Devon, United Kingdom

Weeke Barton

Price per night from$173.60

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 (GBP137.50), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

East London goes west

Setting

Windswept moor’s edge

The traditional granite longhouse at Weeke Barton might be a 500-year-old rural home, but its interiors are pure modern city chic. The owners, a creative pair who hail from London’s hip Hackney, have packed plenty of East London style into their historic guesthouse… and it works. (Please note that unfortunately there's no availability for July or August)

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A bottle of Dartmoor ale or cider

Facilities

Photos Weeke Barton facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Six.

Check–Out

Noon. Earliest check-in, 4pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £165.00, including tax at 20 per cent.

More details

Rates include a breakfast full of local goodies with homemade granola and bread, milk, juice, eggs, bacon and sausages. Given notice, all dietary requirements can be provided for.

Also

If you’re planning a group weekend away, book the whole house (it sleeps up to 12 adults and four children).

At the hotel

Pétanque pitch, a firepit with sheepskins, car chargers (from 1 December), garden, library, bar, DVDs to borrow, WiFi. In rooms: flatscreen DVD player, St Kitts Herbery toiletries.

Our favourite rooms

Orla’s Room has plenty of space, lots of natural light and a great freestanding bath tub.

Packing tips

Bring your wellies or walking boots for hiking the glorious surrounding countryside.

Pet‐friendly

Dogs can stay on request for £15 a pet a night. All rooms are canine friendly with the exclusion of the Alfie room. See more pet-friendly hotels in Devon.

Children

Cots are £10 a night for under-threes; under-12s sleep in an extra bed (£35 a night), and public areas are easy to access with a pram or pushchair. There’s an early tea served for kids before adults-only dinner time (both must be booked before arrival).

Sustainability efforts

Ecologically sound paint, cleaning products, bath products and light bulbs are in use throughout the house, most ingredients are sourced locally and the wine is au naturel. Heating is provided by a biomass boiler.

Food and Drink

Photos Weeke Barton food and drink

Top Table

Each room will be designated their own table for the duration of their stay.

Dress Code

You can’t get much more laid-back than this rural guesthouse, so aim for comfy country cool.

Hotel restaurant

Decide if you'd like to fend for yourselves or have the hotel owners keep you fed and watered. If you opt for the former, all you need for a full English and more will be left in your fridge and you can ask for a home-cooked meal to be left in there too for your first night (for an extra charge). If you choose the latter, the chef (and co-owner) Jo Gossett will whip up breakfast for you in the morning, pack your lunches (£15 a guest with three days notice) and serve home-cooked British classics (£25 a guest) in the evening. Lunches might include sandwiches and snacks or salads, such as seasonal veg with couscous, and for dinner expect the likes of 12-hour-roasted Dartmoor lamb with salsa verde and salad, and dark-chocolate-and-cherry fondant cake.

Hotel bar

If you're staying on the 'catered' rate, you can pour yourself whatever you like from the fully stocked honesty bar in the Snug and tot up what you owe at check-out (if you want to bring additional wine, there's a small corkage fee of £10 a bottle). Try the local biodynamic wines or beer, cider and some spirits sourced in the southwest. Otherwise, the bar will be cleared out so there's plenty of space for you to bring your own booze. 

Last orders

Breakfast is served in the dining room from 9am–10am, or earlier on request. Dinner is at 7.30pm.

Location

Photos Weeke Barton location
Address
Weeke Barton
Weeke Barton, Nr Dunsford
Bridford
EX6 7HH
United Kingdom

Devon, in England’s southwestern corner, has all the sandy beaches and rugged moorland you need for a traditional British country holiday. It’s home to Dartmoor National Park, on the edge of which you’ll find Weeke Barton.

Planes

The closest airport is Exeter (www.exeter-airport.co.uk), a 25-minute drive from the hotel. You’ll be able to fly here from many UK cities, including Manchester, Newcastle and Edinburgh.

Trains

Great Western trains from London, Bristol, Bath and Birmingham pull into Exeter St David’s station, 20 minutes from the hotel by car (www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/exd/details.html).

Automobiles

If you’re planning some scenic country drives or heading down to the beaches, bring your car; there’s free parking on-site. Exeter’s about four hours from London via the A303.

Worth getting out of bed for

Devon is a wonderland if you like getting outdoors: from sandcastle building to horse riding, you can do it here. Borrow a map from the hotel if you’re heading out for a roam around.

Rent a bike from Forest Cycle Hire and explore Devon on two wheels: take a guided riding tour or use one of the purpose-built cycle tracks, suitable for everyone from novices to advanced riders. Or, hit the water and go fly fishing on the five well-stocked lakes, fed by the River Tavy, at the Tavistock Trout Fishery. The record catch is 16lb 4oz… Alternatively, tee off on the 18-hole Teign Valley Golf Course, open year-round.

Local restaurants

The Horse, a family-friendly pub, restaurant and pizzeria on George Street in Moretonhampstead is a relaxed spot for dinner or lunch. The garden at The Manor Inn in Lower Ashton makes this laid-back restaurant a great sunny-day place to eat lunch or dinner. 

Local bars

The Nobody Inn in Doddiscombsleigh – a 10-minute drive from the hotel – serves fine Devonshire fare in 17th-century surroundings. Get comfy among the blackened beams, antique knick-knacks and inglenook fire, and tuck into their steak and local ale pie (just one of the menu's meaty marvels) followed by a Pimm's o' clock jelly or something slathered in clotted cream. Book a taxi there and back – it's hard to resist lining up a few of the 240 malts on the bar's impressive whisky list.

Reviews

Photos Weeke Barton reviews
Molly Gunn

Anonymous review

By Molly Gunn, Full-time vacationer

Spain? No. France? Mais non. Italy? Non tanto… I can’t put my finger on where this feels like. But, I’m quite sure it doesn’t feel like Devon. I’ve been to Devon before, and usually it’s far more bucket-and-Breton-stripes. Which, while superb, is a world away from this.

Outside, the mist is rolling in over the mother-of-all hills (even here in the South West of England it is ridonculously big), covered from brow to foot in a forest-full of trees, forming the most spectacular view and feeling so very alpine. In fact, it’s so alpine that snow wouldn’t surprise me, and neither would a steaming hot chocolate laced with whisky (admittedly in August, snow would be a stretch, but the hot chocolate I’d take willingly).

I’ve obviously got nothing better to do that ruminate on where exactly in the world it feels like I am, because this is what I’ve spent the last 10 minutes doing. You could say this is testament to the magic bestowed on me by Weeke Barton.

Mr Smith and I are only here for two days, but thanks to its transporting qualities, it feels like I’ve travelled further, and for longer. It’s as though we trekked for days to arrive. Not like we hopped off the A38 and wound round remote country lanes for a few minutes (roads so remote, may I add, that our phone’s ‘no service’ had us thinking that if we broke down we’d walk for miles before seeing a sign of life, which prompted us to relay hitchhiking ghost stories en route giving ourselves a case of severe heebie-jeebies. Just saying).

Where am I? Oh yes. I’ve found ‘my spot’ – a cosy grey armchair perfectly positioned to gaze at the Dartmoor hill, by the window in the living room. The splendidly solid, unevenly walled, wooden-floored farmhouse that is Weeke Barton, reminds me of a gîte my parents might have rented in the South of France in my girlhood, but with a whole lot more style. No naff lino floors or lilac walls here; this place has lashings of interior-design idiosyncrasies, with furnishings that look plucked from an East London apartment by a cool couple and planted in an atmospherically creaky 500-year-old house.

Of course, that is what’s happened, in essence, as owners Sam and Jo are DFLs (Down From Londoners), hailing from Hackney seven years ago. And, their DFLness oozes from the pores of Weeke Barton. It’s found in the hip decor, the just-right soundtrack, the tastemaker art hanging on the walls, and their mi-casa-es-tu-casa approach to hosting.

Don’t expect an over-exuberant Devonshire welcome, Sam and Jo are more laid-back, which means that, yes, sometimes you can’t find them if you need assistance, and yes, you may feel like you’re staying at a friend-of-a-friend’s house. But, once you get them chatting, they’re really friendly, and you can tell that Weeke Barton is a true labour of love. Which, fact fans, the previous owner, a farmer and a gambler, won in a game of cards, and which on buying, Sam and Jo (and Sam’s dad Barry) spent a year renovating before opening to guests.

And, oh what a house! Our room – Orla, she’s called – is up a wooden spiral staircase and has oodles of space, the high points being handsome beams, industrial metal lights, a bathtub and a massive bed – the kind you can really stretch out in and not bother each other. The bath is raised on a platform beneath the window, so when I’m not in ‘my spot’ downstairs, I’m bathing amid steam and suds, while I view-gaze with a glass of prosecco, or a G&T, procured from the snug honesty bar downstairs. This is also where we’ve plundered the DVD collection, and admired a fetching stag-head wall light.

Food is another plus point at Weeke Barton. Breakfast is usually served 9am to 10am, but Sam and Jo happily cater for early risers like us, and laid on an 8am feast at the slate-topped dining table (which was made bespoke locally, and which I wanted to take home with me). This was a full English fit for kings, with local organic produce and perfect portions. The veggie (me) was as happy as the meat eater (him), and the coffee was just right.

While breakfast is included, evening meals have to be booked in advance (my tip is to request dinner when booking, so you don’t forget). Try not to make the mistake we did of thinking dinner happens naturally, and so avoid an unexpected trip to a pub on your first night. On our second evening, experiencing dinner at Weeke Barton proved a highlight of our stay. Jo expertly crafted a mushroom-and-tarragon pie for me, and a pork-and-chorizo pie for Mr Smith from ‘what she had in the kitchen’ followed by homemade melt-in-the-mouth-obscenely good lemon curd ice-cream. While Mr Smith and I dined, we pondered life, sipped prosecco and listened to Bob Marley, while rain pattered on the windows outside. It felt blissfully comforting with the bonus of only have to roll upstairs afterwards.

Oh, and if you’re wondering what we did, other than lazing, gazing and eating… Well, we wandered in the beautiful, wild, gardens and played with the irrepressibly friendly spaniel, Coco; possibly the world’s best ball-retrieving dog, ever. And, we also ventured further afield: to lunch at Riverford Organic; crabbing at Stoke Gabriel; a quayside wander in Exeter; and a roam up on deepest Dartmoor. It is all a world away from the Devon bucket-and-Breton-stripes brigade, and what a wonderful thing that was! Now, don't ask how on earth we find our way home again...


 

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Price per night from $173.60