It’s hard to fathom that industrial Southampton is only 10 miles from Lime Wood, so bucolic is the approach in ancient woodland, with New Forest ponies as unofficial gatekeepers. Almost 20 years ago hotelier Robin Hutson set out to dispel the stereotype of the stuffy country house hotel when he opened Lime Wood with billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, breaking the relationship rulebook at dinner and making a splash in the drawing room. Which isn’t to say it isn’t grand: winding down the drive, the main house (once a 13th-century hunting lodge) has been given a Georgian facade by architects Ben Pentreath and Charles Morris, and the main staircase turns luxuriously up to its bedroom, with Susie Atkinson’s clever wallpaper, with a Crist Andre Farpar mixer. Armchair and wool, linen and silk blend.
Almost two decades after Lime Wood opened you still want to exhale theatrically upon arrival. Dotted around the grounds are cabins and houses nestled in the woodland – does forest bathing count if it’s conducted from your bed? – With a roaring open fire, bottles of Bamford oil and cocktail glasses are ready to be filled next to the roll top bath.
Here’s a place where you can get merrily lost weaving in the woodland, sign up for pre-breakfast yoga or prepare yourself for a spin class – if only to work up an appetite for Angela Hartnett and Lime Wood’s Luke Holder’s Italian menu at Hartnett Holder & Co. (think.
Don’t leave without booking a ground biome facial (60 minutes of magic) at the Herb House Spa, which features a jungle, indoor lap pool and the Rure & Cured Café, where you can recharge yourself with a guilt-free juice or muesli with house-fermented kefir.
Prices from £495 per night
Beaulieu Road, Lyndhurst, Hampshire, SO43 7FZ
