Leave the fuss and fret of the AI(M) at Scotch Corner to reconnect with the land at this idyllic hotel, centred on a Georgian coach house amid gardens, parkland and woodland.

There's plenty to do at this sprawling luxury hotel with its Gothic-revival red-brick mansion on a 375-acre estate – a vast spa, championship golf course and tennis are among its attractions.

With views over the River Swale, Austin Lynch and Tim Culkin’s extraordinary B&B is filled with such an array of artworks, antiques, vintage clocks, glass, china and silverware that it has been dubbed ‘the Wallace Collection of the North’.

There are four spacious bedrooms, log fires, bucolic views and a warm welcome at this Grade II* listed country house, in a spread of gardens surrounded by acres of farmland and forest.

Beautifully situated at the heart of Weardale and the Durham Dales, this former Victorian vicarage, with a church at the end of the large garden, is run as a welcoming hotel with traditional bedrooms, perhaps with four-poster or half-tester bed. Dinner is served in an orangery with original floor-to-ceiling bookcase and fireplace.