The uber-stylish new British agriturismos on our travel wishlist
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It is fair to say that helping to move cows across a country road is not how I would usually spend a Wednesday afternoon. But then nothing about my time at Fowlescombe Farm near Ugborough, in south Devon, is run-of-the-mill. Head gardener Shelley Hutcheon has just shown me purple frills and radishes in the market garden when farm manager Rosie Ball asks her to lend a hand. So Imstand in my high-vis jacket, watching them stop traffic for eight Beef Shorthorn cattle who trundle along the lane, followed by a tractor.
The 450-acre regenerative organic farm was taken over by Caitlin Owens’ family in 2017. They decided to diversify during lockdown, primarily to create another outlet for their low-intensity farmed meat (they have sheep, goats and pigs as well as the cows). The result is a recently opened, super-elevated farm stay – part of a growing trend across the UK – that could not be further from the rustic B&Bs of old. ‘Agriturismo has existed forever but not really in this country,’ says Caitlin, who previously ran the family’s pub, the Millbrook Inn in Southpool, and worked for Four Seasons Hotels. ‘Usually, you have an authentic, immersive farm stay, or a five-star hotel. We like to say that we take the best from both.’
Ten suites are spread across the Victorian farmhouse and a pair of repurposed stone barns, all of which feel rooted in the landscape. They are the vision of her partner, creative director Paul Glade who, in collaboration with interior designer Sophia Gomm, has prioritised natural materials and textures. Kvadrat rugs add warmth to Welsh sandstone floors; custom oak furniture made by Bristol-based Konk is combined with Another Country armchairs and antique finds; and wool from the farm’s own flock of sheep is used for Naturalmat mattresses and fluffy doorstops. Art ranges from oil paintings to embroidered hangings and is predominantly by artists from the South West.
A weekly programme of activities is included, too, which might be yoga in the greenhouse, breadmaking or feeding the goats. There are informal fine-dining suppers in the Refectory, where chef Elly Wentworth serves a four-course set menu while chatting to the guests gathered at the communal table. Days later, I am still thinking about her delicious garden vegetable risotto.
Food, naturally, is fundamental to any farm stay and Merlin Labron-Johnson’s Michelin-starred restaurant Osip is as good as they come. At the end of 2024 it was relocated to a 16th-century inn outside the Somerset market town of Bruton and, recently, four pared-back rooms have been added for overnight guests, with exposed beams, oak headboards, and vintage Dutch pressed-flower artwork. ‘Since I began cooking, I’ve had this vision of a restaurant in the countryside with a direct connection to farming – it’s just ended up being spread out,’ says Merlin, as we drive to one of his two growing sites, five minutes away, which guests will soon be able to visit on a guided tour. Bunches of drying mint hang upside down in the tomato-filled polytunnel, where head grower Jed Gordon-Moran points out interesting crops such as torpedo-shaped tropea onions and kohlrabi. Back at the restaurant, I crunch on the latter as part of my pre-lunch crudités.
Updown, a former farmstead outside Deal in Kent, is similarly chef led. A working farm until it became a private home in 1960, Updown was opened as a Mediterranean restaurant with rooms three years ago by chef Oli Brown (who founded the now-closed restaurant Duck Duck Goose in Brixton, London) and his partner Ruth Leigh. Guests eat in what was once a cowshed, where vines twist through wooden rafters above linen-covered tables; four new rooms in The Stables bring the current total to 10; and there is a market garden and a swimming pool.
Other luxury rural farmhouse retreats include Restaries, in the grounds of Paradise Farm in Halesworth, north east Suffolk, which is home to pet pigs, goats and sheep. Owners Gem Boner, a former director at Soho House, and fashion consultant Thom Scherdel teamed up with Design & That Studio to transform the outbuildings and 16th-century farmhouse into wonderfully restful self-catering accommodation (The Log Store, The Tack Room and The Cart Lodge opened in June this year).
I find a festival vibe at Higher Farm, close to Castle Cary in Somerset, which has a wild swimming lake, a pair of yurt cabins, a cider barn for workshops and The Farm Caff restaurant, newly open for dinner. At its heart though, is the market garden and forest farming. The idea of the latter, explains co-founder Matteo Grasso, over homemade elderflower fizz at the courtyard bar, is to mimic the forest ecosystem through stratified growing levels (willows, oaks, fruit trees, vegetables) and grazing animals to increase biodiversity. ‘We want to bring people as close as possible to the soil and remind them where food comes from,’ he says.
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Meanwhile, on the family-owned, 3,100-hectare Penicuik Estate, 10 miles south of Edinburgh, the holistic, long-term approach to land management includes regenerative farming, continuous cover forestry and restoring its historic buildings, including the Palladian 16-bedroom Penicuik House, which is now available for weddings and corporate hire, and as a pop-up hotel. Farm stays have never seemed so appealing.
Suites at Fowlescombe Farm cost from £410, including breakfast, snacks and dinner, plus a programme of on-site activities (fowlescombe farm.com). Rooms at Osip cost from £240, B&B (osiprestaurant.com). Rooms at Updown cost from £190, B&B (updownfarmhouse.com). Rooms at Restaries cost from £180 a night, self-catering, with a minimum two-night stay (restaries.com). At Higher Farm, yurts cost from £130 a night, room only, with a minimum two-night stay (higher- farm.co.uk). Rooms in a Penicuik Estate cottage cost from £220 a night, self catering; the 16-bed Penicuik House costs from £5,400 a night for a minimum two-night stay, B&B (penicuikestate.com).
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