House & Garden
Downe House Spa, Devon, England
Downe House is how all spas would be run if Ma Larkin was in charge. You park in a barn (in summer months expect to get swooped and pooped on by swallows), walk past holiday cottages, admire the sea views and enter through a conservatory. The relaxation area is a few sofas and coffee tables liberally stocked with boiled sweets and magazines, and you check in with a super-friendly therapist. So far, so chintzy. Don’t come here expecting the usual Asian or clinical white-walled spa aesthetic, but expect to return home feeling as though you’ve experienced a bear hug.
My therapist chatted me through the Holistic Relaxation Therapy that she’d helped devise. Involving a sequence of steam inhalation, hot towels, massage and Thai stretching techniques; you don’t know whether you’re asleep, awake or floating along the North Devon coastline just outside. A past guest cried as she admitted she’d never felt so nurtured. In the afternoon, out come the floral patterned china tea sets, and you’re served warm homemade scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam infused with lavender from a local farm. If only Ma Larkin was in charge of the rest of the world too.
Downe House Spa, Hartland, Devon EX39 6DA. Pamper Days from £60, including lunch and clotted cream tea, plus treatments. Call 01237-441881 or visit www. devonspa.com