Places to Stay
Winston Churchill, Harold Macmillan, President Roosevelt, George Bernard Shaw, John Profumo and Christine Keeler. Described as dedicated to the pursuit of
pleasure, power and politics for more than 300 years, Cliveden House is a grand stately home set in the heart of the Berkshire countryside, and surrounded by 376 acres of magnifi cent formal gardens and parkland. The chalk cliffs that give the estate its name provide panoramic views over the Berkshire countryside and the River Thames. The gardens include one of the largest
formal parterres in Europe, clipped yew pyramids and wedge-shaped beds. The Long Garden, designed by Norah Lindsay in the 1900s, has virtuoso topiary, with corkscrew- spirals, peacocks and box hedges. In the same century, the Water Garden was laid out by the fi rst Lord Astor. The original Rose Garden, designed by Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe for the Astor family in the early 1960s, suffered from rose disease, and has now become a “secret garden” of herbaceous plants. The planting in the herbaceous borders in the forecourt was designed by National Trust advisor Graham Stuart Thomas; there is a stunning lime avenue leading to the house, and, well, the list goes on... It is safe to say that Cliveden House is a stunning hotel with gardens and grounds to match. Fawsley Hall, in the heart of the rolling
Northamptonshire countryside, was a royal manor as early as the 7th century. In 1416 Richard Knightley became lord of the manor, and it was his son and grandson who set about building the earliest part of the house that is still standing now, the South Wing. Henry VII knighted Sir Richard Knightley (the grandson) in 1494, and subsequently Henry VIII knighted Sir Edmund Knightley (the great- grandson) in 1542.
92 BRITAIN The gardens at Fawsley Hall are just as
impressive as the manor’s historical heritage. They were, largely, sympathetically replanted in the years before the hotel opened in 1998, and are delineated by the ha-ha, which probably dates from the 19th century, and runs along the east and south side of the Hall. Fawsley’s garden is home to an impressive
bleached lime and laburnum tunnel in the south-east corner, abutting the restored formal knot garden with its clipped yew, box, purple sage, French lavender and santolina. On the other side of this pretty knot garden is a beautiful Cedar of Lebanon. Its age is unclear, and it may be up to fi ve trees that were lashed together, grown to look like one. If this is so, the tree could date back to 1763, when Capability Brown was doing extensive planting in the parkland. Home to Graham and Fay Cowan and
their family since 1994, and set in the sleepy Scottish fi shing village of Ballantrae, Glenapp Castle was designed by the celebrated architect David Bryce for Mr James Hunter, the Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Ayrshire. The castle’s sandstone battlements are topped by soaring turrets and towers and form an impressive skyline.
Top: Glenapp Castle. Inset: Fawsley Hall
The family have completed a painstaking restoration of the castle and its 36 acres of magnifi cent gardens. “We want our visitors to consider
themselves honoured personal guests in our home”, say the Cowans. “We want them to feel, as we do, that this is a special place where they can come to escape from the world for a while and renew their energies in peace, quiet and privacy”. The gardens are just as inviting, with many
rare plants, and enormous rhodedendrons. Paths wrap around the azalea pond and through an established woodland, leading to the wonderful walled garden with its 150-foot Victorian glasshouse. Fresh herbs and fruit from the garden are used every day in the castle kitchen. It is fairy-tale castle with a mysterious woodland to match.
8 For our full report and more garden suggestions, visit
www.britain-magazine.com. Barnsley House:
www.barnsleyhouse.com. Budock Vean:
www.budockvean.co.uk. Bodysgallen Hall & Spa:
www.bodysgallen.com. Von Essen’s Cliveden House:
www.clivedenhouse.co.uk. Fawsley Hall:
www.fawsleyhall.com. Glenapp Castle:
www.glenappcastle.com.
www.britain-magazine.com
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