Lucknam Park

At the end of a mile-long avenue of beech trees, outside the village of Colerne in Wiltshire, stands Lucknam Park, a Palladian mansion that has been a hotel since 1988. Bath lies six miles to the south-west. Around the house some 500 acres of parkland, paddocks and woods give the place the feel of a private estate, which is what it was for most of its history.

History

The house dates from the early eighteenth century and was enlarged by later owners. For more than two and a half centuries it remained a private residence at the centre of an agricultural estate on the southern edge of the Cotswolds. In 1988 it opened as a country house hotel, and it has since become a member of Relais & Châteaux, the association of independent hotels and restaurants.

The decades that followed changed the scale of the place. A spa, an equestrian centre and a cookery school were added, along with a second, less formal restaurant, and the estate became a resort in all but name while the house kept its private, residential character.

Architecture and design

The main house is a symmetrical Palladian building in pale stone, facing down the avenue. Its ground floor holds the formal reception rooms, used as drawing rooms and dining spaces, and the interiors follow the English country house tradition, with antiques, oil paintings and open fires. Outbuildings grouped around a courtyard beside the house have been converted to hold further bedrooms and the hotel's leisure facilities.

Rooms and suites

Rooms and suites are divided between the main house, where they keep a traditional country house style with period furniture, and the converted buildings around the courtyard. Many look out over the park or down the length of the beech avenue.

Dining

Restaurant Hywel Jones is the formal dining room, named after the executive chef who has held a Michelin star at Lucknam Park since 2006. His menus draw heavily on produce from Wiltshire and the surrounding counties. The Brasserie offers a more relaxed alternative for lunch and dinner, and afternoon tea is served in the drawing rooms of the main house. The cookery school runs classes for hotel guests and day visitors in its own kitchen.

Wellness

The spa has an indoor pool, thermal rooms, a gym and treatment rooms. The equestrian centre has its own stables, and riders can take lessons or hack out across the estate, through the park and along its woodland edges.

Weddings and events

Lucknam Park hosts weddings, with receptions and dinners held in the house, and it also takes meetings and private events. The reception rooms of the main house serve for smaller gatherings, and the grounds are used for outdoor drinks in summer.

Location

This luxury hotel near Bath sits just outside Colerne, a hilltop village on the Wiltshire side of the county boundary with Somerset. Bath, with its Roman Baths, Royal Crescent and Georgian terraces, is around twenty minutes away by car. Castle Combe, a stone village often counted among the prettiest in England, and the National Trust village of Lacock are both close, as is the old wool town of Bradford on Avon. The nearest railway stations are Bath Spa and Chippenham, both on the Great Western main line from London Paddington, and Bristol Airport is the nearest airport. The M4 motorway passes a few miles to the north, which puts London within reach by road for a weekend.