Checking In: Gilpin Hotel & Lake House
Experience the magic of Gilpin Hotel and Lake House …
VIBE Luxurious lakeside escape, away from the tourist throng, combining two hotels on separate estates.
NEED TO KNOW Owned by the Cunliffe family, recognised as some of the most pioneering boutique hoteliers in the UK, the original five-bedroom Edwardian house has expanded to include a variety of rooms and suites across its 21 acres. It’s now a five-star property with a Michelin-starred restaurant.
ROOMS There are 30 rooms and suites at Gilpin Hotel – 22 with their own hot tubs, ten of which also have private spas. Gilpin Lake House is a hotel-come-country-house sanctuary with six rooms which share an indoor pool, sauna, outdoor hot tubs, woodland spa trails and spa treatment rooms overlooking a private lake. I stayed in one of the five expansive south-facing Spa Suites at the Gilpin, akin to a Maldives-style over water villa without the airmiles. Cocooning and design-led outside, the decked garden area had its own sunken hot tub, water feature and living wall of ferns. Inside, I had my own sauna and steam room, infrared bed and automated massage chair. I wish I had checked in much earlier to make the most of these stellar facilities. Other details included an open-plan bathroom area, not for shy retiring types, with a swish circular Lusso stone bath, plus a hamper filled with all manner of salt scrubs, facial oils, aroma bombs and muscle balms.
DINING Breakfast is served in the moody, one Michelin-starred restaurant Source at Gilpin Hotel, where Irish head chef Kevin Scanlan is making a name for his immersive tasting menus. More casual is Gilpin Spice, a colourful pan-Asian restaurant where I enjoyed watching the chefs prep sushi, sashimi and small-plate dishes. There are several outdoor terraces for sundowners.
FACILITIES Include a helipad, electric car charging point, and extensive gardens with water features. Don’t leave without meeting the three resident pigs and alpacas.
SPA Both the main hotel and Lake House have small spas: the former with a rooftop garden, the latter overlooking the lake. I had the Pure Lakes Walkers Ritual designed to soothe feet, legs and swollen “cankles”.
DO Read Slightly Perfect – A Lake District Love Affair, by John Anthony Cunliffe, an insightful memoir into this idyllic bolthole.
VERDICT Faultless and very friendly. Overnight stays cost from £280stg per night.
