I just thought I would share a few highlights of my weekend away at the Bath Lodge Hotel. It is situated about 7 miles south of Bath city on the A36 and really does look like a minature castle!
It is set in 2 acres of natural gardens (although probably landscaped to look that way!) and is adjacent to a deer forest with just a little waterfall and stream seperating the two.
The Lodge has about 6 rooms, 3 of which are for the more romantic of us offering wooden beams and four poster beds. I was in the Edinburgh room, and was very impressed to find my bathroom in one turret and the little breakfast area in another across the room. It had a balcony overlooking the gardens, and the other window overlooked miles of fields.
The owners have been there for about 6 years, and they bought it once it had been sympathetically transformed into the hotel.
In its previous life it was the principal gatehouse to the Farleigh Estate (the biggest and best room aptly named the Farleigh suite!), with the estate dating back to 987 and King Ethelred. It was also mentioned in the Doomsday book, but it was not until the 12th century that it became known as Farleigh. In 1412 it was sold to Sir Thomas Hungerford, speaker of the House of Commons, and that it when the parish and village became known as Farleigh Hungerford.
The Farleigh estate has been gifted and sold numerous times, but eventually ended up in the hands of Joselh Houlton a clothier from Trowbridge (just down the road from the Lodge), and it was his son (also Jospeh) that pulled the Farleigh Castle down once he had inherited it, but the remains of the caslte wall and a few other parts can still be visited.
The Lodge was built as principal gatehouse to the estate in 1806 and was known as Castle Lodge. It really is like a little fortress with towers, battlements, turrets and coats of arms, and fits in very well with the Arthurian legend for which the area is renown.
If you would like to have a closer look, then why not visit their website which is www.bath.org/hotel/bathl.htm.
The owners are very accomodating and offer a wonderful cooked breakfast each morning, and an even better 5 course meal in the evenings. The food is all local and fresh, and the setting couldn't be more ideal. I have to say though, by the time I got to the third course of the evening meal, I felt like I needed to go for a very long walk, let alone eat another two courses. The meals are not exactly on the small side, and therefore make good value for money at £24.50 per person for 5 courses.
Wine is also plentiful, with a good selection of both red and white, and are also very reasonably priced, and are more in line with pub prices then hotel prices. To complete the evening you can take your coffee through to the sitting room and drink it while watching the wonderful log fire, maybe not ideal in Summer, but just right on the still chilly nights of April.
Bath itself is a lovely place to visit as well, and all I will say to you is, if you get the change go and try one of Sally Lunn's buns. Stonehenge and Longleat and other fascinating places to visit are all within a reasonable travelling distance by car, as are the famous White Horses. There are also lots of walks, but unfortuantely due to foot and mouth most of these were closed off to the public.
All in all, the Lodge makes you feel like a prince or princess, and is not bad value for money. For one of the more authentic rooms you are looking at £105 a night B&B, but that is for the room and not per person, so if you are looking for somewhere a bit different to stay and want to be made to feel special, then Bath Lodge would be a definite recommendation from me.
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