The Place
You arrive at what seem to be a collection of well maintained farm buildings with new high-spec metal roofs and feather board cladding. It might just be a working farm.
Then you enter a smart looking barn to find lunch being served, including delicious and healthy home-style salads. There’s a bar and a chill-out area with children’s toys and games. Looking through the floor-to-ceiling glass end wall you might just be in one of those chic South African wineries, such as Babylonstoren.
On the terrace, guests sip house sparkling wine contemplating a manicured vineyard and beyond it an entrancing, very Dorset landscape down to the sea at Charmouth, about 1.5 miles away.
The pleasing anomalies continue as you go to your room in the main farmhouse. You might just be in a private house but in fact you’re in a small contemporary hotel. The decoration is harmoniously attractive, no expense spared, yet unpretentious. The food ingredients are notably fresh and the five house wines, grown on the spot, a wino’s journey.
In separate converted buildings there are an indoor pool, gym and wellness centre, treatment area and stables. With at most 40 guests spread around the site at any time, you sometimes feel there’s no one else here. Service is exemplary and it’s perfect for families with young children.
It was bought in 2019 as a private retreat by Louis and Emma Steyn (he a South African) who developed it into the present unique, hybrid place to stay.