The Good Hotel Guide has revealed its annual list of 12 César winners and the North is celebrating three major wins, with Westmorland Hotel in Penrith securing the Best Hotel in the region gong, Forest Side in Grasmere taking home the Best Country Hotel award and Cambridge House in Reeth being named the Best B&B in the country.
In addition, properties in the region feature heavily in the Editor’s Choice lists, including The Cookie Jar in Alnwick in the Romantic category and Underleigh House in Hope making the top Hotels with a View list.
This year, award winners include a hotel run by aristocracy with a well-being focus, a former motorway service station on the M6, a Grade I listed townhouse where the in-room coffee maker can be found in a doll’s house, a revamped 11th-century Cotswold stone inn, a 1950s Scottish youth hostel with loch views that is now a stunning hotel, and Michelin-starred properties in the heart of the British countryside with bird-watching and red squirrel spotting opportunities on the door step.
Best country hotel
Forest Side, Grasmere, Cumbria
Michelin-starred cuisine (with 90 per cent of the produce sourced from a ten-mile radius), elegant bedrooms and red squirrels in the garden are the successful recipe for this 20-room hotel.
Best city hotel
No.15 by GuestHouse, Bath, Somerset
This boutique property occupies a trio of Grade I listed town houses in a Georgian terrace that are home to eclectic rooms with a touch of whimsy such as a coffee maker in a doll’s house.
Best B&B
Cambridge House, Reeth, Yorkshire
A warm welcome with cake, sweeping views over Swaledale and local advice on the best walks and good places for dinner from owners Sheila and Robert Mitchell set this B&B apart.
Best pub with rooms
The Double Red Duke, Clanfield, Oxfordshire
Georgie and Sam Pearman’s 17th-century Cotswold stone inn comes with a country-chic air in its carefully designed rooms, with luxurious fabrics, hand-blocked wallpaper and wooden furniture.
Best Hotel South
The Pig in the Forest, Brockenhurst, Hampshire
This was the first of a new breed of hotels opened by Robin Hutson in 2011 and it’s still the best, having reinvented the English country hotel with a hip not hooray atmosphere.
Best Hotel South West
The Henley, Bigbury-on-Sea, Devon
Renowned for its friendliness, the nightly-changing evening meals by co-owner Martyn Scarterfield are best enjoyed in the garden room with its spectacular views over the sands to Burgh Island.
Best Hotel East Anglia
Morston Hall, Holt, Norfolk
Birdwatchers and bon vivants alike beat a path to Tracy and Galton Blackiston’s friendly and relaxed Michelin-starred restaurant-with-rooms in a flint farmhouse, right on Blakeney nature reserve’s doorstep.
Best Hotel Midlands
The Falcon, Castle Ashby, Northamptonshire
Lord Northampton (aka the Mystic Marquess) and his wife Tracy have placed well-being right at the core of their reinvented 16th-century coaching inn on the Castle Ashby estate.
Best Hotel North
Westmorland Hotel, Penrith. Cumbria
Formerly Tebay Services Hotel, this Lake District hotel on the M6 offers quiet rooms with fell views, unfussy but tasty Cumbrian food, excellent value for money and what readers describe as a feeling of ‘peace and well-being’.
Best Hotel Scotland
Eddrachilles, Scourie, Highland
A youth hostel in the 1950s, the rooms of this magical place on the water overlooking Badcall Bay have had a major refurb while many readers report that the nightly changing menu of food and breakfast is delicious.
Best Hotel Wales
Penally Abbey, Tenby, Pembrokeshire
Owner and interior designer Melanie Boissevain has created stylish, relaxing rooms filled with antiques, French market finds, blowsy wallpapers and Persian rugs in this Strawberry Hill Gothic house on the coast a five-minute drive from Tenby.
Best Hotel Ireland
The Mustard Seed at Echo Lodge, Ballingarry, County Limerick
Warm Irish hospitality and superb food are on offer at this Victorian country mansion, where the restaurant is a destination in its own right, thanks to Angel Pirev who uses produce from the kitchen garden and orchard.
