Nestled in the Mendip Hills in Somerset, the Pig Near Bath is situated amid a West Country landscape of yellow rapeseed fields, deer parks and ancient cottages topped with solar panels. Occupying a Georgian manor house, this 29-room hotel is one of two properties opened last year by the “shabby chic,” food-centric Pig hotel chain. (The second, the Pig on the Beach, in Dorset, joins Pigs in Southampton and the New Forest, both in Hampshire.) This hotel’s carefully curated common spaces are filled with photogenic displays of found objects — including that great signifier of English country life, the Wellington boot — while the picturesque grounds contain a walled kitchen garden, pigpens and chicken coops.
Location:
The Pig Near Bath is about a 20-minute drive from both the harbor city of Bristol and the popular tourist attractions at Bath, a Georgian spa town built around hot springs that also had given rise to an extensive ancient Roman settlement. A portion of the grassy, lime-studded Mendips has been designated a protected Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and the countryside lends itself to trekking, cycling and horseback riding.
Rates:
Rooms start at 149 pounds ($223 at $1.50 to the pound).
The room:
My small room was more chic than shabby, with an old-fashioned phone, larder stuffed with snacks like rosemary almonds and smoked bacon potato chips and a comfortable bed. A surprisingly engaging selection of books, including a guide to kitchen gardens and manuals on pig, bee and hen keeping, sat on a deep windowsill. The Wi-Fi signal in my room was weak, but the hotel’s center of gravity is in its common spaces, like its cozy bar, billiards room and cloistered courtyard, not the guest rooms. I slept in the profound silence of the deep countryside.
The bathroom:
My spacious bathroom was tastefully appointed in a modern-Victorian style with an old-fashioned pull-chain toilet, heated towel rack and locally produced goat’s milk soaps from Milla Maddern.
Amenities:
The hotel offers a full range of spa services, including massages.
Dining:
The Pig Near Bath describes itself as “a restaurant with rooms” and lives up to that billing. The restaurant, located in a replica of a Victorian greenhouse, specializes in what the hotel calls “simple British garden food” — food either grown on the estate or within a 25-mile radius. The atmosphere was relaxed, and great pains seem to have been taken to lend a casual tone to the décor and flatware. The small plates allowed me to sample many different dishes without filling up, such as home-smoked bacon, venison carpaccio and a “feather blade” beef steak that was so tender I could cut it with the side of a fork. It was one of the best hotel meals I can remember, but pricey — dinner for two could easily eclipse the cost of the room.
Bottom line:
About 90 minutes from London by train, the hotel is convenient for a weekend gastro-getaway and is a welcome smart option for visitors to Baths.
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