My weekend at the UK's new full-board luxury farm stay
A week before my stay at Fowlescombe Farm, I had a phone call from the guest relations team. We commiserated over the dreary weather forecast for the coming weekend and then checked off some details. My dietary requirements were taken (none), milk preference noted (skimmed), itinerary sketched out (bit of hiking, bit of farm touring, lots of eating), and I was asked if I'd be happy with down bedding (sure). 'Oh, and one last question: do you like scones?' (You bet. Cream first, obvs.)
Fowlescombe, which opened last week on a 450-acre, centuries-old working farm in Ugborough, south Devon, is a hotel that's more glam than gumboot — although wellies are available to borrow, should you want to get mucky. The couple in charge, Caitlin Owens and Paul Glade, want to give guests a traditional farmstay experience with all the trimmings and design focus you'd expect from a top hotel. Helpfully Glade, who oversaw the design side of things, has a background in architecture; meanwhile Owens knows more about the posh hotel side, having worked at Four Seasons and Relais & Châteaux properties. Her family own the farm, as well as the popular Millbrook Inn pub in nearby South Pool.
The UK has been slow to catch up with Tuscany, Menorca and Provence on the luxury farmstay front, but we finally seem to be getting there, with several farms offering fine dining and swanky rooms, capitalising on growing demand for elevated rural experiences. Soho Farmhouse in Oxfordshire has been drawing crowds since 2015, but more recent openings — such as the uber-cool Louma, which opened on a working farm in Dorset at the end of last year — are proving popular alternatives.
And now Fowlescombe. I'm the first journalist in to review the 12-room retreat, and it strikes me even before I arrive that two things set it apart. First, the full-board offering, a rarity in the British hotel scene. A night's stay here costs upwards of £410 per room, but that apparently steep rate includes all meals for two, as well as farm activities such as flower pressing with the head gardener, Shelley Oakenham, and yoga. And then there's the personalisation. Stays are tailored to each guest, hence the questions I was asked. If you were taking children, their names and favourite dishes would be noted in advance, and your stay adjusted accordingly (notebooks with their names on, mini dressing gowns, personalised menus and toys would be placed in the room).
I'm visiting with a friend, Tania, so no personalised notebooks or toys await us when we arrive, late on a Friday night. But we do find freshly baked scones with homemade jam and cream, and there's also a handwritten itinerary for our weekend, skimmed milk in the fridge and — after a knock at the door — two glasses of cold white wine, plates of tender hogget, and a dessert of sour lemon posset and poached rhubarb, delivered to the room.
We're staying in the sloping-ceilinged, second-floor Valley Suite. It's a photogenic base for the weekend with beige and cream interiors, oak panelling, a four-poster bed with Egyptian cotton sheets, and a huge bathroom with an inviting freestanding tub and toiletries from the British skincare brand Pelegrims. 'You know what I love about this room?' says my friend, as we pull on our wellies the following morning. 'There's no TV.' I hadn't even noticed, so distracted was I by the enormous south-facing windows in the space where a TV would have been, and the views over the valleys below. Owens later tells me that TVs can be wheeled in on request — or a projector and screen, if you fancy a home cinema experience.
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It's hard to believe that our room was once a hay barn, so stylishly has it been reimagined by the Swiss architects Studio Gugger. The same can be said of the rest of the property, whose stone barns and Victorian farmhouse have been cleverly revamped to maximise light and space. There's a real feeling of homeliness here, from the happy, friendly service to the Map Room, a communal living room decorated with local maps and stocked with board games and books. These, branded with cute 'Fowlescombe Library' stamps, have been sourced from a mix of charity shops and Owens's childhood bedroom. A dog-eared copy of Northanger Abbey was a gift from a friend on her 18th birthday, while The Times Atlas of the World was a donation from her father.
Some bedrooms have their own patios and some have fully equipped kitchens — 'cook your own' meals are available to order 24/7, with ingredients and cooking instructions for dishes such as longhorn beef ragu and seasonal pies. Among the grandest suites are the 65 sq m Home Barn, across two caramel-oak floors with a garden and dining area, and the two-bedroom Long Barn, whose standout feature is a magnificent floor-to-ceiling wooden door. And then there's the Refectory, the farm-to-table restaurant, where meals are served at a big communal table from which you can watch the chefs at work (there are also smaller tables if you're feeling unsociable).
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Breakfast is delicious if simple, with a buffet of charcuterie from up the hill, pastries, and West Country cheeses; dishes such as buttermilk pancakes (with honey from the farm's bees) and eggs any way (hatched in the coop next door) are available to order. Other meals we have at the Refectory are excellent too: I'm still thinking about my cheesy Reuben toastie, made with salt beef from the farm, and the homemade warm bread and piccalilli butter served with dinner. Predinner drinks, served in a greenhouse around the corner, use farm produce too. The basil twist, made using gin, manzanilla and basil grown on site, was particularly good (cocktails from £15).
When we're not eating, we spend our weekend flitting about the farm in our forest-green, oversized mackintoshes (all rooms come with two to borrow, with neon pink versions for kids). It's drizzly on our first morning here, so we retreat to the greenhouse for a yoga class, the soothing sound of raindrops falling on the glass overhead as we launch into our vinyasa.
The rain subsides later that morning in time for our farm tour with Rosie Ball, the farm manager, who guides us up and down the hilly expanse and introduces us to the curious cows, pigs, lambs and goats that come to peer at us along the way. I momentarily question my carnivorism when I'm cooing over the bucklings and Ball says: 'These boys will go to the restaurant. We make a very good goat curry.'
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Elsewhere on our muddy stroll we pass the ancient 16th-century manor house that burnt down in the 1800s and is now a magnificent, ivy-covered ruin. The grade II listed building is thought to have inspired Baskerville Hall in Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles.
You could easily keep entertained on the farm for a few days, but trips can also be booked through the hotel. We spend one afternoon on a tour of the moors with a charismatic local guide, Emma Cunis (£200 per group; dartmoorsdaughter.com), past ancient stone crags and wild horses, with folklore imparted along the way. 'If you see thick fog on the moors it's the pixies being mischievous,' she says.
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When the sun does eventually come out, we drive about 40 minutes to the coast for a marvellous cliffside gander from Gara Rock to Salcombe, stopping first for a lamb roast at the Millbrook Inn (mains from £20; millbrookinnsouthpool.co.uk). There are lovely beaches closer to the hotel too, should you want to stay local; the nearest is Mothecombe, a 20-minute drive away.
It's early days for Fowlescombe, but its owners are already planning future enhancements — new suites, alfresco dining spaces, maybe a natural spa with treatment rooms and a sauna. 'We're very excited,' Glade says. 'It's a real labour of love.'Claudia Rowan was a guest of Fowlescombe Farm, which has one night's full board for two from £410, including on-site activities (fowlescombe.com)
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This 19th-century farm near Bridport features ten adults-only rooms transformed from former outbuildings, stylish bathrooms with copper tubs, and — as of this year — treatment rooms for massages and facials. The Cart Shed restaurant serves tasty meals using locally sourced ingredients, and there's a cosy cinema in what was previously a hay barn.Details Room-only doubles from £180 (outbuildingsdorset.com)
A cinema, stylish wine bar with live music performances and cosy shepherd's huts and lodges await at this 700-acre, family-owned working farm a 30-minute train ride from central London. Feast on farm produce at the Cowshed restaurant, where dishes include roasted lamb rump, squash soup and sourdough crumpets (mains from £19).Details B&B doubles from £210 (tewinbury.co.uk)
The nine bedrooms on this restored 18th-century dairy farm in the Cornish village of Lewannick are homely, with pared-back decor and homemade toiletries. But the real highlight here is the food: there's an on-site bakery for all your fresh goods and an excellent field-to-fork restaurant overseen by the Coombeshead co-owner and chef Tom Adams.Details B&B doubles from £185 (coombesheadfarm.co.uk)
This rural resort opened at the end of 2024 on the Jurassic Coast north of Lyme Regis, with 100 acres comprising a working farm, excellent spa and animals you can meet and greet. There are also cool, country-chic rooms, top-notch food and — if all the above weren't enough — a vineyard on site. Like Fowlescombe, Louma's room rate includes all meals, so you'll be well fed here.Details Full-board doubles from £470 (loumafarmandretreat.co.uk)
Heckfield's 400-acre estate is home to a Georgian country house hotel, woodland parks and lakes, and a working organic farm. Plenty of on-site activities revolve around Heckfield Home Farm, from tours to flower-arranging workshops. Head back to the hotel after your farm immersion for its gorgeous rooms and two fabulous restaurants (or slope off for a cocktail, which make use of homemade tinctures).Details B&B doubles from £650 (heckfieldplace.com)
Adam Henson's Cotswold Farm Park is ideal for families, with more than 50 animal breeds available to meet and activities that range from bottle-feeding newborn lambs to fun wildlife walks. The excellent Ox Shed restaurant serves lunch mains of Gloucester beef burgers and crispy wraps — and a daily breakfast offering that features homemade pastries and a mammoth full English. On-site accommodation ranges from simple camping tents to six-person luxury lodges with wood-fired hot tubs.Details One night's self-catering for four from £50 (cotswoldfarmpark.co.uk)
You might be sleeping under canvas but you won't be roughing it at this family-run farm and glampsite in south Wales. Surrounded by woodland, custom-built Persian tents sleep between two and six and have high domed ceilings, proper beds, kitchens with running water, en suite loos and wood-burning stoves. There's a deli to grab pre-prepared meals, a pantry for supplies, an adventure playground and all kinds of optional activities from archery to campfire cookery classes. Visit in spring and you can even roll up your sleeves and help with lambing.Details Two night's self-catering for five from £295 (penhein.co.uk)
This family-run farm in Perthshire has six dog-friendly cottages spread throughout the grounds. These range from a cute-as-a-button bothy-style bolt hole for two with vaulted ceilings to a five en suite bedroom house with a double-sided wood-burning stove and antique dining table seating 12. Animals to meet include Clydesdale horses, Highland cattle and pigs, while welcome packs include fresh eggs from the farm's own hens. On chilly nights, plunder the board game library or order a dram in the cosy communal bar.Details Two nights' self-catering for two from £224 (blairmorefarm.com)
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