Review: Swinton Park Hotel, Yorkshire Dales (Beyond Green)

This is our review of the Swinton Park Hotel in Yorkshire, part of the ‘Beyond Green’ marketing group.

Ever since I saw Swinton Park on BBC’s Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby (UK readers can watch it on iPlayer here) I had been keen to visit this country hotel and its huge 20,000 acre estate.

We’ve got to know the Beyond Green and Preferred Hotels teams in London quite well – both brands share the iPrefer loyalty scheme and have the same parent – but we’ve never got around to doing a property review for either of them.

Swinton Park, a member of Beyond Green, seemed like a good opportunity. ‘Beyond Green’, website here, is a group of hotels with a very strong focus on sustainability. Swinton Park is the only UK member.

I had a complimentary 2-night stay, including activities, but HfP paid for its own transportation.

Getting to Swinton Park Hotel

Swinton Park Hotel has been the stately home of the Cunliffe-Lister family since 1880. After an extended period as a boarding school the family re-opened the house as a country house hotel in 2001. It has just 42 rooms spread across the main house and the adjoining coach house which is on the right in the above picture.

What is unique about this place is the vast 20,000 acre estate which surrounds the hotel with parkland, woodlands, working farms, a river and moorland. The picturesque market town of Masham is also nearby. It is an ideal base for walking, wild swimming, fishing and falconry as well as indoor activities such as a cookery school and the extensive spa.

I took the two hour train ride from London Kings Cross to Thirsk. Most services are on Grand Central although there is the occasional LNER train.

The station in Thirsk is roughly one mile outside the town centre. There is no taxi stand but I called one of the numbers on the information board and 10 minutes later a taxi picked me up. The ride to Swinton Park is just over 30 minutes and cost me £40.

A view of the main house opens up as you pass through the gates and up the grand drive to the entrance. The house is overgrown with vines which turn deep red in autumn, although I had just missed this spectacular Indian Summer display in Yorkshire.

You enter the hotel through the lovely foyer. The reception is in the entrance hall behind this room.

After my short check in I was asked to wait in the Morning Room where I was offered a drink by the fire and allowed to settle into the very relaxed vibe of Swinton Park.

It is a charming and warm room although some of the sofas could do with re-stuffing! It is a well used room with guests either arriving or waiting to be picked up for activities.

Swinton is a very traditional country hotel, and you get the impression that it looks little different to 100 years ago despite the long interval as a school. You definitely feel that you are in a private house rather than a hotel, although in places this extends to domestic-style wear and tear on the furnishings.

The Morning Room is the most modest of all public rooms. Next door is a hall in the oldest part of the castle:

A number of complimentary activities are offered every day – a Gardeners Walk, Sustainability Estate Tour and Laser Clay to name but a few.

I took a history tour of the house which I would recommend. The rooms, hallways and corridors are full of historic documents, photos, paintings and furniture which make for the most interesting travel through time.

My favorite public room was this magnificent semi-circular Drawing Room where afternoon tea is also served:

For bad weather or in the evenings there is a large Games Room to keep you entertained:

My room at Swinton Park

I was given a Dukes Room, the highest standard room category before you get to the junior suites and full suites.

As you can see below the room is very large, sitting on the second floor with stunning views to the back over the park and the birds of prey enclosure. Despite its size it was snug and warm in cold November, and very comfortable with a great bed.

The furniture here is partly antique with my TV sitting on a chest dating from 1697.

On the side (not in the picture) is a coffee machine, tea facilities, biscuits and a large bottle of Swinton water. As a nice touch, as there is no minibar, there are two free mini bottles of Swinton sloe whisky and sloe gin.

My bathroom was also very large with one sink, a bathtub, two bathrobes with slippers and a separate shower. Tucked in a corner, right by the door, was a wardrobe.

To my surprise I found the wardrobe contained two traditional country quilt jackets from Rydale. These were extremely useful and I wore mine for the two days I strolled the grounds in Swinton. You don’t need to feel you won’t look the part!

Toiletries are by Swinton’s own brand Borealis. The bespoke formulation is apparently inspired by the northern landscape and is paraben and sulphate free, as you’d expect from a ‘Beyond Green’ property.

A Knight Room

I had the opportunity to see several other room categories. Here are two pictures of a Knight Room, the lowest room category. ‘Ilton’ is based in the Coach House and I thought it was a lovely room, traditional yet more modern than the rooms in the main house. This is a fully DDA compliant room.

The bathroom is spacious with a shower and bath and lovely vibrant wallpaper.

Food and drink

Breakfast and dinner are served in the elegant Dining Room which is a real show stopper. In the mornings the room was flooded with sunlight.

In the evenings the room turns into Samuel’s Restaurant – the fine dining space:

Adjacent to the dining room is the bar. In summer the bar’s sash windows open to a large terrace. Even in winter it is pleasant to get a much needed vitamin D injection here.

Breakfast

Breakfast is a la carte only. Service was very smooth although I was there in a ‘not so busy’ week in November. The menu is large with both continental and cooked dishes.

You can choose from items such as Swinton Gin Cured Trout, Full Yorkshire (also as a vegetarian option), crushed avocado, smoked haddock kedgeree, you name it. I had Samuel’s Signature Pancakes with the best smoked streaky bacon I have eaten for a long time.

If not included in your rate, continental breakfast is £22.50 or £35 with a cooked item, including hot drinks and juices.

Samuel’s Restaurant

With the lights dimmed and the windows pitch black (it was November!) the dining room transforms into the most atmospheric space. I think it must have been a ballroom in its previous life.

For my starter I had Glazed Crotine Goats Cheese with Jerusalem Artichoke, pear, walnut dressing at £13.

For my main I had Roasted Stone Bass in buttered chard, clam chowder and sea herbs at £32. It was delicious.

For dessert I went for Camomile Flower Brulee with vanilla Viennese whirls. Please note the golden Swinton stamp in the middle as an individual touch.

The Terrace Restaurant and Bar

If you are not in the mood for fine dining – although you’d be missing out – The Terrace Restaurant is located in a separate building. You first enter the bar with its cosy seating and fireplace:

From the bar you go into the light and modern restaurant. It is relaxed and informal and a very good contrast to Samuel’s. I had a lunch here, a Caesar salad with buttermilk fried pheasant at £16.50. The pheasant was so good that I don’t want to go back to chicken anymore!

Staff were very attentive here. In the evening I was sitting on my own and the front of house brought me a coffee table book to bridge the time until my food arrived.

In the evening the menu consists of small plates and classics like burgers. I chose two small plates and a dessert.

One of the small plates was Estate Venison Faggots, parsnip and sour dough bread sauce, brussel sprouts and chestnuts, cabbage and apple slaw and puffed grains at £16.50.

These are the terraced gardens the restaurant derives its name from:

The Country Club & Spa at Swinton Park

The country club & spa is a modern purpose-built building. It also houses the well-equipped gym and a large shop selling goods made on or for the estate, as well as jewellery, wool blankets and other bits and pieces.

The indoor pool is large and at 29°C temperature very comfortable:

More intriguing for me was the bio-filtered outdoor pool. Sun loungers along the side sit under large heating lamps and are equipped with thick blankets. The water temperature was 14°C which I thought was just about doable for me and although freezing I relished to even have this opportunity in a hotel. It was an exhilarating experience.

After this I was ready for a relaxing 60 minutes full body massage. Recommended!

The Estate

I was given a full estate tour by car. Although it lasted nearly two hours I still felt I only caught a glimpse.

There is a lot to discover and explore in this huge estate and I was fascinated to learn about the extensive sustainability efforts in place – from a biomass boiler providing hot water to the entire hotel via an eco-laundry, to re-forestation and peat preservation. It is this approach that encouraged them to join the ‘Beyond Green’ marketing consortium.

The entire estate can be walked/trekked and/or biked with trail maps and E-bikes available. The town of Masham is roughly two miles away and is a good walking destination for lunch or coffee.

Other accommodation options on Swinton Estate

Whilst I am looking at the hotel in this review, I should mention that there are other ways to stay on the estate. There are cottages for rent and there is also the impressive ‘Swinton Bivouac’.

Swinton Bivouac is a small settlement of tree houses, meadow yurts and cabin yurts on the edge of the moor. The concept is 100% sustainability and the site commands wonderful views.

The hotel staff can drop a bag with breakfast ingredients if the guests wish. There is the Bivouac Café onsite, serving from breakfast to dinnner, so you don’t need to self-cater!

This is the lake where you can go wild water swimming. It has a little bridge with a ladder into the water to spare you walking through the silt. For me this is magical!

Conclusion

Very often when we visit a country house hotel it can feel like a blingy bit of London dropped into the middle of a field. Nearby Grantley Hall (reviewed here) or Gleneagles in Scotland (reviewed here) could be viewed like that. Both are fantastic properties that I would happily revisit, but you don’t necessarily feel a long way from home if your home is London.

In contrast Swinton Park Hotel feels like the real deal. It couldn’t be more authentic and genuine and despite all its interior grandeur it is very down-to-earth. One member of the Cunliffe-Lister family was serving me lunch!

The hotel is full of character and heritage with a strong sense of place. The rooms and public areas are very comfortable and homely, and the bits of wear and tear you come across simply add to the ‘private home’ feel. The outdoor possibilities are virtually unlimited with 20,000 acres to explore. You will also eat very well here.

I also appreciated the green ethos which weaves through the fabric of this hotel estate and, having spent time with the team over the two days I was there, I know it is something they genuinely support. I am keen to come again with my family and my eye is on the Bivouac treehouse – although let’s see what the kids say …. (we might end up in the house!).

You can find out more about Swinton Park on its website here. Prices in March for a weekend stay start at £300 per night, rising to £475 per night for a Dukes Room like mine and £700-£800 for the huge suites. If you sign up to their newsletter I can vouch for the fact that there is a steady stream of offers available.

You can find out about other Beyond Green hotels on its website here.

You can find out about iPrefer, the Preferred Hotels and Beyond Green loyalty scheme, on its website here. Their generous Cyber Monday bonus points deal is back and we will cover it on HfP.

The BBC documentary about Swinton Park is on iPlayer here.

A special thanks goes to Debra and her team for arranging my visit and making my stay so memorable and to the Preferred Hotels / Beyond Green PR team in London for the introduction.

---

Hotel offers update – December 2024:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points?

• Hilton Honors is offering an 80%-100% bonus when you buy points by 31st December 2024. Click here to buy.

• IHG One Rewards is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 13th December 2024. Your annual purchase limit is increased to 300,000 points plus the bonus. Click here to buy.

• Marriott Bonvoy is offering a 40%-45% bonus when you buy point by 23rd December 2024. Your annual purchase limit is increased to 150,000 points plus the bonus. Click here to buy.

• World of Hyatt is offering a 25% bonus when you buy points by 4th January 2025. Your annual purchase limit is increased to 110,000 points plus the bonus. Click here to buy.