Hotel Review: Lucknam Park

February 2010

Europe  UK

Hotel Review: Lucknam Park

“I love Lucknam”. That’s what a six-year old wrote in the visitor book of our room at Lucknam Park. And I know what she means. I love Lucknam too.

My partner and I had made it all the way across London and down the M4 in our 206 without once letting up on our Friday evening bickering. That is, until we got to Lucknam. We passed through the estate’s gates and stopped dead in our tracks.

Lucknam Park, in the depths of Wiltshire and its iconic English countryside, is part of Relais & Chateaux, and it’s simply beautiful. The main house is a 17^th Century mansion set in 500 acres of listed parkland and a medley of gardens - a formal lavender one, a Victorian kitchen herb patch and a secret walled garden from the 1830s. It’s manicured, intimate and impressive.

And it takes your breath away the moment you arrive. The approach is a mile-long avenue lined with hundreds of lime and beech trees that are so dense the RAF hid Spitfires here during the war. On either side of the road are rolling pastures and England’s lands of plenty. Horses graze in paddocks and cross-country jumps dot the horizon and you half expect Mr. Darcy to leap into view.

So you fly down the avenue, feeling grander and more important with every roar of the engine, imagining yourself to be Lord Sebastian Flyte returning home for the weekend. Then, with great Bridget Jones aplomb, you spin round the gravel forecourt, skid to a halt and snap back into reality as you realize, aghast, that the suited butler, cheerily welcoming you is also graciously ignoring the muddy boots and old newspapers strewn across the backseat. And you wonder why on earth you didn’t take Percy Peugeot, the trusty steed, down to the Tesco’s Carwash before you embarked on your luxury weekend retreat.

But the best thing about Lucknam is that while it oozes elegance, it’s anything but uppity. It’s warm, the staff hospitable and everything is run with such ease that you barely even notice that you’ve arrived, let alone given over the keys to your old banger, been escorted through reception, past the drawing rooms and the portraits of Lord-such-and-such holding court in the corridor, and have entered your suite with its French windows and views of the setting sun. There’s even a bottle of Gosset bubbly waiting for you. The attention to detail is faultless and while you might not actually be the mistress of the manor, you’re treated like you are and that really is the key. You quite simply never want to leave.  

My other half and I are usually ones for exploration and adventure, and I’ll argue until I’m blue in the face about the benefits of getting out beyond the confines of where you’re staying, to really get a feel for a place and what it’s all about. This is particularly true when, like Lucknam, your area means you’re up the road from Bath, one of England’s most historic towns. But oh no, not this time. Lucknam’s all you need. No joke. Quite apart from the plush rooms and glorious grounds, there’s also a Michelin-starred chef onsite – Welshman Hywel Jones. He’s been here for a good few years and runs both The Park, Lucknam’s fine dining offering, as well as the Brasserie, which as the name implies, is a brasserie. Its open-plan kitchen and wood-fired oven are a much more casual affair, serving healthy, lighter dishes for those who need a break from all the amuse-bouches, truffles, crisp bellies of suckling pig and shoulders of Wiltshire Downlands lamb that grace the menu in the formal dining room. All the produce in both eateries is locally sourced but supper at The Park, with all its pomp and ceremony, is sublime (although the wine list was a little underwhelming). And you know you’re in Michelin-starred territory when your aperitif is served with intricate canapés that feel more like ornaments than food.

 Like all self-respecting country retreats nowadays – heaven forbid that one should go to the countryside and actually spend time in it! – Lucknam has its own spa. But it’s not just any old spa. It’s a wood, marble and glass creation that spills out onto Lucknam’s grounds in the form of heated pools and hydrotherapy baths. It’s so open that you feel in touch with the park’s seasonal hues and transformations. In fact, when you think about it, it’s really just an extravagant treat. There’s a pool for doing laps next to an open fire and there are thermal cabins dotted around the spa area featuring Japanese salt remedies, aromatic steam, a sauna and an amethyst room, which sounds great regardless of how good or not it is for you. And all the products you get to use (both in the spa and your room) are by Anne Sémonin – a French beauty specialist whose bespoke holistic approach means your face and body end up covered in all sorts of ointments, essential oils, trace elements (although not sure what these are) and marine ingredients that actually worked. I had a massage with a phyto-aromatic facial (again not sure what this was but sounded impressive), and the beauty consultant even gave me a free skin consultation on how to make the most of my skin. Unbelievably, it turns out that my fragile, translucent look that I always felt hard done by for having, can actually look luminous and healthy with the right care. Thank you Anne’s assistant!

 So many places today lay claim to being ideal for ‘relaxation and indulgence’ but this one really is. The Friday night bickering long gone, I fell in love all over again, with my partner of course, but also with Lucknam. I came out soft, bright, shiny and relaxed. It was the perfect retreat.