Who doesn’t love a pub stay? Across Britain, boozers have gone boutique, pairing pints of real ale with seriously stylish bedrooms. The food’s stepped up too, sometimes all the way to Michelin-starred heights (take a bow, the Star Inn at Harome). Other pubs go for personality: a microbrewery and farm shop at Wiltshire’s the Three Daggers, or a world-class art collection at the Fife Arms in Aberdeenshire.
Some enterprising spots have gone one step further, adding spa treatments to the mix. Perhaps an exfoliating scrub in a shepherd’s hut or a hot-stone rubdown before your roast. Another pint? Only after the pedicure.
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1. The Hand at Llanarmon, Ceiriog Valley, Denbighshire
The Hand at Llanarmon has an outdoor hot tub
Soak up the scenery from the outdoor hot tub at this locals’ pub in the scenic Ceiriog Valley by the Berwyn Mountains. Then hit the sauna in a converted pump room before heading to the treatment room for anything from a Swedish massage to shiatsu; facials and reflexology are also on offer. The former farmstead at the crossroads of two drovers’ roads has bags of atmosphere amid its wooden beams, oak settles and roaring fires. Most of the 13 bedrooms are in converted stables and barns. Fishing, riding and shooting are on offer, and there’s hiking in the hills.
Details B&B doubles from £155; 60-minute massages from £60
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2. The Double Red Duke, Clanfield, Oxfordshire
The bedrooms at the Double Red Duke have the feel of a boutique hotel
Pubs don’t get much more perfect than the Duke, with bedrooms that put many boutique hotels to shame, a much-acclaimed restaurant specialising in open-fire cooking, and a shepherd’s hut treatment room. The co-owner Georgie Pearman designed the swish interiors, with fabric headboards, patterned wallpapers and oodles of antiques. After a hike along the nearby Thames Path, lie back while a therapist slathers you with 100 Acres aromatherapy products. That will leave you nicely chilled for a pre-dinner cocktail in one of a series of snugs in the traditional flagstone inn.
Details B&B doubles from £200; 60-minute massages from £70
3. The Great Bustard, Great Durnford, Wiltshire
The Great Bustard’s restaurant specialises in local, seasonal produce
Whether you opt for a holistic organic facial with hot stones and honey mask or a revival and solstice ritual with full-body exfoliation, massage and hydration, every treatment at this pub near the River Avon starts with a sea-salt footbath and ends with a herbal infusion from the garden. Therapists use the locally made Durnford Collection of natural skincare. Like the Great Bustard’s ten smart, pared-back rooms, the Osprey treatment room is named after a bird. The restaurant specialises in local, seasonal produce, which you can also pick up at the farm shop.
Details B&B doubles from £200; 60-minute massages from £75
4. The Inn at Whitewell, Clitheroe, Lancashire
The Inn at Whitewell on the banks of the River Hodder
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A day exploring the Forest of Bowland on foot or on a borrowed ebike will set you up nicely for one of Kay’s massages at this old coaching inn on the banks of the River Hodder. You can book everything from Thai yoga massage to Japanese face massage; there are also special treatments for pregnant women and teens. At dinner, the fish pie is the standout dish at this inn with its flagstone floors, open fires and bedrooms with thick curtains, deep sofas and perhaps a four poster. Before going home, pick up a bottle from the wine shop.
Details B&B doubles from £160; 60-minute massages from £55 (sawdays.co.uk/theinnatwhitewell)
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5. Cary Arms & Spa, Babbacombe, Devon
Cary Arms & Spa faces the ocean
With its cosy, beamed pub at the heart of a hotel overlooking pretty Babbacombe Bay, the Cary Arms is also home to a glass-fronted, ocean-facing spa, with hydrotherapy pool, sauna and steam cabins. Treatments range from scrubs to scalp massages, including CBD facials and therapies for menopause relief. Seaside-chic rooms, designed by the owner Lana de Savary, include sea-facing inn rooms, snazzy blue-and-white beach huts and cottages in the grounds. Feast on fresh lobster, scallops or Devonshire beef after a bracing walk along the South West Coast Path.
Details B&B doubles from £190; 60-minute massages from £110
6. The Pigs, near Holt, Norfolk
The restaurant’s house specialty is a Marmite and white chocolate pot
CHRIS TAYLOR
It’s all about private pampering at this Norfolk pub, where even entry-level rooms have a sauna, bathtub for two and firepit in their own courtyard, while top suites up the ante with a steam room and outdoor hot tub. Trot along to the Pig Spa for more spoiling, including a “whole hog” massage, scrubs that leave you glowing and champagne and truffle facials good enough to eat. Then indulge in a real pig out in the restaurant, where the house speciality is a Marmite and white chocolate pot.
Details B&B doubles from £266; 60-minute massages from £100
7. The Fife Arms, Braemar, Aberdeenshire
The sauna at the Fife Arms features original artwork
There’s even original artwork in the spa and sauna at this former Victorian coaching inn, now owned by gallerists Manuela and Iwan Wirth. It’s the kind of place where no one bats an eyelid to find a Picasso over the sofa in the drawing room or a Brueghel in the dining room. The Indian artist Bharti Kher’s triptych of installations entitled Cipher is in the spa, which has a range of top-to-toe therapies. The opulent bedrooms are characterised by period wallpaper and rich fabrics and, this being Scotland, one of the three bars features more than 500 whiskies.
Details B&B doubles from £605; 55-minute massages from £120 (thefifearms.com)
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Have you had a spa treatment at a pub? Join the conversation in the comments