Slaley Hall is Best Golf Resort in the North... That’s official
Slaley Hall is the best golf resort in the north of England - and it’s official. That’s according to the inaugural Golf World ‘Top 100 Resorts in UK & Ireland’ ranking.
The four-start resort in Hexham, Northumberland - managed by Redefine|BDL Hotels (RBH) - was ranked 24 overall in the
top 100 list, in which it was competing with world-renowned five-star resorts on both sides of the Irish Sea.
The magazine’s top 100 rankings for golf courses in both the UK&I and Europe, and its European resorts listing, are widely regarded as the benchmark in the industry and this latest venture has been awaited eagerly.
Andrew Cameron, golf operations manager for the hotel group - of which Slaley Hall is one of 10 four-star golf resorts - believes everybody at the resort should be rightly proud of the achievement.
He said: “This ranking was eagerly anticipated, as nothing of this magnitude had ever been attempted before.
There’s a lot more to a resort than just its golf course or its accommodation alone. Everything has to come together - golf, food, hotel, relaxation - to make it somewhere a golfer wants to visit and stay for a couple of days.
“And for Slaley Hall to be listed as the highest-ranked golf resort in the north of England is a great achievement and one about which everybody at the resort can be justifiably delighted. What’s more, it was also a fabulous accomplishment for QHotels as a group, as we had all 10 of our UK golf resorts listed in the top 100. No other hotel group can match that level of performance.”
Managed by RBH, the UK’s leading independent hotel management company, Slaley Hall was also voted ‘Best Golf Hotel/ Resort in the North of England’ for the third successive year in the 2017 Today’s Golfer Travel Awards.
It is set in 1,000 acres of Northumberland moorland and forest. It is a magnificent fourstar hotel in an elegant Edwardian mansion, with two challenging championship courses - the Hunting and the Priestman - which have played host to no fewer than 18 European Tour and European Senior Tour events.
The 7,000-yard, par-72 Hunting, designed by Dave Thomas, has lush sweeping fairways, streams, lakes, towering trees and banks of rhododendrons - but, aesthetics aside, it will catch out the unwary. Well-placed bunkers and tricky greens make this USGA standard course a real challenge. The quality of Slaley Hall’s elder layout is illustrated by the fact the course is often dubbed ‘The Augusta of the North’.
The Priestman course was designed by Neil Coles and opened in 1999. Beautifully maintained, the course has matured magnificently. It sits on the west side of the estate, with panoramic views of the Tyne Valley and some daunting water features, and wind can be a factor on a course which hosts regularly European seniors’ events.
As the largest golf resort operator in the UK, the RBH portfolio offers championshipstandard courses in unique resort locations including Slaley Hall, Oulton Hall, Belton Woods, Mottram Hall, and Forest Pines Hotel & Golf Resort.