Lime Wood
Style Mannered modern manor
Setting New Forest’s ancient capital
Originally a mediaeval hunting lodge way back in the 13th century, this New Forest manor was reclaimed for royalty by the Duke of Clarence in the 1740s. Since then, Lime Wood hotel has had another extravagant makeover, giving this stately pile a serious air of perfection, with primly landscaped grounds, devotedly designed interiors, a super spa and two tantalising restaurants to prove it.
Need to know
- Rooms 29, including 15 suites.
- Rates Double rooms from $387.36 (£245), excluding tax at 20 per cent.
- More details Rates exclude breakfast (around £10 for Continental; £15 for full English).
- Facilities Library of books and DVDs, pool, snooker and billiards, mountain bikes and wellies for guests, walking and running trails, valet parking, helipad, free WiFi throughout. The Herb House Spa has an indoor pool. In rooms: flatscreen TV, CD/DVD player, preloaded iPod, free bottled water and Bamford bath products.
- Check-out Midday, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check‑in, 3pm.
- Children Little Smiths are well looked after at Lime Wood – cots are £10, extra beds are £30; there’s a children’s menu and bikes and scooters on loan. Babysitting with a local nanny costs £45 an evening (48 hours’ notice required).
- Also Pets are allowed in the outside lodgings – the Coach House, Crescent and Pavilions. In-room spa and beauty treatments can be arranged.
Food and drink at Lime Wood
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Hotel restaurant
The whitewashed Scullery is bright, cheery, and best for a casual lunch or dinner. You can sometimes catch a hog roasting in the fireplace. The Dining Room is more formal, with yellow lamps on carved chandeliers, ashpanelled walls, snug banquettes and a rarefied British menu. Chef Luke Holder is a fan of locally sourced ingredients: the meat is hand‑reared on Lime Wood land and the fungi are foraged from neighbouring woods. In the Herb House Spa, the Raw & Cured café serves suitably healthy fresh salads, smoked fish and meat, all cured at the on-site Smokehouse.
- Dress code There’s a grown-up manor feel, so clean off the country muck before dinner.
- Top table Pick a quiet table for two by the window, or ask to dine at the chef’s table in the kitchen.
- Last orders Breakfast is served in the Scullery between 7am and 11am. Lunch is available all day in the Scullery, and between 12pm and 4pm in the Dining Room. Dinner is 7pm–9pm.
- Room service An excerpt of the Scullery menu is on offer 24 hours a day.
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Hotel bar
Max’s Bar is a relaxed, sophisticated spot, manned by Max himself – a Sicilian barman who has expertly mixed drinks since he helped out in his dad’s watering hole as a child.
Lime Wood Lime Wood Hotel Beaulieu Road Lyndhurst, Hampshire, SO43 7FZ
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Smith extra at Lime Wood
A bottle of champagne
In the know
Our favourite rooms
For honeymoon‑perfect privacy, go for Pavilion 1 – it’s separate from the main house and has a dramatic black vaulted ceiling, four‑poster bed and a roll‑top bath in an alcove overlooking the green pastures outside. The bedrooms in the main house are also high on romance, thanks mainly to the elegant Italian marble bathrooms in soft grey and white – Rooms 1 and 2 have bath tubs beneath wide sash windows, and Room 11 has double sinks and an enormous bathroom. If you like a quirky attic abode, plump for an Eaves room.
Packing tips
Leave sensible shoes and coats at home – there’s a whole range of wellies and waterproofs to borrow.
Also
The Herb House spa is spread across three floors, with assorted treatment rooms (eight single, one double with steam room and garden, one bath house with indoor pool and steam room), a mud house, sauna, steam house, indoor pool, outdoor pool, sun deck with herb garden, a café offering uncooked or preserved food only and a bar serving juices straight from the garden.
From the Guestbook…
An excellent choice of hotel for my wife's special birthday (or for any other time). Everything surpassed my expectations. The staff were most welcoming, helpful and obliging in ev...
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