‘Our barn was so cosy we stayed in, lit a fire, had a relaxing soak in the bath, stuck our PJs on and a pizza in the oven and drank the excellent bottle of Camel Valley wine – perfect.’

‘I would heartily recommend ‘Trevenna’ to anyone who wants to have an exclusive, chic and totally private wedding.’

‘The welcoming food and drink was gratefully received – I don't think anyone had ever tasted better bacon, and you have a considerable number of the group hooked on Doom Bar beer now too!’

In the know

House style

Cutting-edge barn conversions.

Grounds

142 acres of green rolling Cornish countryside for you to ramble and roam.

Sleeps

2–28. Five barns with one, two or four bedrooms. Exclusive use: 28 in total (eleven doubles, six additional single beds).

Ideal for

Couples in search of romance à deux, convivial family holidays, dinner party fanatics, company ‘bonding’ escapes, low-key or lavish pull-out-all-the-stops weddings.

Rates

The sliding-scale pricing is based roughly on a £60 a person a night basis, with that decreasing on week bookings.

Minimum hire

One night.

Also

The Trevenna Spa Barn will be exclusively available to guests of Trevenna and provide the perfect opportunity to relax to the scent of Aromatherapy Associates products and the view of the valley. (Opening autumn 2008.)

Back to top

Interior

Bedrooms 

There’s a flatscreen telly and DVD player, plus Sky digital; WiFi can be fired up for free anyone in the barns. All of the bathrooms are stocked with a ‘cascade’ bath and drench shower except for Shippon, which has a shower. The stylish rectangular sinks were christened birdbaths by the builders. And any Mrs Smith sick of being jolted by the sound of Mr Smith’s less-than-subtle slamming of the loo seat make note: the square toilets here have non-slammable seats. So there.

Kitchen All are fully equipped with electric cookers and oven, microwave, dishwasher, washer/dryer. Find culinary accoutrements such as decent knives and crockery in the cupboards or drawers. The kitchen is stocked with the basics on arrival; fresh bread, butter, tea, coffee, milk, salt and pepper, plus excellent local cheeses and chutney.

Living room Every living space/lounge area has mood lighting controls and a open-fire log burner and flatscreen TV, CD and DVD player, PS3 or XBox and iPod dock. The Bull House lounge of the Threshing Barn is equipped for a movie evening on the three-metre screen of the home cinema entertainment system. Or slide open the panoramic windows and take the party outside onto the lawn and terrace.

Dining room All have open-plan living areas. Threshing has a big open-plan kitchen and dining room with room enough for eight to eat at the table comfortably. Each barn has a private garden and outdoor patio dining area.

Other There is wheelchair access to all of the barns and a wheelchair ramp can be added when needed. Shippon has three steps, but all of the others incorporate a ground-floor bedroom.

Outdoor

Gardens All of the barns have a private garden and outdoor deck for alfresco dining.

Parking This is right outside the barns.

Other The farm shop will not only stock a range of local produce, essential items and Aromatherapy Associates Spa products, but it will act as a concierge service. They can also provide beach towels from here. The Trevenna Caravelle can carry up to six people and is available for transport connections, restaurant visits and drop off/collections for activities. St Neot visits aren’t charged for, otherwise a 20-minute journey to Bodmin train Station for example is £8.

Back to top

Planes Newquay International, Cornwall’s main airport, operates regular flights from Stansted with Ryanair, Gatwick with British Airways and Manchester with BMI Baby. Cornwall also has its own airline, Air Southwest, which flies from Bristol, Manchester and Dublin, among others, from around £35 each way (www.newquay-airport.co.uk). Trevenna will collect you from Newquay for a £26; Plymouth £26; Exeter £66.

Trains There are regular, direct trains from London Paddington to the South West, taking between four and five hours, with Virgin (www.virgintrains.co.uk) or First Great Western (www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk). The latter also offers the very civilised Night Riviera Sleeper to Penzance, departing London shortly before midnight and arriving at around 8am; to book tickets, ring 0845 700 0125.

Local taxi service Trevenna’s Caravelle is on-hand for most of your transit needs. For car hire, click on our Travel Offers page. Smithcard holders get a 10 per cent discount with Hertz.

Directions by road From London, head towards Exeter then take the A30 into Cornwall (not the A38, which would take you via Plymouth). The landmark to look for on the A30 is the Jamaica Inn (about 10 miles before Bodmin). Stay on the A30 and drive past the Jamaica Inn junction for another two miles. Look for the Colliford Lake junction and turn left off the A30. Follow this road past Colliford Lake, and over six cattle grids – Trevenna is then the second farm turning. Drive down the lane and park by the barns.

Review

Self-catering has sure come a long way. The five barns at Trevenna in Cornwall offer the best of a hotel experience in style and service, and also treat you to everything you need from a private rental to be able to enjoy utter self-sufficiency. Arrange for a spa treatment by Aromatherapy Associate experts, and consult the five-star-hotel-style concierge service to book a table and a chauffeur to Jamie Oliver’s for lunch and Rick Stein’s restaurant for supper. Or perhaps eschew the celebrity chefs in favour of some good old-fashioned farmhouse cooking brought straight to your own table.

The force behind Trevenna in Bodmin Moor is ex-lawyer Jonathan Rowe – the farm has been in his family for generations, and he’s been responsible for giving these five barn conversions set in 142 acres of green rolling Cornish countryside a new lease of hospitality life. Unfussy, upscale furnishings with modern clean lines, and in tones that complement the natural shades of stone, slate and wood. And best of all, not only are the neutral shades, and designer furniture easy on the eye, but this luxury accommodation is entirely eco. Having consulted Envision for Environmental Impact for advice, Trevenna is a member of the Green Business Tourism Scheme (GBTS) and acclaimed by the Cornwall Sustainable Tourism Project, CoaST. Even some of today’s environmentally friendly ethics hark back to when Jonathan’s grandparents tended to this Cornish land – there is the same eco-friendly aim not to waste anything, and as much as possible is reused and recycled, just like with our ancestors.

Peer out the window at the strictly rural Cornwall landscape, but ogle the interior of your barn and you’ll see barely a whisper of Trevenna’s past agricultural life on this farmland. Where young calves were once reared, their troughs have been replaced by sleek mouse-grey kitchen cabinets; chickens have been shooed from their stalls to make room for a kingsize bed peppered with Designer Guild cushions; as for the turnip tip – that’s now occupied by a drench shower and Italian square-shaped designer loo. No need to mention that any traces of the manure store are long gone – not even CSI Cornwall, if such a crack forensics crew existed, could unearth any vestiges. But it’s not all out with the old and in with the new – Threshing Barn and the Granary still have their original 400-year-old walls, and the ancient axe-cut bark-dotted beams are resplendent in their new contemporary contexts

While every creature comfort has been considered and the option to curl up on a sofa in front of a flatscreen TV, another log on the fire, this is land that begs to be roamed. If you have hiking boots itching to be used, tackle Brown Willy (stop sniggering at the back and see ‘Activities’) in Bodmin Moor. Or head towards the River Fowey and follow it south to the coast for seaside shenanigans. But with state-of-the-art mod cons and five-star service including spa treatments (and soon a swimming pool too), you might find you stay tethered to Trevenna throughout.

Reviewed by Juliet Kinsman

Back to top