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THE two seater helicopter was a fetching shade of green, its polished paint work glinting in the evening sunlight. It was languishing on the pad set aside for the purpose, adjacent to the first fairway and a short walk from the hotel’s main entrance.
Its arrival had sparked considerable speculation among the guests of the Bovey Castle Hotel, all accustomed to various forms of exotic transportation of the four wheeled variety, but its presence wasn’t an exercise in one-upmanship, simply a peerlessly romantic gesture.
The owner-pilot, it transpired, had told his wife to pack “something simple and elegant” for a surprise wedding anniversary celebration at “somewhere rather special.”
Both wife and Bovey Castle did him proud: she looked gorgeous when they strolled into the bar for pre-dinner cocktails; the hotel and its staff were, as usual, in top form.
Our hero’s gesture would have won him a decade’s supply of brownie points but, truth be told, he was on a winner the moment he discovered the sumptuous hotel that is Bovey Castle, down there in deepest Devon.
Romance doesn’t usually get a look-in when Dartmoor enters the conversation, or at least it didn’t before Peter de Savary acquired what was then known as the Manor House Hotel at Moretonhampstead. Once the country seat of the W.H. Smith family and latterly an hotel that had seen better times, it was part of an estate desperately in need of investment and major rejuvenation.
In the nick of time, some say, along came de Savary, fresh from similar endeavours at various fleshpots around the world. An all-encompassing up-grade saw it converted into a oasis of opulence and lavishly orchestrated service. That was almost four years ago. He re-named it Bovey Castle. The lovely old place has never looked back, or been in finer fettle.
In an age when crass is considered the norm and style is a rapidly vanishing quality, Bovey Castle is a tres elegant example of impeccable taste and standards, the stage for a by-gone era revisited.
The objective was to create an ambience synonymous with the 1920’s, an era of prosperity, happiness and optimism that became known as the Jazz Age: Scott Joplin’s music is top of the hit parade in the hotels’ music system, the décor throughout is art deco, highlighted by oak panelling, hand painted silk wallpaper and ornately framed posters from a by-gone era. They come in every size and shape, from early holiday resort posters to Vogue-style covers and old railway, airline and tourist posters from all points of the globe. There are hundreds of them and they decorate the walls in a ubiquitous art gallery that’s said to have cost upwards of £500,000.
Those familiar with the old hotel wouldn’t recognise it now. The public rooms, once tired and well-worn, have been transformed into havens of opulence and style. The 65 guest rooms and suites are simply sumptuous; the Palm Court dining room is a visual delight, the stage for a celebration of the culinary arts that is enhanced by views across the terrace to the golf course and the wild countryside of Dartmoor beyond.
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