The Old White Hart

Deep in the Rutland countryside, Lyddington is a handsome hamlet, its charming limestone cottages fanning out from The Old White Hart, an ancient yet stylishly modernised country inn with 20 en-suite rooms, each decorated in contemporary style with shades of cream and fawn to the fore. Divided between the original limestone building and a neighbouring annexe, they vary from the cheapest annexe rooms to the most expensive ‘King’ rooms, but the main difference is size and location; all come with tea- and coffee-making facilities and biscuits. Downstairs there’s a country-chic bar and restaurant, with stone-flagged floors serving the likes of duck and ginger spring rolls with hoisin sauce or chicken and broad bean risotto, and a famous Sunday Lunch, with generous portions of roast rib of beef with all the trimmings. If the sun is out, you will want to be outside in the garden, or you can wander along the village’s main street to Bede House, the medieval wing of a palace that was once a retreat for the bishops of Lincoln and now in the possession of English Heritage.