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In the know

House style

Hen-party perfect barn conversion.

Grounds

At the heart of 200 acres of pristine West Dorset farmland.

Sleeps

12 in six en-suite bedrooms (or 24 if rented with Voltaire)

Ideal for

Stylish hen breaks, house parties, family gatherings and big birthday celebrations.

Rates

From £3,750 (low season); from £5,750 (high season); from £6,000 (over Christmas and New Year).

Minimum hire

Three days. Check-in from 5pm, check-out at 10am.

Also

The property is non-smoking. Pets are welcome by special arrangement.

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Interior

Bedrooms 

There are six double bedrooms.

Bedroom 1: Large rose/fuchsia-coloured double with en-suite bathroom.
Bedroom 2: Large blue-coloured double with en-suite bathroom.
Bedroom 3: Twin blue-coloured room with en-suite bathroom.
Bedroom 4: Large orange-themed double with en-suite bathroom, and access to private garden and hot tub.
Bedroom 5: Lime green-coloured double with en-suite bathroom.
Bedroom 6: Rose-coloured twin room with en-suite bathroom, which shares its access to the private garden and hot tub with Bedroom 4.

Kitchen Fully equipped with double oven and electric hobs, microwave, dishwasher, two fridges and freezer. The kitchen is pre-stocked with tea, coffee, sugar and milk, together with a clotted-cream tea ready for your arrival. Feel free to pre-order a supermarket delivery, otherwise the house can arrange for the fridge to be filled with all your favourite things. For self-catering supplies, see our ‘Services’ section.

Living room A huge, high-vaulted barn space with hand-painted walls, splashes of blue- and fuchsia-coloured brilliance, and soft sofas piled high with silk cushions. A 42-inch TV, with Sky+ and DVD, sits proudly alongside an enormous remote-controlled ribbon fireplace that dominates the room and provides a roaring blaze.

Dining room Comfortable cream chairs huddle around a huge dining table for 12 in the open-plan living room. If you’re booking sister barn Voltaire, this space can be configured to seat 24 guests. There is also an outdoor dining area for 12 by the hot tub, which can also accommodate up to 24 people.

Other A frosted door from the living room leads onto very own private indoor swimming pool, complete with a twinkling fibre-optic ceiling, sauna and changing room.

Outdoor

Gardens Acres of rolling green fields envelop you, while your private garden boasts a dining table for 12 and cedar hot tub.

Parking There is ample parking for plenty of cars.

Other Ask if you can go and say hello to the 11 horses in the stables behind the property.

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Trains Trains from London Waterloo to Crewkerne run every hour, and take two and a half hours. From Crewkerne, it’s a 10-minute drive to the house.

Local taxi service Craig’s Taxis (+44 (0)1308 861000). The house can arrange a pick-up or taxi for you from the train station. For car hire, click on our Travel Offers page. Smithcard holders get a 10 per cent discount with Hertz.

Directions by road Directions can be sent to you by the house upon booking but, for your records, here are the directions from nearby Crewkerne. On the A356, go through Crewkerne village, then turn right onto Market Street at the mini roundabout. Immediately bear left (passing Natwest on your right), taking the A356 towards Dorchester. Pass Crewkerne train station and a post office, then take the A3066 right towards Bridport. You’re five and a half miles away now… Going through Mosterton, turn left onto the A3066 towards Beaminster. After the ‘Tractors Turning’ sign, take the left turn (before the tunnel), signposted to Maiden Newton. Drive up this lane (don’t miss the views to your right) and take the third drive on your left (after approximately one mile). The blink-and-you’ll-miss-it sign for Axnoller Farm is in front of a clearer sign on a tree: ‘Chaple Marsh Farm’.

Review

Usually, the phrase ‘perfect for hen weekends’ conjures up all sorts of terrifyingly naff cowboy hats and strippers connotations, unbefitting a house of any real stylish worth. Burggraaf is the exception to this rule. This is the ultimate hen-party escape, without a trace of feather boas or L-plate chic in sight. Glamorous and goosebump-inducingly gorgeous, this is the kind of barn where magazine shoots should be held. Pristinely perfect and with an unlived-in sense that makes you feel as though you’re the first guests to deflower it, Burggraaf would be as ideal for a family escape or country break with friends as it would be for a brood of stylish hens.

An 18th-century barn conversion on Dorset’s Axnoller Farm, this seclusion-with-splendour retreat sleeps 12 and boasts a private swimming pool. There’s no need for shoes during your stay. Accessed by a frosted door to the side of the living room, the indoor pool is under the very roof of your barn – meaning no trudging trips across farmland in a bathrobe and wellies in order to take a morning dip. Cool, cream floors unravel around the pool, as twinkling, blue fibre-optic lights in the ceiling lure you in for lazy midnight swims.

Blue halogen courtyard spotlights illuminate your way into this high-vaulted haven – where you’ll find a huge, open-plan living room, kitchen and dining room. It’s a serene cream scene, but punctuated with bursts of kingfisher-blue, fuchsia and coral colours. You know there’s a cedar hot tub bubbling away somewhere, but distractions aplenty mean you may not happen upon it for some time…

Vivid-blue mock flock wall designs, hand-painted by Adrian Everitt, climb dramatically up the enormous centrepiece of the room: a remote-controlled ribbon fireplace that makes the space winter-perfect, too. Further cyan and azure blues continue the colour splash theme; deep brown and taupe sofas are softened by the addition of turquoise and fuchsia silk cushions, as further coral and lime hues fuse with the muted tones of the kitchen and dining area. Nearby, huge stone-based lamps with bubblegum-pink shades throw soft light out across polished cream concrete floors.

Pure style genius, this colour-soaked space undulates with faded finds from faraway places – such as the pair of stone goats under the console table and the wooden horse head by the front door. Everything in here is on a large scale: the cinema-huge TV, the lamps, the statues… even the vast white kitchen that’s so pristine it’s surely never been used? A relaxed environment that suits self-catering sophisticates as perfectly as groups of families with children – this barn was made for extravagance and entertaining.

Throw the glass barn doors open wide onto the immaculate landscaped courtyard, but don’t forget your lawn, where you’ll find an outdoor dining table for 12, gas barbecue and cedar hot tub. More than 12 in your party? Hire sister barn Voltaire: it sleeps a further 12 and enjoys its own pool, meaning you still won’t have to share yours… The dining area of Burggraaf can host up to 24 guests when both barns are hired together.

Explore Burggraaf’s six en-suite bedrooms and marshmallow-soft kingsizers, swathed in lost-count-of-the-threads Egyptian bed linen, Andrew Martin fabrics and jewel-fringed silk cushions. Further hand-painted, flock-style motifs colour code the rooms – ranging from magentas to soft blues – while art deco dressing tables teem with plasma screens, suede chairs and sumptuous throws.

It’s difficult to single out one of the bedrooms as the master; they are all mistresses in their own right. But the bedroom by the pool maybe just edges it, as it’s mere padding distance from the warm waters of the pool. All are similar in size and styling, however, and all meet the same exacting standards. Pristine, boutique-hotel-style bathrooms, punctuated with Aromatherapy Associates goodies, are limestone cubes of deep tubs, cubist taps and fluffy bathrobes. This is about as far away from self-catering as it gets.

‘Party house’, ‘barn spa’, ‘farmland hideaway’… Whatever you want to call it, Burggraaf is the sort of immaculate barn that’s ideal for a weekend, week or two-week stay. So pack a swimsuit, wellies and some sunglasses, step inside and settle down to the clotted-cream tea that awaits your arrival. But, for those wishing to ever leave again, may we just wish you good luck – because, believe us, it’s not easy.

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