If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (GBP160.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Leave it all behind and live off the land at 42 Acres, a here-to-heal hideaway in eastern Somerset that’s putting a spring in the weariest of steps. Days will look a little different for everyone here; if you’re cocooned by the cosy, country trappings of the detached cottages, there may be little need to venture too far beyond your meadow-admiring gardens. Wellness warriors may prefer to check-in to the Hermitage, for a rotating roster of restorative pastimes and nature-filled fare: add in a session in the forest-fringed sauna and you have all the ingredients for a bucolic-themed battery recharge.
10am; check-in is at 4pm. Both are flexible, on request and subject to availability
Prices
Double rooms from £192.00, including tax at 20 per cent.
More details
Rates don’t include breakfast, which is available for £25 a person; Hermitage rates do include lunch and dinner, served daily at the restaurant.
Also
The downstairs bedroom and shared spaces of the Library Barn are all accessible for guests with limited mobility; but there’s no other facilities in place to support wheelchair-users.
At the hotel
173-acre estate, seven-acre lake, walled gardens, regenerative farm, bee garden; the Hermitage also has a library. In rooms: Free WiFi, umbrellas to borrow, hairdryer and Bramley bath products. Hermitage rooms also have umbrellas, art supplies, yoga mats and swimming towels to borrow.
Our favourite rooms
We’re smitten with the two-bedroom Library Barn, a contemporary take on a classic country farmhouse that pairs grand vaulted ceilings with arched crittall accents and cosy fireside spots. If you’re here to find yourself, bag one of the Hermitage rooms (we’d suggest the Sumptuous Room) for a daily line-up of wellness activities.
Poolside
There’s no pool at 42 Acres but you can swim in the lake, and there’s a jetty and ladder for easy access.
Spa
There isn't a spa as such, but you’ll find a woodfired sauna among the forest’s wildlife and in-room treatments can be arranged on request.
Packing tips
An open mind and a set of green fingers are all you’ll need.
Also
42 Acres often has wellness experts coming in to host events and activities, so be sure to keep an eye out for anything that you might fancy as tickets tend to go fast.
Welcome in all but the Hermitage rooms, which are reserved for over-18s. There’s no special facilities to keep little Smiths entertained, but the cottages all have plenty of places to play.
Sustainability efforts
42 Acres is the poster child for Earth-kind ethos, with a commitment to sustainability that’s been central from its inception. Since 2014, over 5,000 native trees and more than a kilometre of hedges have been planted to help rewild the estate’s grounds, and the owners are working with Heal Somerset and Rewilding Britain to support conservation. Up to 80 per cent of produce is locally sourced (from within a 42- mile radius) or picked by in-house foragers Tasha and Molly – even the seaweed is hand-collected along the Dorset coast. Waste is also minimised and recycled, single-use plastic banned, bath products are eco-friendly and biodegradable to protect the surrounding wildlife, and cars are electric (although you’re encouraged to cycle rather than drive if you’re exploring nearby).
Secure a seat at the shared table for story-paired suppers.
Dress Code
You might want to ditch the wellies and waders for dinner, but otherwise come as you are.
Hotel restaurant
The restaurant here strays from tradition a little, with a ‘soil-to-gut’ menu that’s dished daily for anyone staying in the Hermitage. Meals are guided by the seasons and very much work to the whims of the land, but previous plates have included shiitake mushroom and vegetable bourguignon,and rosemary-infused cashew cheesecake.
Last orders
Breakfast is dished for Hermitage lodgers from 9am; lunch from 1pm, and dinner from 6pm. Guests staying in the self-catered cottages are welcome to dine here during the evening, for £25 a person.
42 Acres is set on a 173-acre estate in Somerset’s Witham Friary, a 15-minute drive from Bruton in south-west England.
Planes
Most European hubs have direct flights to Bristol’s airport, which is the hotel’s closest and around an hour’s drive (private transfers can be arranged on request). If you’re flying from further afield, you’ll likely be touching down at London Heathrow, where you can make the two-hour drive to Frome along the A303.
Trains
Direct trains run frequently from Heathrow, Paddington and Waterloo to Dorset’s Gillingham station, a 20-minute drive from the hotel, where you’ll also find links to Exeter. Waterloo also has a direct line to Frome, which is a similar distance from the hotel and has routes straight to Bath and Bristol. Private transfers can be arranged from both stations, for £40 each way.
Automobiles
With 172 acres to roam onsite, a car may not be necessary for everyone; but if you’re planning on exploring more of the West Country, there are rental booths at the airports and free parking onsite (Monks Hatch also has an electric-vehicle charger).
Worth getting out of bed for
Everything at 42 Acres changes with the seasons, and its schedule of healing happenings is no different. Pull your socks up and don your finest wellies for a day in the gardens planting bulbs, foraging for wild teas and sowing wildflowers with the resident green fingers; there are also guided walks around the gardens if you prefer your seedlings all grown up. Invited experts host events such as miso-making classes, forest bathing, beaver-spotting walks and plant-based cooking classes – peace pilgrim and former monk Satish Kumar also holds immersive three-day retreats throughout the year (just be sure to book early, as they fill fast). If you’d rather go at your own pace, Yin and Hatha yoga classes are available and you’re more than welcome to go wild swimming, stand-up paddleboarding, kayaking and rowing at the hotel’s seven-acre lake.
Local restaurants
If you’re making the 15-minute drive (or 50-minute cycle) into bordering Bruton, we’d suggest a refuel at the Three Horseshoes – a quintessentially English pub with sand-stoned exteriors, the finest of on-tap ales and upmarket pub fare (the Sunday roasts are a notable favourite). Small-but-mighty Osip is helmed by the country’s youngest Michelin-starred chef, Merlin Labron-Johnson, who cooks dishes based on what locally made ingredients arrive on his kitchen’s doorstep that morning, meaning menus are redundant and farm-to-fork food is as fresh as it gets. Housed in an 18th century Grade II-listed building, At the Chapel plates up West Country classics with a light, Mediterranean twist (their sourdough pizzas are legendary around town).
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this nurturing retreat in Frome and unpacked their sketchbooks and wellies, a full account of their bucolic break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside 42 Acres in Somerset…
If the sound of days-long detoxes, stints of silence and chakra-aligning all sounds a little too overwhelming then allow us to introduce you to 42 Acres, a woodland wonder just beyond Bruton. Healing takes more of a gentle, natural approach here and days are dedicated to sowing seeds, foraging for wild herbs, swimming in the lakes and general beavering about the forest – finished with a stint in the wood-fired sauna and a stargazing session at the treehouse. Cosy cottages lend themselves to more secluded stays, with rustic West Country interiors and Shaker-like kitchens that feel more home than hotel; and the Hermitage (a lovingly converted 13th-century monastery) invites guests to take part in their ‘self-guided retreat’, where you’re welcome to dip in and out of sybaritic pleasures, and dine among fellow peaceseekers over seasonal dishes that are as healthy as they are hearty.
