Hot Baths, gardens and grounds
If you can’t relax here, you probably can’t relax. Three acres of rolling hills, flower-filled meadows and tree-studded landscaping border the house on two sides. Soak up the silence, rippled only by the snuffle or chirp of wildlife.
Wander the mature borders and terraces. Take a book out to the sheltered outdoor seating area in front of the garden room. Eat your barbied burgers and bangers around the picnic benches beneath the big skies.
Soak up the countryside in one of two unique outdoor hot baths before lighting the firepits to skewer your marshmallows and stare at the stars.
Living spaces
You’ve a barn here and two cottages, all bountiful and beautiful and inspired by the best of British boutique, with tactile surfaces, chunky wood, cool stone, exposed beams and big doors, to usher in the outside. Fire up some real flames on the two logburners and get the conversation crackling.
This isn’t a hard party place, more of a font of soft celebration, a place to reboot the soul and reconnect with the meadow-rich nature that smiles at you from every window. It’s a place of upcycled furniture and contemporary chic. Add a melodious backdrop with the Sonos system, or make your own around the grand piano.
Take your chums on at table tennis. Break out the board games for the kids. Lift your evenings with a trip or two to the honesty bar (one in each cottage). Have a nosey around Netflix: watch your favourite shows on the snug projector or dig out a DVD.
Stream the wifi, hook up to the iPod station, bury yourself in a book. Get together; slide apart. The barn comes with snug, living area and bar. When you’re rested and recuperated, rejoin the fray in the cottage living areas.
Cooking and dining
The dining table is a hunky chunk of oak that sits between the giant doors of the barn. Open them up onto the meadow at one end and the courtyard at the other. It’ll seat 14-16 but, with six extra chairs, improvisation should be fine. Alternatively, dine beneath the Devon skies on the two picnic benches with steaks and sausages from the barbie.
Each cottage offers its own kitchen complete with fan-assisted oven and electric hob. There’s a toaster for midnight munchies and a dishwasher for dealing with the dirties. Plunge yourself a proper coffee with the cafetieres. Big event on? Call up our pro chefs and let them loose on the kitchen in the barn.
Stock up on fresh Devon fare at Darts Farm’s excellent deli counter, at The Crusty Cob in Ottery St Mary, and at Veysey’s Butchers. Catch the Cullompton Farmers’ Market on Wednesday and Saturdays and the fresh-fish van every Wednesday. Wash it all down with a glass of the good stuff from Wine World in Honiton.
Enjoy fresh, seasonal produce at The Five Bells in Cullompton, where the Five Bells Burger with chilli jam sounds irresistible. Call in to the Drewe Arms for ribeye steak or beer-battered hake. Try The Pig at Combe with its three walled gardens and 25-mile menu. Or just order up a wood-fired wonder from Blackdown Pizza.
Bedrooms
Plenty to choose from here, but all with the same 300-thread count cotton sheets you’ll find in The Dorchester and The Pig and the same loving attention to detail. Sleep in the cottages; sleep in the Barn. Whichever you choose, you’ll sleep log-like in a landscape disturbed only by the gentle swish of the meadow grass.
The Warren sleeps six, the Den four, and the barn will accommodate another seven, in twelve bedrooms overall. Bedroom one in the Warren is a superking with en-suite wet room, while bedroom two is a double, also with en-suite wet room. Both rooms are wheelchair-accessible. En-suite bedroom three offers two singles.
The Barn comes with two double en-suites and 3 en-suite kingsize along with a mezzanine single with en-suite shower that can be used as a spare. For larger groups adding the Den, you’ll get another ensuite king en-suite and a double ensuite room.
Bedrooms come with contemporary navy or sage-green walls, flagged floors and exposed beams.
What people say
Owls, wolves and a cathedral
Meet owls and kestrels at Yarak Bird of Prey Centre, or wolves at Wildwood Escot. Up the adrenaline at Crealy Theme Park or bring your buckets and spades for Beer beach. Ride the Blackdown Hills on horseback. See Killerton’s great estate and family home. Head to Exeter for fine shopping and even finer cathedral.
