intimate venue, with high quality and personal service, in beautiful historic surroundings. The restaurant is intimate and serves very high quality food.
“We are popular with couples and run a romantic break through the year, including a champagne cream tea and a taster menu.”
Lewtrenchard Manor is on the north-eastern fringe of Dartmoor National Park.
Dating back to 1626, it has atmospheric period features, including original coats of arms, wood-panelled drawing rooms, oil paintings, stucco ceilings and antique-filled rooms.
Set in a secluded valley beneath Dartmoor’s wild tors, it’s hard to imagine a more romantic setting for this Jacobean manor, which strikes a note between grand and welcoming.
Each bedroom at Lewtrenchard is individually styled with the Gallery Suites, St Gertrude and Nonington reminiscent of manor life in centuries past.
Special events at Lewtrenchard include a Soil to Plate showcase and a history tour with the owners.
The Christmas break includes a range of festive fun, including – subject to coronavirus restrictions – a choral concert, black tie gala dinner, midnight mass, Christmas lunch and a Boxing Day treasure hunt and falconry demonstration.
Lewtrenchard has a history of colourful owners in its past. James Gould was one of the earliest adventurers to trade on the Chinese mainland, Edward Gould was a compulsive gambler and suspected murderer and the Reverend Sabine Baring Gould was a celebrated hymn writer and novelist who composed ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ at the desk that still stands in the front hall.
Dinners at Lewtrenchard are created by the award-winning Chef Patron, Jason Hornbuckle.
In Cornwall, The Scarlet Hotel in
Mawgan Porth was named Best Seaside Hotel of the Year in the Good Hotel Guide awards.
The Good Hotel Guide is co-edited by Adam and Caroline Raphael, together with former travel editor and former assistant travel editor of The Times, Jane Knight and Kate Quill.
The 2021 edition features a 750 hotels, inns, B&Bs and guesthouses, with over 400 main entries.
Ten Cesar awards are presented each year to a selection of hotels which have demonstrated consistent excellence in their field.
This year, they feature a restaurant in a converted barn near Stratfordupon-Avon, an eco-friendly Welsh hotel that doesn’t stint on design, and a charming 400-year-old farmhouse on Little Sark, reached by horse and cart.