Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

The Swan

Price per night from$136.78

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 (GBP108.33), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Fine feathered friend

Setting

Cosy Cotswolds pub

Cosy, rustic and welcoming, idyllic English inn The Swan sits pretty just south of Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire. The feather in its cap is an open-all-day mod-British restaurant – steps from your bed – where you can start your mornings with hearty egg-based dishes, dip back in for leisurely lunches and while away evenings after long country strolls. The Swan’s no slouch on drinks either – Aperol spritzes and espresso martinis are on tap alongside English lagers and cask ales. We suggest you migrate post-haste to this serene countryside stay.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

Grown Alchemist hand cream; GoldSmiths will get a bottle of wine instead (on check-out)

Facilities

Photos The Swan facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Eight.

Check–Out

11am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £130.00, including tax at 20 per cent.

More details

Rates usually include a Continental breakfast of muesli, fresh fruits, cured meats, cheeses, a variety of juices, coffee and tea.

At the hotel

Free WiFi throughout. In rooms: free bottled water, tea- and coffee-making facilities, a Roberts DAB Radio and 100 Acres bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Holiday not complete without a luxurious soak? Room 6 is tucked away in the eaves and has a freestanding bath tub.

Packing tips

Bring your boots for afternoon rambles in the countryside, cosy jumpers for cockle-warming evenings in the pub and a novel your English literature teacher would either heartily approve of or be entirely scandalised by.

Also

There are no wheelchair-accessible rooms in this historic inn.

Pet‐friendly

For £25 a stay your canine companion can tag along; dogs are welcome in two room types, so check availability when booking. See more pet-friendly hotels in Oxfordshire.

Children

Welcome. Buggies won’t fit well in the restaurant, but highchairs are available and there’s a child-friendly menu. Cots (free for tots under two) can be added on request. An extra bed for under-12s (£30 a night) can be added to Double Rooms.

Food and Drink

Photos The Swan food and drink

Top Table

In colder months, the corner banquette is the cosiest table for two. Sunny out? Make a beeline for a table by the orangery windows.

Dress Code

Cashmere and suede.

Hotel restaurant

Helmed by chef Adam Abbott – previously of the Wild Rabbit – the Swan dishes out modern British fare. Start with nibbles of soy-and-apple-glazed mackerel or mucky toast sprinkled with Maldon salt, then settle in for mains of whole sea bream with roasted red peppers, garlicky rib-eye steaks or veggie-laden hot-smoked-salmon bowls. Decision fatigue? No bother – the Swan’s sharing plates mean you can try a bit of everything that catches your fancy, from shallot tarts to mutton scrumpets, and chorizo popcorn to truffled-egg toast. For breakfast, choose from duck-egg and smoked-salmon scramble, Cotswold-honey-topped porridge or French toast with smoked bacon and apple syrup. There are also eggs-many-ways, a locally sourced full English option, rich coffees, freshly pressed juices and piping hot teas.

Hotel bar

Like the restaurant, the pub has an eclectic mix of furniture, including high bar tables and snug fireside seats; there’s also alfresco seating, a firepit and a wisteria-covered pergola in the garden. Espresso martinis and Aperol spritzes are served on tap alongside local lagers and cask ales, a heady selection of wines and all manner of cockle-warming whiskies and the like to sip after bracing countryside walks. 

Last orders

The Swan pub is open daily from 7.30am to 11pm.

Location

Photos The Swan location
Address
The Swan
4 Shipton Rd
Chipping Norton
OX76AY
United Kingdom

The Swan is a cosy Oxfordshire pub with rooms with a fine restaurant and splendid walking.

Planes

Birmingham International airport is an hour away by car; from London Heathrow, it’s an hour and 40 minutes by car.

Trains

Great Western Rail services from London (90 minutes from Paddington station), Reading, Oxford and Worcester pull into Charlbury station, a 10-minute drive from the hotel.

Automobiles

It’s handy to have a car for exploring the Cotswolds; there’s free on-site parking at the hotel.

Worth getting out of bed for

With a pub just steps from your bed and rolling acres of English countryside around you, we feel certain you’ll be able to keep yourself entertained (and well-lubricated). Work up a thirst with a scenic stroll or go for a bracing wild dip in the River Windrush; follow the footpath from St Oswald’s Church towards Burford and pick a spot to swim.

Have a leisurely afternoon cake break and stock up on organic goodies – including Oxfordshire honey, sticky toffee puddings and boules of beetroot sourdough – at the Daylesford Farmshop & Café near Kingham.

Local restaurants

Tuck into brunch at The Wychwood Pantry with a hearty full English or homemade cakes and pastries. The Upton Firehouse cooks up buffet-style barbecues most days – expect smoked ribs, honey-roasted ham, Cumberland sausages, harissa squash and charred aubergine. Wednesdays are for pizzas; a weekly changing menu of woodfired classics are available from 4pm to 9pm. For an on-trend take on the classic Sunday pub lunch, snag a table at The Chequers in Churchill and feast on spicy nduja-topped eggs, rabbit and pork terrine, bruschetta with burrata and wild-garlic pesto, poached brill and roast Kelmscott pork. The Wild Rabbit in Kingham sources all its organic fruits and vegetables from neighbouring Daylesford farm and looks to other local providers for its grass-fed beef, game and other ingredients. The menu changes seasonally and often includes the likes of cured Loch Duart salmon, market squash risotto and Newlyn line-caught bass. Celebrating something? Splash out on the tasting menu (with wine pairings, naturally) – artichoke velouté with Scottish scallops, Daylesford cheddar and onion tartlets, Cornish cod and Wootton Estate venison. For dessert, there’s Valrhona chocolate délice, apple tartlet and more Daylesford cheese. 

Reviews

Photos The Swan reviews
Charlotte Wenman

Anonymous review

By Charlotte Wenman, Creative producer

Autumn is my favourite season. It’s not because I don’t love the summer, but what a relief it is to leave behind the inexplicable guilt of wasting a sunny day, the confusion of short-haul luggage options, and the constant pressure to be beach-body ready. 

Yes, autumn is the time for crisp blue-sky country walks, long bubble baths, fireside wine and hearty roasts – what’s not to love? And I can’t think of a better place to enjoy these earthly pleasures than the Swan in Ascott Under Wychwood. 

Mr Smith and I pulled into the hotel car park on a blustery and wet evening. The clocks had not long lurched back and it felt a lot darker and later than 5pm, so we were pleased to discover we still had a whole evening ahead of us.

The hotel is more accurately a pub with guest rooms. You enter straight into the pub itself to be greeted by the most wonderful blast of warmth – nothing beats the scent and sound of a crackling open fire. The locals enjoying an evening pint seemed to agree. The prospect of an evening nestled by the fire with a bottle (or two) of red, with rain sheeting down outside, was a cosy one indeed. 

We were shown upstairs to our room by a friendly chap, where the combination of wonky floors and walls, as well as there being only a handful of bedrooms off a small landing, gave us the feeling we’d arrived at a friend’s much-loved country cottage.

Each bedroom is adorned with a different lively wallpaper – ours a stylish tropical green – and in an otherwise simple room, the pièce de résistance at the far end: the bathtub. 

It was big enough for two, but there was absolutely no chance I was sharing. I shooed Mr Smith downstairs to claim the best spot by the fire, poured in the bubbles and dove in (and don’t feel bad for him – he doesn’t know how to properly enjoy a hot bath anyway).

In a state of deep relaxation, squeaky clean, and ready for a drink, I went to find Mr Smith only to discover the prime fire spot was occupied by another couple! 

‘What happened?’ I hissed. ‘Those seats were supposed to be ours!’ Mr Smith had relaxed too, it seems – properly enjoying his pint of ale.

But it turned out there were plenty of other cosy nooks to nestle into, and with the pub’s soft blankets over our knees and a glass of wine in hand, contentment washed back over me. 

Our dinner was booked in the pub restaurant, which, by the time we’d finished our drinks, seemed very busy for a pub in a tiny village. It didn’t take us long to realise why. The Swan has a reputation for fantastic hearty British food, sourced from local suppliers, with seasonal menu and daily specials. It’s a hit with locals as well as attracting patrons from afar. 

We opted for the (perfectly cooked) sharing beef for two with obligatory hand cut chips, washed down with (yes, you guessed it) another few glasses of red. It goes without saying, my beach-ready-body is a thing of summer past. 

Rolling into bed, we were already looking forward to doing the whole thing again tomorrow – bath, eat, drink, repeat. Maybe this time we’d get our beach towels laid out on the fireside chairs at breakfast…

Next morning, the rain had cleared and it was one of those gloriously crisp, bright autumn days. After a stack of breakfast pancakes we decided to explore the local area and villages on foot. 

Trail shoes on, we set out on an overly-ambitious run. It’s understandable why the Cotswolds is such a sought-after area. With its chocolate-box houses, honeyed stone and picturesque villages, it’s an archetypal vision of the English countryside. 

Much to the annoyance of Mr Smith, the run was repeatedly stopped by me pointing and ogling at the different houses I could only dream of living in some day – ‘What about that one? Oh no wait, what about that one? Ooooh!’

Back at the Swan, as predicted, it was a repeat of bath, eat, drink – but this time those fireside seats were ours!

With full bellies and heavy hearts we left this friendly pub-cum-hotel. And with so many pubs making the transformation into lavish hotels, it was pleasing to see that this one is still at the heart of its village, and very much a destination for locals as well as welcoming visitors from further afield. It is authentically warm and welcoming, with a family atmosphere, and that’s why people keep coming back. We certainly will – get those fireside seats ready, we’ll see you next autumn.

Book now

Price per night from $136.78