The most romantic hotels in the Cotswolds

Dormy House is complete treat of a hotel located near the pretty village of Broadway with stylish and deeply relaxing décor, terrific food and impeccable service. Its state-of-the-art spa (pictured) has won armloads of awards. The 38 bedrooms are individually devised according to shape and outlook. Some of the 18 in the main house feature exposed stone walls and beams; entry-level rooms are among these and are large enough to accommodate a table and chair. Of the 20 rooms in adjacent wings, Rose Cottage is best for romantics and has its own hot tub, while the Courtyard suites particularly emphasise Scandinavian design.

Calcot Manor blends soothing contemporary looks with the appeal of a classic country house hotel – think dreamy cream furnishings, soft sofas and crackling fires. The tranquillity is deftly maintained given that this is a supremely family-friendly hotel, and if you do have children you can bring them with you and still (remarkably) have a romantic stay. The Play Barn (kids club) offers four hours of childcare a day ‒ a generous amount of time to be able to slide into the grown-up spa or have a spot of uninterrupted lunch together. A big part of the peaceful equation is space; this is a former farmhouse with converted out-buildings, and there’s a glorious rambling feel.

Ignore the strangely naff topiary bunnies by the front door, step inside and you’re in a wonderfully mellow space with a long bar, leather armchairs and open fires. Filled with light from long windows, it is a halcyon room; with a pewter-hung dresser, fireplace and tremendous display table adorned with prodigious hedgerow arrangements, it is evidently modelled on a vision of an ideal farmhouse kitchen. Named after woodland creatures, all 15 rooms are rustic-chic, with beds clad in the softest Egyptian linen, twig coathooks behind doors and in several rooms four posters fashioned from birch trunks.

This gracious, 17th-century manor house is tucked into the heart of handsome Barnsley village – which lies in particularly lovely, rolling landscape. With its golden stone, gables and mullion windows this is a dreamily romantic house. It’s a place you immediately relax into ‒ with casual-chic furnishings and cosy log fires. The building, though, is magnificently upstaged by its garden. There are four acres of formal gardens including a laburnum avenue and a potager. Soothingly furnished in cream, greys and browns, the 18 bedrooms feature artworks inspired by gardens and nature – a row of watering cans, a chandelier made out of flower pots.

Creaking with history, this gracious property dates from the 13th century. It’s a classic country house hotel with old stone fireplaces, mullion windows, flagstone floors and random furnishings accrued over time. Buckland village lies at the end of a narrow road, which stops there as if in acknowledgement that this is the apogee of serene beauty and there’s simply no point in going further. Set back from that road, Buckland Manor itself reposes under a dramatic edge of the Cotswold escarpment; its outlook is life-enhancing. One of the 15 rooms comes with a four-poster; others with tweed flourishes. Two of the smallest have particularly good views; the two master suites are enormous.

What a flamboyant treat. This brilliantly opulent private house, set in the heart of Tetbury, just above the town’s picturesque Chipping Steps, is an eye-popping Elysium of bold décor and striking modern art. Where else could you have breakfast under the gaze of the Queen by Andy Warhol and lounge in a limited-edition chair by Mark Brazier-Jones? There are three lavishly devised guest suites. The Garden View Suite is the quietest in terms of both sound and décor, with cream furnishings, a sleigh bed and antiques. There’s a four-poster and a chaise longue in the red Princess Suite, and there’s another four-poster (with curtains) in the Cavalier Suite, which also has its own library.

The Lamb lies at the edge of Burford, one of England’s most famously picturesque towns: there’s wooded countryside immediately west, and a gracious honey-stone street immediately east. The hotel exudes a mellow sense of history – this has been a country inn for more than 300 years. It’s a gloriously rambling place. At its heart are three weavers’ cottages dating from the early 15th century; over the years parts of the old brewery next door were added so the layout seems intriguingly random. Step through the front door and you’re in an old-time sitting room, with grandfather clock, old stone fireplaces and snoozy armchairs. The real cachet, though, is the fabulous garden that stretches back and back.

Thyme is a cluster of honey-stone properties in postcard-pretty Southrop. It’s a ‘village within a village’ says owner Caryn Hibbert, who has devised it as a dreamy, other-worldly haven. It is a profoundly peaceful place (very beautifully devised so that the spirit of the various buildings have been honoured) making it one of the most romantic hotels in the Cotswolds. The Baa, a central hub-cum-bar set in former lambing sheds, features sheep seats made with fleeces from flocks grazing Thyme’s own fields. The Ox Barn restaurant is a chic barn conversion in which clever lighting draws your eyes up to a host of venerable old beams. Facilities are first-class, from the Meadow Spa with eight treatment rooms to the heated springwater swimming pool, tennis court, topiary-filled garden and ample grounds beyond.

The Wood Norton is a wonderfully intriguing place. A hunting lodge turned French royal retreat, it served as a Second World War broadcasting and monitoring centre before becoming a country house hotel. Today contemporary furnishings add dashes of colour to the public rooms and the walls are hung with works by local artists. From ritzy to modern, the 50 bedrooms are very varied. The most splendid are in the main house; lavishly wood panelled on the first floor (except one bedroom); contemporary chic on the second. Thirty smaller rooms are housed in a block behind – Pear Tree Mews

Charingworth Manor is an ancient estate (it’s mentioned in Domesday Book) with bags of historic interest. The main house of today is a Jacobean mansion with tall chimneys and mullion windows. The writer T S Eliot was a frequent visitor when it belonged to the Cresswell family and it was here, in the 1930s, that he wrote Burnt Norton. It became a hotel in the late 1980s and was subsequently expanded to include several outbuildings joined by corridors into a horseshoe shape. The principal public rooms are in the main building, which oozes country house appeal with flagstone floors, swathes of curtains and eclectic soft chairs and sofas.

This gracious, mid-terrace property dates back to the 1600s, and during the Victorian era contained a workshop making gloves, hence the name (Woodstock’s intriguing history of glove making is well documented at the Oxfordshire Museum across the way – free admission). Set over the top (third) floor, the two bedrooms are very generously sized. Facing the front, the larger might appeal to romantics and has a side room with sitting area and a dramatic claw-foot cooper and nickel tub – the narrow bathroom next door also has a shower. The bedroom over the back has an antique wardrobe and a large bathroom with shower, claw-foot tub and his-and-hers basins.