Devon Life
Downe for a Pampering
In need of bodily rescue, relaxation and revival, Linda Mitchelmore heads to Downe Health Spa in Hartland for a day of pampering
The setting is stunning, overlooking the Atlantic in all its majesty, with Lundy Island in the near distance. The approach is along narrow lanes that twist and turn. Getting out of the car, all you can hear is the roar of the wind and the shush of the sea. I’m met by Jeremy Roe who, with his wife, Lynda, has been at Downe for nine years now. As a one-time group director of quality for a public company, excellence was always top of his list, and he aimed to bring that ethic to Downe. “The spa is very small and intimate,” Lynda says, as she leads us into the spa with Jacuzzi, steam room and sauna. “Ten is our maximum number for Pamper Days. That way we feel we can give the very best to all our guests and there is no waiting around to use any of the equipment.”
To start, I come over all Jane Fonda and head for the gym. Five minutes on each of three machines (rowing, cycling, treadmill) and I’m ready for a shower because it’s time to present myself to my therapist for the day, for my four-layer facial.
The therapy room is all subdued lighting, delicately perfumed and soft music. My face is cleansed and massaged with a honey, yoghurt and almond product that smells almost good enough to eat. A steam machine is placed over the bed and the cleanser gets help to do its work, dragging out impurities. A little more massage, some hydrating cream and then comes a gel mask, which is very cooling and soothing after the moist warmth of the steaming process. This is followed by a clay pack.
“This will get very warm,°my therapist warns. And indeed it does, but no more than, say, lying face up to the sun on a day in early summer. It takes about 15 minutes and in the meantime I’m offered a foot or hand massage, so I go for the feet.
As the mask begins to cool down it’s removed, and the gel, which has now set like rubbery jelly, is also peeled back. Dare I look in the mirror? Will I have shed 20 years’ worth of ageing skin? Yes! I can see a difference – my skin looks fresher and more radiant.
A light lunch is offered on Pamper Days (I had tomato, mozzarella and avocado salad) because, Lynda says, it’s not a good idea to be going for treatments with an overfull stomach. “But on our Celebration Day packages when we can take between 14 and 20 guests, when people have fewer treatments and more lounging around chatting time, or sitting-in-the-Jacuzzi chilling-out time, we offer more substantial lunches.”
I hadn’t expected a facial to be so relaxing even though there was a little neck and shoulder massage in there somewhere, but I almost have to drag myself from the table to a couch where tea is served, because I’m so relaxed. I’m also given a seaweed and magnesium drink. “Most of us are low in magnesium,” Jillie says. “So this is to treat you on the inside before your honey body polish.”
Think turkey and tinfoil for this next part… A treatment bed is covered first with an electric blanket, then a white cotton sheet, then a layer of what looks like quilted tinfoil (or one of those blankets you get given if you’re brave enough to finish a marathon). I’ve been given a paper bikini to wear and I lie face down on the bed very quickly because the last time I wore a bikini I had the figure for it, which is no more.
I have had just the two treatments but there is the whole range of spa treatments to choose from, all done by qualified therapists who believe in the ideals set by the owners of Downe.
Well, this 50-something guest has had a wonderful day. Time for my cream tea now. Cream tea did I hear you say? Didn’t I mention that? Scones baked just an hour or so earlier, home-made jam and local cream. Mmmm… well, this is Devon after all.