Summer Lodge Country House Hotel, Restaurant & Spa

About Summer Lodge Country House Hotel, Restaurant & Spa

Summer Lodge sits at the top of Fore Street in Evershot, one of the highest villages in Dorset and a place with strong Thomas Hardy associations. The house is Georgian, Grade II listed, and part of the Red Carnation Hotel Collection, which runs it as a country house hotel rather than a corporate one. The drawing rooms have open fires, deep sofas and fresh flowers, and staff tend to know guests by name within a day.

There are around 25 bedrooms and suites, all individually decorated, with a mix of antique and contemporary furniture, generous beds and marble bathrooms. Several rooms overlook the walled garden or the surrounding fields, and a few have their own terraces or private entrances. Suites are large enough to be genuinely comfortable for longer stays.

Facilities are unusually good for a house of this size: an indoor swimming pool, hot tub, sauna, gym, treatment rooms, a tennis court and croquet on the lawn. Four acres of gardens are properly maintained rather than merely decorative, and there is a kitchen garden that supplies the restaurant. The dining room has held awards for years and the wine list runs to several thousand bottles; afternoon tea is a fixture, and breakfast is cooked to order.

The setting suits people who want quiet countryside with easy access to the coast. Dorchester is fifteen minutes away, the Jurassic Coast at West Bay and Lyme Regis around half an hour, and there are footpaths straight from the village into the hills. It works well for couples marking an occasion, for small family gatherings, and for anyone who wants a rural base with proper service and somewhere serious to eat in the evening. Dogs are welcomed with some enthusiasm.