Even though the Lake District is waiting to be explored, I’m having trouble motivating myself to leave Gilpin Lake House.
And considering how incredibly beautiful this Unesco World Heritage Site is, that makes the property – set on 100 acres four miles east of the shoreline of Lake Windermere and part of the prestigious Relais & Châteaux portfolio – very special indeed.
The landscape of this place is a fairy tale fantasy world similar to, well, you can choose from a host of fables: Middle Earth, The Wind in the Willows, Narnia. Possibly Avatar. Yoda’s refuge planet Dagobah, for example. Dramatic crags, lost trails, magical moss-covered forests and dreamy villages abound.
I’ve cycled all the way from London to take a spin around this veritable Eden, but here I am enjoying a refined breakfast of perfectly presented eggs Florentine, porridge with the creamiest of creams and a café with smooth, hot coffee, looking out over the estate’s idyllic private lake, Knipe Tarn, and feeling overwhelmed by inertia.
My room in this converted country house hotel (one of just six, and named Harriet after one of the founder’s aunts) is a dream.
Ted Thornhill checks into Gilpin Lake House, part of the prestigious Relais & Châteaux portfolio
The property is located on 100 acres four miles east of the shoreline of Lake Windermere.
Serenely luxurious, it is bathed in calming hues (whites, creams, light browns), calming floral patterns and features a huge ensuite bathroom with dual sinks, rain shower and freestanding bathtub, plus a Rolls-Royce-style king-size bed.
Two armchairs are carefully placed in front of a pair of huge windows to look out over the lake.
Meanwhile, beneath the main building is a tempting indoor pool.
The staff are next level – charming, helpful and driven by purpose.
I look forward to being here all day.
There is a sister site to Gilpin Lake House about a mile away on a separate property that I discovered, after moving there for the second night of my stay up north, that has similar magnetic properties.
Ted’s room (above) in the ‘hotel-turned-country house’, one of six, is named Harriet after one of the founder’s aunts.
Ted writes: “(The room) is covered in calming tones (whites, creams, light browns), soothing floral prints, and features a huge bathroom with double sinks.”
Gilpin Lake House overlooks an “idyllic” private lake, Knipe Tarn (above)
Called the Gilpin Hotel, it is set amid 21 acres of gardens and woodland, and its main attraction is the Michelin-starred Source restaurant.
It is run by Fat Duck alumnus Ollie Bridgwater, who was sous chef at the three-Michelin-starred restaurant for five years.
I can report, after trying the six-course tasting menu, that their culinary expertise is evident in every dish.
Their bread, flavored with wild garlic and glazed with fermented honey, is good enough to be a main course, and their rooster with Isle of Wight tomato and Herdwick lamb with wild garlic puree, asparagus and lush lamb jus, Perfectly cooked and elegantly served.
Below Gilpin Lake House lies this inviting indoor pool.
Above is the boathouse, overlooking Knipe Tarn. The lake has two rowing boats and is home to a collection of wild ducks.
In the Lake House restaurant upstairs, Ted enjoys a refined breakfast of ‘perfectly presented Florentine eggs, porridge with the creamiest of creams and a smooth, hot coffee.’
Relaxing: Lake House’s Luxurious Living Room
Ted finds it difficult to leave the serene surroundings of the Lake House.
The chocolate manjari dessert, Source’s take on Black Forest gateau that features a precisely crafted spheroid of chocolate mousse, is arguably the overall winner of the feast, especially if, like me, you have a sweet tooth.
The service is not the most refined (sometimes cutlery falls on the table at random), but it is enthusiastic, and the wine pairing rounds out the experience nicely, with a Gusbourne English sparkling rose as the first entry in the drinks book alcoholic beverages and the offering that includes a velvety Carmenere red wine from Chilean producer Viña Casa Silva that, by the time this review is published, I will almost certainly have purchased for personal domestic consumption.
Gilpin also has a more casual restaurant: Gilpin Spice, which has two AA rosettes. Here, the cheerful staff offer top-notch pan-Asian food, including the best egg fried rice I’ve ever had (the waitress adds a fresh egg at the table) and spectacular pork belly.
If you make a reservation, ask to sit at the chef’s table, on the double sofas at the counter.
My bedroom here? A stunning cedar-clad ‘spa lodge’ that’s like an oversized Scandinavian cabin on the outside and a mini hotel on the inside.
Above is Source, the Gilpin Hotel’s Michelin-starred restaurant. Ted enjoys a six-course tasting menu.
Ted describes the bread in Source, above, as “good enough to be a main course.”
There’s a huge bedroom/living room with a white modernist sofa and armchair, huge floor-to-ceiling windows offering a view of a lushly landscaped pond, that Rolls-Royce bed is back, and there’s the ultimate ensuite bathroom, with a separate toilet, a sun lounger, a tub big enough for Windermere’s Bownessie beast, and a walk-in rainfall shower that doubles as a steam room.
Meanwhile, outside there is a separate sauna and a huge hot tub.
Eventually I make it out of the vicinity of the Gilpin Hotel, with that first breakfast fuel for a frenetic, potentially ill-advised road bike race up and down silly slopes to the north, including Kirkstone Pass and a dizzying road aptly named The Struggle (The struggle).
They take my breath away, and so does the scenery, leaving me with little to offer.
Ted’s Chambers: a “stunning cedar-clad ‘spa lodge’ that’s like an oversized Scandinavian cabin on the outside and a mini hotel on the inside”
The spa bedroom, which features “massive floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking a lushly landscaped pond.”
The Gilpin Hotel, above, is set amidst 21 acres of gardens and woodland.
Pictured above is one of the Gilpin Hotel’s most prized rooms – a ‘Spa Suite’, billed as ‘the ultimate spa sanctuary’.
My figure-eight route overlaps west of Ambleside at Blea Tarn with an extreme cycling challenge underway: the Fred Whitton – and some of the officials ring their cowbells as I speed past, unaware that I am an intruder.
His encouragement is not in vain, however, as he encourages me to make my way back to Gilpin.
On the second day, feeling exhausted, I head south, cycling through charming villages including Brigsteer and Crosthwaite, which are set in less rugged but no less fascinating landscapes.
I see more pheasants and lambs than cars.
Ted heads out for a bike ride, which includes a descent down a pass called The Struggle (above)
Back at the Gilpin Hotel, I have time for a slightly epic club sandwich in the hotel’s sumptuous lounge before cycling (in the pouring rain) to Oxenholme station to catch an Avanti to London Euston.
As the train speeds south, I find myself googling room prices in Gilpin for my upcoming annual holiday.
There is no doubt that inertia will prevent a return trip north for another stay in a hotel that makes the English hospitality industry proud.