Langar Hall

Everything is peachy at this apricot-hued Georgian country house in the Vale of Belvoir, at the end of a long avenue of lime trees, transformed from a family home into a delightful, idiosyncratic and much-loved hotel. It is run by Lila Arora, whose grandmother, the late chatelaine extraordinaire Imogen Skirving, inherited the house in 1983 and – inspired by a dream – welcomed paying guests there as friends. ‘Distinctive and interesting’ bedrooms have antiques, paintings, clocks, books, cameos, curios and a story. Cartland was a favourite of the ‘Pink Lady of Romance’ (but is no longer pink). A reader had a ‘wonderful, cosy room’ that was ‘mock Tudor, done well’. Ground-floor Barrister, with panelled walls and porcelain plates around the picture rail, was where a QC pal of Imogen’s hung out his suit. Public rooms are similarly beguiling with a ‘small bar and lovely sitting room’. In the flagstone-floored dining room, Gary Booth’s short menus include locally sourced dishes such as fillet of Blackberry Farm beef, ox cheek and salsa verde, or salt-baked beetroot, herb falafel. ‘The food was superb, cooking imaginative and locally sourced.’ (Ingle Dawson, Katherine Putnam)