The Inn at Whitewell

Little, if any, of the wild beauty of the Forest of Bowland can have changed since the 1300s, when this stone inn was built as a small manor house. It stands high on the banks of the River Hodder, where the owner Charles Bowman says he trusts it will remain (an example of his self-confessed "often misplaced sense of humour"). The somewhat eccentric interior is packed with random furnishings, antiques and pictures, a Bowman family passion. The kitchen produces consistently delicious food for the bar at lunch and supper, typically grilled Norfolk kipper, and cheese and onion pie, and also for the dining room in the evening, when you might choose smoked Goosnargh chicken salad; roast rack of lamb with cumin, tomatoes, garlic and Anna potatoes; and home-made ice cream. The whole complex embraces 23 individually decorated bedrooms, a wine merchant, an art gallery and a shop selling home-made goodies.