Chapel House
Sleeps 9-15
Northamptonshire
Gardens and grounds
Bring your well-behaved dog to sniff out the spaces on this rambling estate. Take the woodland walk to discover themed shepherds’ huts given over to painting, reading, yoga and nature. Get creative in the den-building area. Play volleyball or badminton on the cricket pitch. Picnic on the green or barbecue in the garden.
Living spaces
Chapel House houses 15 but there’s privacy aplenty with an interconnecting door in between the two linked properties. Come together in the living spaces to catch movies and matches on the smart TVs (don’t forget your passwords) and to update your followers on the fabulousness over the Gigaclear fibre-optic broadband.
Velvet sofas and leather footstools, wooden floors and a sense of wholesome living abound. And when you want to break free from the bonhomie and get competitive, there’s chess and other board games available.
Cooking and dining
Across both properties, you’ve got two kitchens. So you can get competitive with your other guests over the two electric range cookers. Or you can simply say no thanks, pop a cork on a Prosecco and call up the pros from Private Chef Marcel and Beetroot Catering for a one-off knees-up or fully catered break.
Get carried away with the laid-on catering by taking away good Indian from Curry Passion Oundle, who also do a fine line in pizzas and curly fries, or The Blue Marlin Fish and Chips in Oundle. Shop at Tesco Express, Waitrose, Co-op, Trendall’s butchers and Hambleton Bakery with fizz from Amp’s Wines.
Enjoy relaxed, gastro-style grub at The Kings Arms in Polebrook or eat by the waterside at Tap and Kitchen on Oundle Wharf: try Mediterranean seabass, ravioli of goat’s curd or salt-baked swede. Or stay in the village for a four-minute walk to The Chequered Skipper for pub favourites.
Get a taste of the Mediterranean at Dexter’s and pick from penne formaggio, seafood paella or moules frites. Or head to Katana Peterborough for a Japanese pan-Asian experience with live teppanyaki tables, jazz, cocktails and an interior straight out of downtown Mayfair.
Bedrooms
Not much on this rural estate will get between you and a few solid Zeds. Maybe an owl in the copse or a fox in the hedgerows. Sleep tight in seven bedrooms sleeping 15 across the two properties. Most rooms will fit a cot.
Bedroom one provides a kingsize with en-suite shower room, while bedroom two offers three small doubles, and bedroom three has two small doubles. Bedroom four is a kingsize with en-suite bath and bedroom five offers a kingsize with ground-floor WC.
Bedroom six sleeps two in a kingsize bed and bedroom seven gives you two single beds.
What people say
Big cats and clay shoots
Stay on site for clay shoots, volleyball, badminton, table tennis, karaoke and yoga. Head off for golf at Oundle, kayaks on the Nene, and Stamford’s alleyways and courtyards. Meet big cats and wombats at Hamerton Park Zoo, hawks and eagles at Icarus, and Spitfires at the aviation museum.
