Hotel Endsleigh

About Hotel Endsleigh

Hotel Endsleigh is a Grade I listed cottage orne, built in 1814 as a fishing and hunting lodge for the Duke and Duchess of Bedford and set above the River Tamar on the western edge of Dartmoor. Olga Polizzi bought the house in 2004 and reopened it as a hotel, keeping the eccentric Regency architecture intact while making the interiors properly comfortable. It is one of the more distinctive places to stay in the West Country and feels far more like a private house than a hotel.

The 21 rooms are all different, decorated by Polizzi with period furniture, contemporary art, book-lined shelves, roll-top baths and deep sofas. The best have views down the valley towards the river; a few of the smaller ones under the eaves are noticeably cosier and cheaper. There are no televisions in most rooms, which is deliberate, and the mobile signal is poor.

The grounds are the other reason to come. Humphry Repton laid out 108 acres of gardens, woodland walks, follies, a shell house and a grotto, and the hotel has restored much of it. Guests get a private mile of fishing on the Tamar, and there is a games room, a small bar and a dining room serving a short daily-changing menu of West Country produce. Afternoon tea is served in the drawing room or on the terrace.

It suits couples and small groups who want somewhere quiet and unusual rather than somewhere with a spa and a gym. Walkers, gardeners and anglers do particularly well from it. Tavistock is about seven miles away, Dartmoor starts more or less at the gate, and the north Cornwall coast is under an hour by car. Dogs are welcome, which many guests treat as a deciding factor.