Somerset, United Kingdom

The Newt in Somerset

Price per night from$1,012.32

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (GBP765.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

The Newt in Somerset Photos

Style

Scandi salamander

Setting

English country garden

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The apples — all 267 varieties — never fall far from the tree at The Newt in Somerset, a reimagined retreat on a working farm. The contemporary, country interiors artfully mix old with new, but a restorative spa and host of farm-to-fork restaurants place this bucolic stay firmly in the now. Take a turn in the maze-like gardens, dip in the bathing pond, visit the beehives or drink the just-pressed, house ‘cyder’. This grand estate is wholesome to its core.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A welcome bottle of the hotel's sparkling cyder, The Winston, on ice in your room

Facilities

Photos The Newt in Somerset facilities

Need to know

Rooms

40, including four suites.

Check–Out

11am; check-in, 3pm. Earlier check-in is available on request, subject to availability and advance notice.

More details

Rates at The Newt in Somerset include daily buffet breakfast with hot made-to-order dishes, cream tea or afternoon sweet treats, spa access and wellness programming.

Also

The pathways in the garden and woods can be uneven and slippery, but much of Hadspen House is accessible for wheelchair users — there are ramps to the first floor. One Hadspen Cosy (room 7) in the main building has been adapted, as has one Farmyard Room with Steam (room 40) in the grain store on the farm. The hotel has a large buggy that can take wheelchair users around the estate.

Please note

The hotel will partially close from 11 to 22 January 2026 for renovations; you can still stay in the Farmhouse, but the main house, Stable Yard, spa and Botanical Rooms restaurant will be closed.

Hotel closed

The hotel closes annually around mid-January for 10 days.

At the hotel

Gym, yoga studio, badminton court, croquet lawn, gardens, wellies to borrow and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV, fan (on request), Nespresso coffee machine, tea-making kit, minibar, free bottled water and Dyson hairdryer; some rooms also have air-conditioning on request.

Our favourite rooms

Co-owner Karen Roos was once the editor of South Africa’s Elle Decoration and the interior styling, naturally, fell to her: expect a thoughtful mix of freestanding bath tubs, four-poster beds and generally dreamy design that’s sensitive to the original framework of the Palladian house and its assorted outbuildings. For novelty value, horsey types will love a Stable Room, where you’ll be away in a manger (literally) with a barrel sink, tie rings and a wood-burning stove. Set in the former dairy barn, a 20-minute walk from Hadspen House, the Farmyard Room with Steam Pod puts a bucolic spin on modern frills with its wood-burning stove, private steam room and chicken-roaming setting.

Poolside

Like the estate’s ducks, you too can take to water at a handful of swimming spots: the spa is graced with a hydrotherapy pool that flows into the heated, indoor-outdoor one, overlooking a cold plunge and small, quiet lawn. You’ll find a bathing pond in the wellness garden for immersed-in-nature dips. The pool at The Farmyard is best for families and welcomes little Smiths all day, whereas the main spa pool has timetabled children's hours.

Spa

The exposed-brick spa is inspired by the estate’s leafy corners, and you’re invited to roam the mediaeval herb garden before your treatment to get the full, wholesome effect. Therapies are just as grounding, with botanical oils and aromatic inhalations enhancing rejuvenating facials, deep-tissue massages and spells in the greenery-gazing sauna. Rituals also look to eastern medicine’s natural approach, with rasul-inspired scrubs and Moroccan-style sessions in the hammam.

Packing tips

The Newt in Somerset is somewhere for the ‘no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing’ crew: have warm woollens, wellies and waxy jackets at the ready.

Also

In case you’re wondering what or who the Newt is, yes, there’s a resident colony of great crested newts making the most of the grounds and their ponds. The estate is also peppered with several manicured gardens — one’s Victorian, another is Japanese.

Children

Hayloft & Woolsack, Gate Lodge and Room with a View are best for families. The main spa pool has children’s hours; the Farmyard pool welcomes kids all day. Babysitting can be booked, and there's a forest school, creative classes and outdoor activities.

Best for

Over-fives, but older children will get the most out of this country retreat.

Recommended rooms

Under-eights stay for free. Gate Lodge and Room with a View each sleep two adults and two under-12s; Hayloft & Woolsack, two Clock House Rooms and one Farmyard Room also take a charged extra bed; and free baby cots can be added to every room.

Activities

There’s plenty to keep your little ’uns busy each day: forest school, tree climbing, garden trails and the Beezantium (hotel’s hives) are your outdoorsy options. You can borrow bikes to pootle around the estate and to the pool, before rounding off the day with a snug-set movie night.

Swimming pool

The Farmyard pool is open to families all day; children are welcome at the main spa pool from 9am to 10am, 1pm to 2pm and 4pm to 5pm.

Meals

There are children’s menus at each eatery, but gelato from the ice-cream parlour and daily scones with apple juice are what tempt most little Smiths.

Babysitting

Can be arranged with an external provider for £35 an hour (for a minimum of five hours).

Sustainability efforts

Beyond its sojourners, The Newt takes good care of its permanent, wildlife residents through various programmes that reintroduce red squirrels, rewild hedgehogs, rehabilitate birds of prey and grow native bee populations. An entomologist works full-time to study the estate’s insects, which have diversified through the expansion of the ancient woodlands and wildflower meadows.

Food and Drink

Photos The Newt in Somerset food and drink

Top Table

It’s a tough call between the Glass Room conservatory, which covers the original kitchen courtyard, and a banquette amid the original features of the house’s former billiards den in the Oak Room.

Dress Code

Your days might be spent in Barbour jackets and Blundstone boots, but use dinnertime as your excuse to get as glammed up as your grand backdrop.

Hotel restaurant

The Botanical Rooms, in Hadspen House, ensures that every plate the kitchen sends out features at least one thing from the estate, whether it’s been grown, foraged or distilled. Even the wood that the meat is grilled on comes from the grounds. Breakfast is a feast of bread and pastries (baked on-site, naturally), cured meats and fruit, with a selection of cooked options if you’ve got room. High tea is served in the Drawing Room and Library every afternoon (3pm to 5pm), with a spread of cakes and scones, and tea and coffee served to order. 

Sharing is caring at Farmyard Kitchen, where a relaxed, convivial approach to dining washes over lingering meals of garden-grown salads, fluffy flatbreads and slow-cooked meats; at dinner, opt for the chef’s choice menu to take out any chances of food envy or decision paralysis. The Garden Café celebrates plant-based cooking in all its seasonal glory, with sun-ripened tomatoes or leafy brassicas grown on the grounds transformed into moreish, wholesome offerings.

Hotel bar

The teal, corniced bar in Hadspen House serves a delicious-sounding list of botanical cocktails — but since the cyder is still being pressed, go for that. It opens onto the stepped lawns and croquet terrace, where there are tables if it’s cyder weather, and snacks, such as salted tomatoes or gin-cured trout, are served until 10pm. If you’re staying in a Farmyard room, you’ll get free drinks at the farm’s Garner Bar; everyone's welcome here, too.

Last orders

At The Botanical Rooms and Farmyard Kitchen, breakfast is 7.30am–10.30am, lunch is noon–2.30pm, and for dinner, it’s 6pm–10pm. The Garden Café serves breakfast 9am–11am, brunch 11am–1pm and lunch between noon and 3pm. The bar pours until you say so.

Room service

Available from 7.30am to 9.30pm, on request.

Location

Photos The Newt in Somerset location
Address
The Newt in Somerset
Bruton
Somerset
BA7 7NG
United Kingdom

The Newt in Somerset sits pretty in a vast, country estate, between the polished villages of Castle Cary and Bruton.

Planes

Bristol Airport is an hour away by car and staff can arrange one-way transfers for £95. London Heathrow is a two-hour drive, with pick-ups from £254 each way.

Trains

Rail routes from London, Bristol and Plymouth call at Castle Cary, which is under 10 minutes' drive. The hotel can organise station transfers for £22 each way.

Automobiles

If you want to tour Somerset’s glorious, golden villages, a set of wheels will be useful — Bruton is a 10-minute drive, and Bath and Lyme Regis are each an hour away by car. There's free parking with electric-vehicle charging points at the hotel.

Other

There are two helipads on the estate if you’ve got a chopper in the hanger.

Worth getting out of bed for

The Newt in Somerset is part of a working farm, so there’s plenty to keep you busy within the estate walls, including garden strolls and tours to reveal how its cyder is made. This Roman-approved tipple was also appreciated by 17th-century Somerset locals, who drank it for breakfast, preferred it to champagne and still stick to the olde-English spelling. You can spend time (and money) in the farm shop and watch butchery demonstrations, before heading on bee safaris complete with a honey sampling (wine tastings are on hand for something stronger). A weekly wellness programme might see you start your day with sunrise breathwork and conclude with yin yoga. 

In Bruton, Hauser & Wirth delights art lovers with its sculpture garden and regularly changing exhibitions. While away an afternoon along its high street, stopping into Caro, a seamlessly curated concept store, and At the Chapel, for baked goods. Be king of the sort-of castle with a trip to what’s left of Castle Cary, founded just after the Norman Invasion but sadly not really in existence today — all that’s left are the earthworks, but they do make a lovely green backdrop for a walk. 

Local restaurants

If you’ve made it to Hauser & Wirth, you may as well treat yourself to something to eat at Roth Bar & Grill, where farm-fresh (literally) food, such as tomahawk steaks, house-made charcuterie and rainbow-coloured salads, is all reared and/or made on-site. Merlin Labron-Johnson's Osip shines for many reasons: it has two Michelin stars (one’s Green); floor-to-ceiling windows flood the dining room with verdant views, and its polished tasting-menu plates are art forms of presentation and produce. Luck strikes at The Three Horseshoes Batcombe, where its 17th-century walls are home to daily changing, season-led dining, a fire-warmed bar and pretty terrace garden. 

Local cafés

The Creamery, the Newt’s station café in Castle Cary, is a rather polished pitstop — or destination in itself. You can pick up snacks to go or browse its selection of soft cheeses and yoghurt made from the estate’s herd of water buffalo; tuck into afternoon tea aboard The Maid of Somerset, and return in the evening for seasonal suppers or on Sundays for hearty roasts.

Local bars

If you went to At the Chapel for the bread, it’d be rude to not stick around for the cocktails: expertly mixed muddles in a former congregational chapel, with a well-stocked wine bar attached. Take me to church, indeed. 

Reviews

Photos The Newt in Somerset reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

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 luxury hotel near Bruton and unpacked their Barbour jackets and freshly pressed cyder, a full account of their bucolic break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside The Newt in Somerset… 

The namesake amphibians of The Newt in Somerset occupy its wild swimming pond, but there’s a whole lot more to explore on these endless acres. The working farm, which stands between Castle Cary and Bruton, has a bakery, cyder press, walled garden and farm shop, along with an ice-cream parlour and elaborate maze of 460 apple trees. And with all these nature-blessed nooks come accompanying activities: beehive tours, a forest school for little ones, long rural romps and a look in at the reimagined Roman Villa. 

The rooms are spread across the Palladian Hadspen House and former stables, barns and granaries, where you can take hitting the hay literally. A former editor of Elle Decoration is behind the interior design, which is classic country house, but with a dose of whimsy and some serious Scandi cool. At The Newt, the Great British countryside is just that little bit greater. 

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Price per night from $1,012.32

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