British Travel Journal | Autumn/Winter 2023
There’s so much variety throughout this issue, bursting with breathtaking travel destinations, new hotels and extraordinary one-of-a-kind experiences. We cycle around Rutland’s 23-mile perimeter on a gourmet foodie trail, sleep under the stars in a wigwam surrounded by leopards at Port Lympne Safari Park in Kent, join an early morning meadowland wildlife walk and meet the resident bees of Calcot Manor in the Cotswolds, and spend a day enjoying magnificent gardens and cyder-making at The Newt in Somerset. Our journalists uncover the hottest new hotels while partaking in a nature-inspired pottery session at the Birch Selsdon and enjoying flower arranging at Cromlix with tennis star Andy Murray's wife Kim. My own travel highlights include walking across the Rhossili Downs, visiting the exquisite region of the Gower Peninsula and taking a dip in Tinker Bunny’s Bathing Pool during a luxury stay at Atlanta Trevone in North Cornwall. With so much to both see and do, it's time to get creative with our travel trips!
There’s so much variety throughout this issue, bursting with breathtaking travel destinations, new hotels and extraordinary one-of-a-kind experiences.
We cycle around Rutland’s 23-mile perimeter on a gourmet foodie trail, sleep under the stars in a wigwam surrounded by leopards at Port Lympne Safari Park in Kent, join an early morning meadowland wildlife walk and meet the resident bees of Calcot Manor in the Cotswolds, and spend a day enjoying magnificent gardens and cyder-making at The Newt in Somerset. Our journalists uncover the hottest new hotels while partaking in a nature-inspired pottery session at the Birch Selsdon and enjoying flower arranging at Cromlix with tennis star Andy Murray's wife Kim. My own travel highlights include walking across the Rhossili Downs, visiting the exquisite region of the Gower Peninsula and taking a dip in Tinker Bunny’s Bathing Pool during a luxury stay at Atlanta Trevone in North Cornwall. With so much to both see and do, it's time to get creative with our travel trips!
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‘<br />
Luckily, we don’t have far to go once we’ve returned the bikes... we’re staying just<br />
two minutes up the road at The Barnsdale, fresh from a major renovation, with its<br />
boldly coloured fabric headboards and patterned wallpaper.<br />
’<br />
demolition by locals when plans for the reservoir were<br />
announced, the church is now a wedding venue and a<br />
popular picnic spot.<br />
Back on land, it’s time to hit the cycle-hire shop. “There<br />
are only two hilly bits,” the lady at Rutland Cycling assures<br />
us. “If you go anticlockwise, you’ll hit the first one almost<br />
immediately, and over the other side of the water you’ll be<br />
able to coast down the second one.” All I can say is they<br />
must count a little differently in Rutland because, at times,<br />
it feels like the route goes up and down yo-yo style.<br />
As for the hardy souls on Google who say it’s easily<br />
done in three hours, I can only suppose they are honed<br />
athletes; we set out at 11am and arrived back totally<br />
shattered at 4pm, with a much-needed lunch pit stop at<br />
the perfectly placed Horse & Jockey pub in Manton.<br />
It's a scenic cycle though, mostly on a decent path with<br />
just a small section on a quiet road. Sometimes we pedal<br />
right down by the water’s edge, others we are flanked by<br />
fields of lambs or speed through tunnels of trees.<br />
You can save yourself six miles if you miss out the<br />
promontory that juts out into Rutland Water but this forms<br />
some of the most photogenic part of the route (as well as a<br />
challenging hilly section). A tip: take a saddle cover – your<br />
bum will be numb by the end of the day.<br />
Luckily, we don’t have far to go once we’ve returned the<br />
bikes (not that anywhere is far in this county that measures<br />
little more than 17 miles in any direction). We’re staying<br />
just two minutes up the road at The Barnsdale, fresh<br />
from a major renovation, with its boldly coloured fabric<br />
headboards and patterned wallpaper. A former Georgian<br />
hunting lodge with 45 rooms arranged around an<br />
appealing courtyard, it makes a comfortable and decently<br />
priced base from which to explore this fascinating county.<br />
It also serves some excellent food – just what you need<br />
when you feel you’ve earnt your food miles on a marathon<br />
cycle ride. We do full justice to lobster and squid with<br />
orange and fennel that is wonderfully chargrilled. It’s<br />
the perfect precursor to delicious gnocchi with wild field<br />
mushrooms and spinach for me and an excellently cooked<br />
steak for my son.<br />
Rutland prides itself on its food, and rightly so, given its<br />
agricultural heritage, although it did give way to the march<br />
of McDonalds in 2020 (the last <strong>British</strong> county to do so). <br />
<strong>British</strong><strong>Travel</strong><strong>Journal</strong>.com 37
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