The most romantic hotels in the Cotswolds

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Dormy House is complete treat of a hotel located near the pretty village of Broadway with stylish and deeply relaxing décor, terrific food and impeccable service. Its state-of-the-art spa has won armloads of awards. The 38 bedrooms are individually devised according to shape and outlook. Some of the 18 in the main house feature exposed stone walls and beams. Of the 20 rooms in adjacent wings, Rose Cottage is best for romantics and has its own hot tub, while the Courtyard suites particularly emphasise Scandinavian design. Dine at the Back Garden restaurant showcasing local products or go for the chef's table experience at MO.

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Calcot & Spa blends soothing contemporary looks with the appeal of a classic country house hotel – think dreamy cream furnishings, soft sofas and crackling fires. The tranquillity is deftly maintained given that this is a supremely family-friendly hotel, and if you do have children you can bring them with you and still (remarkably) have a romantic stay. The Play Barn (kids club) offers four hours of childcare a day ‒ a generous amount of time to be able to slide into the grown-up spa or have a spot of uninterrupted lunch together. A big part of the peaceful equation is space; this is a former farmhouse with converted out-buildings, and there's a glorious rambling feel.

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From £ 364

per night

Step inside, past the topiary bunnies flanking the front door, and you’re in a wonderfully mellow space with a long bar, leather armchairs and open fires. Filled with light from long windows, it is a halcyon room; with a pewter-hung dresser, fireplace and tremendous display table adorned with prodigious hedgerow arrangements, it is evidently modelled on a vision of an ideal farmhouse kitchen. Named after woodland creatures, all of the rooms are rustic-chic, with beds clad in the softest Egyptian linen, twig coat-hooks behind doors and, in several rooms, four posters fashioned from birch trunks.

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This gracious, 17th-century manor house is tucked into the heart of handsome Barnsley village – which lies in particularly lovely, rolling landscape. Previously known as Barnsley House, but now The Pig in the Cotswolds, this is a dreamily romantic house with its golden stone, gables and mullion windows. It's a place you immediately relax into ‒ with casual-chic furnishings and cosy log fires. The Pigs’ co-founder and designer Judy Hutson brings a sense of the property's magnificent garden into the bar and restaurant, with striking flowery wallpaper in the former and abundant plants in the latter. The bedrooms are then soothingly furnished in earth and garden colours. Complete seclusion is provided in its three hideaways: the Rosemary Verey Suite, the Secret Garden Suite and the Potting Shed.

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Creaking with history, this gracious property dates from the 13th century. It’s a classic country house hotel with old stone fireplaces, mullion windows, flagstone floors and random furnishings accrued over time. Buckland village lies at the end of a narrow road, which stops there as if in acknowledgement that this is the apogee of serene beauty and there’s simply no point in going further. Set back from that road, Buckland Manor itself reposes under a dramatic edge of the Cotswold escarpment; its outlook is life-enhancing. One of the 15 rooms comes with a four-poster; others with tweed flourishes. Two of the smallest have particularly good views; the two master suites are enormous.

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From £ 310

per night

The Lamb lies at the edge of Burford, one of England’s most famously picturesque towns: there’s wooded countryside immediately west, and a gracious honey-stone street immediately east. The hotel exudes a mellow sense of history – this has been a country inn for more than 300 years. It’s a gloriously rambling place. At its heart are three weavers’ cottages dating from the early 15th century; over the years parts of the old brewery next door were added so the layout seems intriguingly random. Step through the front door and you’re in an old-time sitting room, with grandfather clock, old stone fireplaces and snoozy armchairs. The real cachet, though, is the fabulous garden that stretches back and back.

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From £ 47

per night

Thyme is a cluster of honey-stone properties in postcard-pretty Southrop. It’s a ‘village within a village’ says owner Caryn Hibbert, who has devised it as a dreamy, other-worldly haven. It is a profoundly peaceful place (very beautifully devised so that the spirit of the various buildings have been honoured) making it one of the most romantic hotels in the Cotswolds. The Baa, a central hub-cum-bar set in former lambing sheds, features sheep seats made with fleeces from flocks grazing Thyme’s own fields. The Ox Barn restaurant is a chic barn conversion in which clever lighting draws your eyes up to a host of venerable old beams. Facilities are first-class, from the Meadow Spa with eight treatment rooms to the heated springwater swimming pool, tennis court, topiary-filled garden and ample grounds beyond.

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From £ 400

per night

The Wood Norton is a wonderfully intriguing place. A hunting lodge turned French royal retreat, it served as a Second World War broadcasting and monitoring centre before becoming a country house hotel. Today contemporary furnishings add dashes of colour to the public rooms and the walls are hung with works by local artists. From ritzy to modern, the 50 bedrooms are very varied. The most splendid are in the main house; lavishly wood panelled on the first floor (except one bedroom); contemporary chic on the second.

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From £ 139

per night

Charingworth Manor is an ancient estate (it's mentioned in Domesday Book) with bags of historic interest. The main house of today is a Jacobean mansion with tall chimneys and mullion windows. The writer T S Eliot was a frequent visitor when it belonged to the Cresswell family and it was here, in the 1930s, that he wrote Burnt Norton. It became a hotel in the late 1980s and was subsequently expanded to include several outbuildings joined by corridors into a horseshoe shape. The principal public rooms are in the main building, which oozes country house appeal.

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From £ 270

per night