Stone Lodge at Combermere Abbey

This elegant two-bedroom holiday cottage is in the Gothic gatehouse at the entrance of the vast Combermere Abbey Estate on the Cheshire-Shropshire border. Stay here and you have access to the private parkland, woodland and lake that surrounds “the big house”, a former Cistercian monastery dating back 900 years. There are, in fact, nine other holiday cottages on site as well as two grand B&B rooms in The North Wing of the house, but Stone Lodge is the most private of them all situated, as it is, at the top of the mile-long drive.

Stone Lodge’s two bedrooms mean it is perfectly sized to suit a family of four, but its secluded location also makes it ideal for a romantic retreat. You can hide away and cosy up by the log burner in the panelled sitting room or, when the weather’s warmer, sit outside on the large private terrace, surrounded by damson trees. The high-pitched Gothic roof and arcaded windows give the place a grand fairy-tale appearance from outside but, inside, its elegance is rather homely. In addition to the sitting room, there’s a dining room but the small well-equipped kitchen has space to eat in too. The master bedroom with its en-suite walk-in shower can also be found on the ground floor with a twin and bathroom upstairs.

After your arrival, you could happily holiday here without leaving the estate. A wander up the drive takes you to see Combermere Abbey itself. It’s long been a family home but once a week in summer, there are tours which can take you inside (check directly for details). If your stay doesn’t coincide with one of these, that’s no great hardship. You’ll still have access to a great swathe of the estate’s thousand acres of woodland, water and parkland and can swoon at how the architecture fits into the scene.

If you don’t fancy cooking, you don’t have to go far either. The Combermere Arms, a 16th-century inn that serves food, is less than a mile down the road. Beyond that, there’s Whitchurch six miles away and the border with Wales a few miles further. Other great places to eat nearby include Docket No.33, The Swan at Marbury and Wild Shropshire. Langollen, Chester, Nantwich and Shrewsbury are all perfectly feasible places to visit from here, each pulling you in a different direction, though you may just want to stay put.