It’s embarrassing to say the only occasion I have spent any time in our beautiful Lake District is passing through en route visiting candidates for TTG’s Top 50 travel agencies (shout out to Cumbria Travel and Travel The Globe), usually involving very long drives and only short stops in various towns.
But like many of us this year, my international travel wings were clipped, so I naturally found myself looking for escapes and inspiration closer to home, and I definitely found it with Gilpin, a beautiful little spot near Windermere, with its already innovative Spa Lodges, two terrific restaurants and now the cherry on top – three new Spa Suites.
If we’ve heard one thing over and again during these months of Covid chaos, it’s that luxury travellers will be seeking privacy, sanctuary in nature and ways to ramp up wellbeing; when the Cunliffe family – who have owned and run Gilpin for decades – were planning these standalone wellbeing cabins, little would they have known how apt an idea they would have had for these times.
Taking the chance to make up for that past neglect of the area, I booked in for two nights to really get settled – to stay any less in one of the new Spa Suites is to do them an injustice, as they really warrant more than a one-night stand.
Gilpin’s reputation precedes it, but these new “suites” take things to the next level, and I’d stick my neck out and say they are one of the most impressive new hospitality products I’ve seen in a while (even before I stopped going Anywhere this year).
The term suite is also a bit of a misnomer, as they are actually standalone Scandi-style boxy lodges rooted in soothing biophilic design, and seem to “float” over their own ponds. They are cleverly built just up from the rest of the hotel product to give further seclusion, and privacy is further enhanced by a two-metre curved wall made from traditional Lakeland stone around the outside decking area and garden.
Quality control
They scream quality all the way, from the Porsche electric car charging point for each lodge (you can just drive yourself up there after saying hello at reception meaning minimum contact/maximum privacy), to the huge plush orange Boma Sofa by Rodolfo Dordoni for Kettal that draws you in as soon as you open the door.
From the ceramics to the soft furnishings, you just want to own everything in here: picking it up, inspecting it, wondering if you could afford one – the old adage applies though, if you have to Google how much something is, you probably can’t afford it (probably just me).
There are carefully selected wines in a temperature-controlled 24-bottle wine fridge (wines are available to buy at retail prices, which is a nice touch), a 65-inch TV which pivots for viewing from lounge to the bathing area, Sonos music system throughout, heated floors, huge circular Lusso stone bath beneath a huge lightwell and giant “birdcage” bursting with foliage, while elsewhere, a free-hanging circular gas fire leaves you thinking “how the hell does that work?”.
And it goes on: covetable light fixtures aplenty, a double walk-in cedarwood Alexander and Sancto open shower with a distinctive fibreglass fern-design back wall and an actual tree inside the room too. At the western end of the suite, the bedroom “floats” over the pond with a perfect window seat framing a dreamy view looking towards the mountains, while south-facing patio doors lead to the decked garden, pond and hot tub.
Spa attraction
And then over to the other side of the lodge; welcome to the piece de resistance – the personal spa room, complete with tulipwood TyloHelo double sauna and matching steam room, both scented with specially selected aromas.
The rain was so bad over the two days of my stay, it was a perfect excuse to hide away inside the suite and make full use of every bit of its spa-like goodness – from slathering on the fresh salt scrub provided and sitting in that sizeable steamroom, to applying the natural hair and face masks provided for you and slobbing around in front of the huge TV.
When there was a brief break in the rain, it was bliss to nip across the decking outside and hop in the hot tub and watch the steam rise up and drift off over the “plunge pond”, which guests will also eventually be able to have a dip in (steps were due installation before lockdown 2:0 kicked in), if they prefer the idea of a bit of ‘wild swimming’.
Also in this spa room is an infrared overhead light option which means you can pop on the massage bed, stick on your goggles and stretch out under it for a spell: infrared is believed to help with detoxification, pain relief, muscle tension, circulation, boosting the immune system and a host of other wonders.
And then can we talk about the Weyron massage chair, incorporating the very latest Japanese technology: prepare yourself, this is like being gripped by an intense robot intent on getting its electronic fingers into every sinew. The mind boggles at how it does it.
The hotel had these installed a few months back when it was looking like it would be tricky to administer Covid-safe treatments, but now they can offer both, so the spa room has both the hi-tech chair and a treatment table for those who prefer the human touch.
And of course, all of this is surrounded by nature with an unhindered view of a little valley, woodland and stream unfolding before you; step outside onto the wooden terrace from the spa room and you may even spot of one of the hotel’s llamas in the distance.
Grabbing one of these Spa Suites is going to prove tricky as the country gets on the move again, as there are only three of them for now (another two are also in the planning) – not to forget though, other options are available at the hotel.
The Spa Suites are 25% bigger than their equally gorgeous precursor, the Spa Lodges – of which there are five – and all of the hotel’s 25 other options have lovely Lakeland views of their own, most leading directly onto gardens. Six open-plan Garden Suites have their own decked area too, with cedarwood hot tubs, while the Spa Lodges have en-suite spas with treatment beds, steam room, hydrotherapy hot tub and sauna outside.
