In the Debatable Lands, just south of the Scottish border, Gerald and Margo Smith's stylish, Michelin-starred restaurant with rooms scored very highly with a trusted Guide reader – and no debate about that!

Occupying a Georgian mansion overlooking the Exe estuary, Michelin-starred chef Michael Caines's hotel is a foodie destination with an ambience of soft-spoken luxury, suites with a balcony or a terrace with fire pit and marble soak tub, and shepherds' huts for nights of bucolic bliss.

Antiques and ancestral portraits fill Lord and Lady Macdonald's hunting lodge, in a beautiful situation on the shores of Loch Na Dal. It is now run by daughter Isabella, with country-house bedrooms, a three-course dinner featuring home-grown produce, and a ghillie on hand for fishing, stalking and foraging.

Overlooking St Bride's Bay, a 19th-century windmill tower forms the centrepiece and unlikely setting of this contemporary art hotel, where the 100-plus works on show may divide opinion, but the well-supplied and stylish bedrooms, friendly service and creative, modern dishes in the restaurant win unanimous approval.

Behind a historic, jettied black-and-white facade a stroll from the quay lies a drop-in café, bar and restaurant, and, up creaky old stairs, quaint, pet-friendly bedrooms, named after old sea dogs.

Michael and Johanna Wignall have reimagined a 15th-century Dales inn, creating super-stylish, uncluttered, luxury bedrooms, most in a converted barn with views over Rylstone Fell, and intimate dining spaces in which to sample Michael's technically brilliant, modern, seasonal, Michelin-starred menus.

Set in a sprawling, historic and honey-stone building with tall chimneys and leaded windows, this hotel offers grand rooms and antiques along with a thoroughly modern spa, a bistro-style menu in the barrel-vaulted Grill by James Martin, plus real ales, bar snacks and small plates at Tavern.