Cornwall, United Kingdom

Coombeshead Farm

Price per night from$137.26

Price information

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 (GBP107.92), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Foodie farmstead

Setting

Wild in the West Country

If it’s glorious isolation and the kind of West Country scenery you’ve craved since the last series of Poldark ended, Coombeshead Farm – set deep in the Cornish countryside amid rolling fields and oak-rich woodland – is sure to float your boat. Guests woken by rowdy cockerels or the aroma of fresh bread from the onsite bakery are rewarded with solitary sunrise strolls to the nearby stream, passing snuffling pigs, inquisitive sheep and hives that hum with native black bees along the way. Make sure to sample farm-fresh fare at the restaurant, where local ingredients, freshly picked veg and seasonal dishes adorn the three-course menu.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A seasonal cocktail on arrival

Facilities

Photos Coombeshead Farm facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Nine: five in the Farmhouse, four in the Grainstore.

Check–Out

10.30am, but flexible subject to availability. Check-in is at 3pm. The owners will try to let you into your room early if possible but there’s always those lovely country strolls or the courtyard café to help get you settled if not.

Prices

Double rooms from £129.50, including tax at 20 per cent.

More details

Rates include a daily farm-produced breakfast, which features eggs from the resident chickens and honey from the hives. Slather homemade jams and compotes over bread baked onsite that very morning and sip drinks including fresh juices from local growers.

Also

There’s a fine selection of books to be found in the Farmhouse reading room. Grab one from the shelves. Animal Farm, perhaps. Or 20th-century classic Rebecca from local-girl-done-good Daphne du Maurier. Then while away a peaceful hour or two curled up in a comfy chair with only Mrs de Winter and a homemade lemon verbena vodka from the honesty bar for company.

Hotel closed

The hotel operates from Wednesday to Sunday only, as well as closing for a fortnight every January.

At the hotel

Restaurant, courtyard café, farm shop, reading room. In rooms: WiFi, digital radio, super-king or king-size bed, snacks such as local fudge and homemade gin on arrival, Faith in Nature toiletries.

Our favourite rooms

Quirky antique furniture sourced from auction houses coupled with recycled wool blankets and welcome snacks will make you feel at home whichever room you choose. Prefer a traditional farmhouse feel? Choose rooms one to five for garden and courtyard views. Or go for a room in the revamped Grainstore if you yearn for a bit more space. We love Room 9 up in the barn’s eaves, with its exposed timbers, freestanding rolltop bath tub and glorious farmyard views.

Packing tips

Cornwall’s beaches have some of the whitest sand in the country so you’ll want a good pair of sunglasses if you hope to be dazzled by the scenery rather than the light. Yes, even in winter.

Also

Free use of this agriturismo's Hunter wellies and Seasalt coats means that – if you came ill-prepared for the notoriously unpredictable Cornish weather – you can still head out for a woodland yomp and remain watertight on damp days.

Pet‐friendly

Four-legged pals are welcome in Room 6 in the Grainhouse. Each pet is charged at £60 for the whole stay. See more pet-friendly hotels in Cornwall.

Children

The vibe at Coombeshead Farm is more about grown-up downtime, so it’s over-12s only here.

Sustainability efforts

A super-eco-friendly approach is par for the course on this working farm. It’s the kind of place where, when you sit down to dinner in the lovely timbered restaurant, you can be sure the out-of-this-world pork loin on your plate in fact came from one of the resident Mangalitza pigs, that your buttered sourdough was baked onsite and the foraged borage is resolutely Cornish. The two cosy main residences – a traditional ivy-clad farmhouse and converted grain barn – are chock-full of recycled blankets and local pottery, while bathrooms come with water-saving showers and ethical Faith in Nature toiletries and Who Gives a Crap toilet tissues. Coombeshead is also part of Cornwall’s major Farm Net Zero community programme which aims to hit target within five years using traditional farming methods to trap carbon in the soil. This includes not digging or tilling the land and a flat-out ban on the use of pesticides.

Food and Drink

Photos Coombeshead Farm food and drink

Top Table

Every table in this atmospheric farmhouse restaurant has its charms, but we favour a position close to the huge open kitchen to build the greatest anticipation for the farm-fresh cuisine that’s destined for your belly.

Dress Code

Wellies, wax jackets and flat caps if you want to go full Cornish countryman, but really anything goes here.

Hotel restaurant

Coombeshead’s traditional British farmhouse dining experience is a foodie fantasy made flesh. Exposed wooden beams and rustic stone walls frame a huge open kitchen that fairly bustles with activity. Menus are made with local ingredients, seasonal produce and freshly picked veg, all grown in line with respect for the surrounding land. Food is served with a flair here, pick from a five or three-course dinner (vegetarian options are also available) including homemade sourdough bread with farm-fresh salted butter, lovage-garnished crème fraiche tomatoes, baked Gauloise chicken with braised tomatoes or slow-roasted Guinea Fowl served with a side of mustard-marinated courgettes. Although, menus change depending on the season, so things may look a little different every now and again. On Sundays, a classic roast is served at lunch finished with a bowl of homespun honey custard topped with freshly-picked haskaps. Lighter bites at the Courtyard Café include smoked pig cheek scrumpets, rillette with pickles, cheese and charcuterie plates and, crucially, bottles of fine Cornish cider to wash it all down.

Hotel bar

There’s an honesty bar in the Farmhouse reading room where you can mix your own drinks from homemade spirits. Hic!

Last orders

Currently, the restaurant is open Thursday to Sunday with dinner served at 7pm; from 1 April 2023, dinner will be served between 5.30pm and 11pm, Wednesday to Sunday, and roast lunch is available on Sunday from 1pm until 4pm.

Location

Photos Coombeshead Farm location
Address
Coombeshead Farm
Lewannick
Launceston
PL15 7QQ
United Kingdom

Sixty-six acres of lush wildflower meadows, ancient woodland and murmuring streams surround Coombeshead Farm, an off-grid country retreat deep in rural Cornwall. Pilgrims are rewarded with crisp West Country air, farm-fresh cuisine and starlit evenings.

Planes

The nearest regional airports are at Exeter and Newquay, both around an hour from the farm; Bristol Airport is a two-hour drive.

Trains

Exeter St David’s station, around 50 miles from the hotel, is well connected to major rail hubs around the UK. From there, you can travel onwards to Liskeard and Bodmin Parkway, but both trains are slow and overshoot Coombeshead Farm by some way, meaning you still have to find your way there from up to 20 miles out. Sure the countryside views are nice but, unless you’re a slow-travel fetishist, this may not be the transportation method for you.

Automobiles

Rural West Country destinations are notoriously difficult to reach by public transport. But that’s part of the appeal, right? Do yourself a favour and hire a set of wheels for your adventure. This will also open up day trips to Bodmin Moor and the cracking Cornwall coast. There’s free parking in the farm’s courtyard. Pro-tip: enter ‘Coombeshead Farm’ rather than the postcode into your GPS for the most accurate directions.

Worth getting out of bed for

There’s more than enough to fill a long weekend at this agriturismo without leaving the immediate environs of Coombeshead Farm. Skimming dreamily through book after book in the reading room, for example. Strolling the verdant paths of the farm’s 66 acres. Singing along with the birds as you frolic through the ancient Trelaske Wood, looking for all the world like a cartoon character from a 1950s Disney feature.

Drag yourself kicking and screaming from this rural idyll and you’ll find the very best of Cornwall within easy reach. Hike the foreboding wild landscapes of Bodmin Moor, just south of the hotel. Or board an old-fashioned steam train at nearby Launceston, to puff and chuff your way over the unspoilt Kensey Valley’s fields, meadows and viaducts. 

The north and south coasts are both around 45 minutes away. Head north for picture-postcard Bude’s beguiling beaches. Or venture south to Fowey, where colourful houses crowd the waterfront and fishing boats bob gently in the harbour. It’s here that a young Daphne du Maurier was first inspired to put pen to paper, and it’s not difficult to see why. Seek out atmospheric sheltered coves along the coastline and take the ferry out to Bodinnick to spot her first Cornwall home: a whitewashed quayside building with brightly painted wooden shutters. Du Maurier was also known to take afternoon tea at the Fowey Harbour Hotel, so it would be frankly unthinkable for you not to also do just that.

Local restaurants

Coombeshead Farm’s nearest pub is a mere 15-minute stagger along country lanes in the tiny village of Lewannick. With timbered ceilings and open fires, The Archer Arms is a great place for a pie, a pint and a natter with the friendly locals. Nominate your designated driver and take a spin up to The Springer Spaniel in Treburley, where you’ll want to sample some of those foaming local ales and ciders. This 18th-century inn with rustic bare-brick walls and exposed beams also serves up hearty gastropub fare such as roast beef and beer-battered fish and chips.

There’s a beautiful coastal path that winds from Boscastle Farm Shop on the north coast across dramatic cliffs and down to the cute fishing village below. Pause here for lunch at The Rocket Store, a tiny seafood restaurant with a menu that changes daily based on the morning catch, and where the fish is so fresh it might have leapt straight from the sea and onto your plate. Fuel up for the return leg back up the hill where you may well have recovered your appetite just enough to warrant a bonus cream tea at the farm shop restaurant.

It’s practically a criminal offence to go to Cornwall and fail to sample Rick Stein’s near-legendary fish and chips while you’re there. So, if you needed an excuse to visit the celebrity chef’s beloved Padstow, this is surely it. Stein’s Fish & Chips serves the usual traditional chippy fare with lashings of salt, vinegar and mushy peas, plus a small and somewhat unexpected range of curries for the more adventurous palate. Eat on the waterfront for the maximum Cornish (or Punjabi) experience.

Local cafés

Proximity to the Devon border makes for easy access to the likes of windswept Dartmoor and the sunkissed sands of the English Riviera. It also means the delicious prospect of researching for yourself which of jam (Cornwall) or cream (Devon) should be applied to a scone first when preparing a traditional cream tea. Restaurants, tearooms and National Trust cafés the length and breadth of these two counties will be only too happy to furnish you with the ingredients you need to help resolve this bitterest of rivalries. In other words: when in Cornwall, stuff yourself silly.

Liberty Coffee in nearby Launceston is worth a visit for its excellent range of speciality coffees, coupled with brownies, bakewells and teacakes baked on the premises, plus savouries including sausage rolls.

Head up to Electric Bakery in Bude for a cinnamon roll or bacon bap with coffee to go, then wander down to the beach for a dip in the Bude Sea Pool, a natural tidal lido at Summerleaze Beach.

Reviews

Photos Coombeshead Farm reviews
Antonina Parker

Anonymous review

By Antonina Parker , Chef and author

I had been wanting to visit the gorgeous Coombeshead Farm for years, so when an opportunity arose for a road trip down to Cornwall, I jumped at the chance. Its foodie reputation preceded it – being a chef, I had already heard more rave reviews than I could count about the fare I could expect at this working farm-turned-hotel. 

The four-hour journey from London did feel like a slog, but the moment we drove into the Coombeshead courtyard, we were transported to a place of complete calm. On arrival, we were given the warmest welcome and treated to homemade fudge. The staff are a wonderful, youthful bunch who are so knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the local area and the local produce. 

Our lodgings were in the main house – every room has been designed with supreme comfort in mind and comes stocked with a homemade bottle of spirit. The main house also has a communal kitchen where guests can gather to make tea and coffee or to help themselves to fixings from the drinks cabinet. Being gin enthusiasts, we were eager to sample the many artisan brands in the bar. 

But first, after depositing our bags, we went for a long walk around the grounds of the working farm to make friends with some of the adorable piglets, ducks, and chickens and to build up an appetite. The layout of the farm is picturesque: beautiful stone buildings surrounded by blooms in rustic flower pots and rolling fields beyond. I spent too long admiring the seriously impressive vegetable patch and had to be dragged away. 

Before dinner had even begun, we snaffled an entire snack board of aged cheddar, quince jelly and salami; it sounds so simple, but when everything is of the highest quality, basic ingredients are all you need. This set the bar high for dinner and we weren’t disappointed. The menu changes daily depending on what’s in season and almost all ingredients are picked, grown, or raised right outside. It’s really a foodie’s paradise. Everything we ate, from the doorstop of sourdough to the clotted cream butter to the marinated radicchio with walnut and ricotta to the pork with celeriac and fennel was divine. This was my kind of menu!

 Breakfast was maybe even better than the evening meal. We devoured another rock-sized loaf of sourdough fresh from the bakery, and learnt how the butter came from the cows down the road. After learning about the provenance of the butter, we felt duty-bound to douse our fresh eggs in it. We also tried the bircher muesli with fresh compote and delicious local honey which I later bought in the deli to bring some of the magic back home.

In the surrounding area there are countless walks and castle ruins and you can even head to Crackingdon for a cold water swim on the beach. On the second night, we decided to head out to The Rocket Store in nearby Boscastle which was very vibey. Make sure you order their signature fried chickpeas with mint yoghurt dressing and ceviche. 

All in all, it was an indulgent weekend, which is entirely the point of a stay at Coombeshead. I’m still thinking about the baked oat cookies we ate by the fire after a cold country walk. The most important thing is to come hungry. And don’t skimp on the butter!

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Price per night from $137.26