A stay at Bovey Castle is a unique experience of true English luxury. From the tailored tweed plus-four trousers worn by the hotel concierge to the apples and sloes gathered from the estate to make traditional cider and gin, Bovey Castle draws its contemporary and luxurious appeal from the manor house’s rich heritage and the surrounding ancient moorlands, chosen for Steven Spielberg’s War Horse.
Holding an unrivaled position within a 275-acre estate on Dartmoor National Park, Bovey Castle is aspirational in its meticulous delivery of luxurious hospitality, exhilarating and traditional country house pursuits, sumptuous décor and roaring log fires. Built at the turn of the 20th century, heritage and history are at the heart of the hotel, which was constructed in a neo-Elizabethan style with oak paneled rooms, striking fireplaces and ornate plaster ceilings.
With the hotel’s luxury accommodation divided between 64 uniquely-appointed rooms and 14 lodges, the estate includes an 18-hole championship golf course, event and conference facilities, the UK’s flagship SUNDÃRI spa and one of the most extensive selections of activities to be found at any hotel.
Through the hotel’s resort team, new activities are trialled and introduced throughout the year - many of which draw their influence from the hotel’s former life as a country retreat and Twenties hideaway. The list includes cider and sloe gin making, archery, croquet, tennis, falconry and fishing. The course at Bovey Castle, which will host the PGA Lombard Challenge as the regional qualifying course for this tournament in June 2013, is a challenging and beautiful 18-hole championship golf course, designed in 1926 by J F Abercromby to rival its sister courses at Gleneagles and Turnberry.
From the local area, the hotel offers rock climbing, riding, hot air balloon excursions, Sunseeker yacht excursions and neighbouring shooting parties. Arrangements can be made for driven pheasant shoots, duck flighting, rough shooting, snipe and woodcock shooting near to Bovey Castle. This is good local shooting with local people, with around 40 birds on a typical driven pheasant day. Deer stalking for fallow and roebuck is also available in the countryside surrounding Bovey Castle, with storage of rifles and shotguns on hotel grounds.
Using local food producers is integral to Bovey Castle, with ingredients sourced from the moorland and coastline to create seasonally changing menus in the Castle Bistro and the nose-to-tail Beef Menu in the fine dining Edwardian Grill, overseen by head chef Marc Hardiman. The quintessentially English affair that is afternoon tea retains its ceremonial glamour through its evolving choice of delicacies, best enjoyed from the panoramic window seats in the Cathedral Room and Adam Room.
With accessible links to every major transport network, including a high-speed service from London Paddington, Bovey Castle is the unrivaled location for any number of occasions, be it a family get together, sporting holiday, romantic escape or corporate retreat.
