The Cotswolds — England's Most Extraordinary Luxury Countryside
- Mar 2
- 2 min read
Limestone Villages and Ancient Light
The Cotswolds occupy a specific place in the English imagination. The oolitic limestone of the hills gives the villages their colour — a warm honey-gold that changes through the day as the light moves and that in early morning or late afternoon becomes something close to luminous. The villages — Bourton-on-the-Water, Burford, Chipping Campden, Stow-on-the-Wold, Bibury, Lacock — are living communities whose architectural character has been maintained because the limestone from which they were built is extraordinary.
The result is the most beautiful rural landscape in England, experienced most completely by those who arrive by private car, stay in the finest accommodation available, and take the time to move slowly through it.
Where to Stay
The Cotswolds accommodation landscape has been transformed over the past decade by a generation of luxury hotels and private estate rentals that have brought the area's natural beauty inside. Whatley Manor, near Malmesbury, is by many measures the finest hotel in the region — 23 rooms and suites, a two-Michelin-starred restaurant, a spa of genuine ambition, and 130 acres of grounds that make the landscape feel like a private estate.
Barnsley House, in the village of Barnsley, offers 11 rooms and suites centred on the extraordinary gardens designed by Rosemary Verey — among the most celebrated in England.
The Drive
The Cotswolds is best experienced by car — specifically, by a car that is as enjoyable to drive on narrow B roads as it is on the motorway approaches. The Bentley Continental GT, the Aston Martin DB12 S, or a Range Rover Sport all have natural homes in this landscape, making the journey between villages as pleasurable as the villages themselves.
