The golf
Par 70, 6,143 yards
Gazing down on the 3rd green from the hotel terrace at Bovey Castle
(Image credit: Jeremy Ellwood)
You start on a tempting, downhill par 4, where water awaits if you attack and don’t quite catch it, as it does again just short of the 2nd green as you gaze up to the hotel. If you play the par-3 3rd from the tips, take your ‘A’ game as the green is closely flanked by more water 200 yards away.
Crystal-clear water flows around the front of the 2nd green
(Image credit: Jeremy Ellwood)
On the par-4 7th, you cross rivers and streams which then close in on you left and right up near the green. After the 9th, you climb out of the valley for a different-feeling back nine, which closes with six varied par 4s, with the 13th or 14th by the entrance road potentially drivable depending on conditions.
There’s more water to think about on the 5th and 6th holes at Bovey Castle
(Image credit: Jeremy Ellwood)
The 18th is a brute, doglegging awkwardly left against the camber to a green 433 yards away.
The hotel
This haven of tranquillity is idyllic if you get the weather my wife and I enjoyed. But there’s much more than just golf on offer, with off-roading, fly-fishing, archery, clay-pigeon shooting and more, plus a sizable indoor pool in the spa.
There’s grandeur and character in abundance inside the hotel
(Image credit: Bovey Castle)
The bedrooms and public areas are just as they should be in a building of this character, and our room, looking out over the terrace and golf course, was a perfect place to just be.
A State bedroom at Bovey Castle
(Image credit: Bovey Castle)
We crammed in time in the pool, walks in the woods along the front nine, cocktails on the terrace and excellent meals in both the elegant Great Western Grill (it was once a railway hotel) and the more informal Smith’s Brasserie.
There are also 22 high-class, self-catering lodges on the estate. Oh, and the falconry display was hugely entertaining.
The falconer and his friends…
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