Hipping Hall – a star country hotel in its own right

IMAGINE. You’re the beauty of the family and have stolen all the attention for a decade, when suddenly a younger sibling snatches the limelight. That’s the case with Hipping Hall and Forest Side. 

A brace of Red Admirals flitted among our Virginia creeper

In a mere nine months of existence the latter has equalled Hipping’s three AA rosettes, leapt into the Good Food Guide’s Top 50 restaurants at No.37 and then scooped a Michelin star. Meteoric is the word. Andrew Wildsmith’s Victorian Gothic bolthole in Grasmere also looks a luxurious place to chill out in – and digest your much-foraged tasting menu.

We went to big sister hotel Hipping, in softer countryside near Kirkby Lonsdale. By sheer chance it was the day after the Michelin celebrations in London and boyish looking Andrew, the Brian Cox of boutique hoteliers (though his Cambridge PhD is in organic chemistry), understandably didn’t resurface until later to say hello. 

Hipping Hall – a beautiful bolthole 

By which time we had enjoyed a remarkably comfortable stay, capped by a dinner equally impressive. Chef Oli Martin, just 26, trails Forest Side’s Kevin Tickle in profile terms but surely it is only a matter of time? 

Our bedroom; below, Smidge settles in before tackling his treats 

The main reason for our visit wasn’t allowed into the 15th century, tapestry-hung dining hall, complete with ‘minstrel’s gallery’. Captain Smidge the chihuahua had to stay behind in the Old Stables block, recently transformed into five gorgeous dog-friendly bedrooms/suites. In his basket he consoled himself with his treats, part of the £20 a night canine package. We’d walked his little legs off in the area, that wildly beautiful merging point of Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cumbria, to the east of the M6.

Devil's Bridge; below, our feisty hound tackles the riverside track

Kirkby Lonsdale remains one of the most perfect country towns in the land. It’s best to park down near Devil’s Bridge. The tale behind the name is one common in folklore. A woman who was separated from her straying cow by the river made a pact with the Devil. He would build a bridge across, in return for the soul of the first living thing to cross it. The woman threw a bun to trick her dog into running across and the angry Devil had to be satisfied with an animal soul. He vanished, leaving behind a whiff of brimstone.

At weekends the three-arched packhorse bridge swarms with bikers, some of whom might fancy themselves as Satanic, alongside families queuing for ice creams. Midweek, in the autumnal dusk, we had it nearly to ourselves and let Smidge off the leash on the leaf-strewn path along the River Lune.

Ruskin's View remains little changed fom when the art critic discovered it in the 19th century

Eventually, dog bounding up the steep steps, we ascended to the promenade that’s home to Ruskin’s View. After his friend JMW Turner painted a watercolour river view from the churchyard in 1818 the great art critic enthused: “I do not know in all my own country, still less in France or Italy, a place more naturally divine.” It’s still pretty impressive today.

Then we ambled back through the graveyard of St Mary The Virgin, which dates back to Norman times. Kirkby was an important market town mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. Evidence of its past is evident in street names. Swinemarket and Horsemarket are open spaces today, separated by ginnels with quaint titles such as Salt Pie Lane, named after an enterprising provider of mutton in pastry. 

The most impressive edifices date back to the 17th and 18th centuries. They are home to a range of independent eating places and shops. No chains. Alas, the cheerily camp Churchmouse Cheeses in Market Street is no more, but excellent gastropub The Sun is still going strong. Alternatively check out the livelier Orange Tree, the Kirby Lonsdale Brewery tap, serving, naturally, Ruskin’s Bitter.

Rabbit, seaweed, parsnip 

Beef, artichoke, pied bleu

Treacle, quince, chamomile

We resisted the ale temptation. Dinner at Hipping Hall offers the chance ot tasting outstanding organic, biodynamic and natural wines, sourced from specialists Buon Vino down the A65 outside Settle. They share a complex with the North’s best cheese shop, The Courtyard Dairy (“Everything here is as good as it gets,” wrote my fellow ManCon critic, Charles Campion).

They lived up to expectations, especially a glass of of biodynamic Chablis Chateau Beru that accompanied a dish of Halibut, Kohlrabi, Shrimp. You guessed it is one of those modish staccato ingredient menus but dishes such as Rabbit, Seaweed, Parsnip or Treacle, Quince, Chamomile generate such intensity of complementary flavours who cares? Fabulous contemporary cooking throughout.

That ‘medieval’ restaurant setting, alas, is looking tired, barely altered since I reviewed the food here a decade ago. It may be the next on the list for a major refurb once four bedrooms in the Grade II listed main house are tackled in January. The Wildsmith Hotels (the third is the Ryebeck in Bowness) don’t rest on their laurels.

The restaurant; below The Old Stables block – it can be hired whole with catering 

Red Admiral; below, the Ingleton Waterfalls Trail

It was hard for all three of us to tear ourselves away next day, but chihuahuas need more than a swift scamper. Step forward Ingleton Waterfalls Trail, across the border in The Dales. I can’t imagine how I’ve never made it to this beautiful four and a half mile circular walk. Privately owned, it costs £6 a head (dogs free) but it’s worth every penny, taking in a series of spectacular waterfalls and wooded gorges with a calf-stretching moorland march in the shadow of Ingleborough in the middle. Dogs have to be kept on the lead in this section, which offers a cafe and toilets before the descent back to Ingleton. On a clear autumn day this was perfection. Who needs The Lakes?