Burgh Island, South Devon - hotel review

You can’t get more of a period setting than Burgh Island Hotel, the ultimate in fashionable English holiday destinations in the Thirties, says Bo Wilson
Bo Wilson18 September 2013

It has undisputedly been, so far, the year of the Bright Young Thing. As film, television and fashion have gone into a Gatsby frenzy, I have sat back and wondered why it took everyone so long to catch on.

Having been captivated by the 1920s and 1930s from the books I read and dramas I watched, it seemed only fitting for me to incorporate a little Art Deco lifestyle into a rather important moment in 2013 — my honeymoon. Well, our pre-honeymoon honeymoon.

You can’t get more of a period setting than Burgh Island Hotel, the ultimate in fashionable English holiday destinations in the Thirties, with the future King Edward VIII among its guests taking in the sun and sea.

And the building has not only been maintained in the manner it was dreamed up, with its gorgeous Peacock Bar, recently renovated billiards room and naturally placed Mermaid Pool in the rocks below, but the old traditions remain, including dressing for dinner (it boasts that it is probably the only place in the UK where black-tie dining is not only expected but actively enforced).

The hotel is also conveniently placed on one of Devon’s best beaches, Bigbury beach, on which I played throughout my childhood. And that’s not even the best part of it.

Either coincidentally or not, I grew up on Agatha Christie, devouring all her novels (she is the author of some 76 books). Burgh Island was not only the inspiration for some of her crime stories — you can see why a good murder mystery could be made from a place that is cut off from the mainland when the tide is high — but where she actually wrote, on occasion.

At Burgh Island, we were put up in the Artist’s Studio. This is actually apart from the main building, above the 14th-century Pilchard Inn.

It has sea views from both aspects, and was a little eerie as the fog blew across from the mainland. But it was a most comfortable suite, done up almost like a room in a pirate ship, with a freestanding bath and nooks in which to sit and read.

Over to the main hotel for dinner, dressed, of course, in black tie. Perhaps we might have expected that a Tuesday night during off-season would be less than buzzing; it was pretty quiet. There were a couple of other small groups in residence, just enough to make one feel not entirely cut off from the world. Before dinner we lingered in the bar — possibly the pride of the place, with a beautiful stained-glass 1930s dome and a mermaid fountain.

Then dinner — and here the hotel excelled. We chose from a menu including rainbow trout with smoked trout cream, seared scallops and black pudding crumble, roast monkfish or sea bass with a clam and mussel broth followed by interesting puddings such as mango and cardamom cake with mango salsa and sorbet or white chocolate crème brûlée and rose-water meringue.

A quick mention of breakfast, too, which had Wodehouse-esque options such as kedgeree, and rather more modern choices.

I had the banana and bacon pancakes, which were divine.

Only guests are allowed to eat at the hotel. Exclusivity is the watchword of the place, and you can’t get more exclusive than a location only accessible at high tide by boat, sea tractor or helicopter.

Beachgoers are allowed access to the island, but are only permitted to walk on a sliver of it. A busload of French exchange students arrived during our stay, scrambling over the rocks, but kept firmly out of the grounds by a large fence and gate.

The feel of the place is more large country house than hotel — that of the bygone house party. The original part was built in the 1890s but it was modernised and built on in the Twenties and Thirties. It is relatively small, with just 25 rooms, and its dining room is impressive, but intimate.

The very fortunate can book out the entire hotel for parties and weddings — something the hotel is keen to push. But isn’t getting to and from the hotel difficult?

“There are people who come by helicopter,” the senior manager explains. “Sometimes they just turn up. Occasionally people come by yacht.”

For others, there is the sea tractor, which is great fun. The hotel fetches its guests from the mainland.

Our stay was a fascinating look at a go-to party place of the Jazz Age. If I won the Lottery I would fill the place with friends and create a Gatsby-esque weekend party of my own.

Burgh Island, Bigbury-on-Sea, South Devon TQ7 4B has doubles from £400 half-board, burghisland.com.

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