Coworth Park – the country house with its own polo fields

On Blacknest Road outside Ascot, Coworth Park occupies a Georgian manor whose oldest fabric dates from 1776, built for the East India merchant William Shepheard. The house now sits inside 240 acres of parkland on the edge of Windsor Great Park, ground that once hosted the future Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, who stayed here in 1879 and 1883 for the Ascot races. Dorchester Collection reopened the restored manor as its eighth hotel in September 2010, and the estate has kept its sporting character: Coworth Park is the only UK hotel with its own polo fields, laid out and run with the Guards Polo Club. The MICHELIN Guide awards the hotel Two Keys, and its kitchen under executive chef Adam Smith carries one Michelin star at Woven, the restaurant inside the Mansion House.

01The house

Coworth took its name from the hamlet that once surrounded it, land whose history is said to reach back to Edward the Confessor. The Georgian manor itself dates from 1776, built for William Shepheard; through the nineteenth century the house passed between landed families, including three successive generations of the Arbuthnot family between 1810 and 1893, before William Farmer, Sheriff of London and High Sheriff of Berkshire, bought the estate in 1883. It was Galen Weston, owner of Selfridges and Fortnum & Mason, who gave Coworth Park its sporting identity: in the 1980s he laid out a polo field and built a village of stables for the ponies and their grooms. Dorchester Collection, owned by the Brunei Investment Agency, bought the estate in 2001, closed it in 2008 for a full restoration, and reopened it as the group's eighth hotel in September 2010.

The estate's most storied address is The Dower House, a Grade II listed cottage dating to 1755, reserved as a three-bedroom private residence with its own country kitchen and newly restored by Martin Hulbert Design to match contemporary comfort to Georgian bones. A newer addition, North Lodge, is another Grade II listed cottage on the edge of the grounds, built for seclusion with its own garden for summer barbecues and a fire pit for winter nights.

02Rooms and suites

Coworth Park has 49 rooms and 22 suites spread across the Mansion House, the converted stable courtyard and a scatter of cottages, with The Dower House as the grandest address of all. Bathrooms throughout favour marble, underfloor heating and a freestanding copper roll-top tub in most categories. The largest suites, the 124-square-metre Mansion Premium Suites, look over the lime grove, meadows and polo fields, while the Mansion House Junior Suite adds a walk-in wardrobe and its own copper bathtub. Private cottages such as Gardener's East and West sit apart from the main house for guests wanting more seclusion, before the final step up to North Lodge or The Dower House.

Insider tip

45 minutes from central London, 20 minutes from Heathrow; Virginia Water and Windsor Castle nearby.

03Where to eat

Dining is led by Woven by Adam Smith, the Mansion House restaurant that carries the hotel's Michelin star. The space was relaunched under its current name after a top-to-bottom refit in February 2023, and within six months it had been awarded its first Michelin star in the 2023 guide. Birmingham-born Adam Smith, who represented the UK at the Bocuse d'Or in 2007 and 2009 and won the Roux Scholarship in 2012, rose through the kitchens of The Ritz and the Devonshire Arms before joining Coworth Park as executive chef in 2016. Woven opens for lunch Friday to Sunday and dinner Wednesday to Saturday, with breakfast served here and in The Barn from 7 to 10.30am.

The Barn offers a more relaxed, rustic alternative with hearty seasonal dishes, while the Drawing Room, overlooking the grounds, is kept for afternoon tea, light meals and the kind of coffee-and-newspaper morning that defines a country house stay. The Bar completes a roster of four dining venues across the estate.

04Spa and wellbeing

The Spa at Coworth Park is built around an indoor pool with underwater music, alongside a gym, treatment rooms, a manicure and pedicure suite and a relaxation room. Swimmers can glide across the pool before dipping below the surface for the underwater sound, then warm up on the sun terrace or in the poolside thermal area. Treatments draw on ishga, Natura Bissé, Made for Life Organics, Wildsmith and HydraFacial, and the newly refurbished gym runs on Technogym's Artis line for cardio, strength and functional training. Family swim sessions run Monday to Friday from 9 to 10.30am and 4 to 5.30pm, and at weekends from 9 to 11am and 4 to 6pm.

05The neighbourhood

Coworth Park sits 45 minutes from central London and just a 20-minute drive from Heathrow, set in parkland that borders Windsor Great Park. Windsor Castle and the River Thames are a short drive away, and Virginia Water is within walking distance, its lake ringed by follies and the restored Roman ruins of Leptis Magna. On the estate itself, a walk to the far edge of the grounds leads to a tranquil lake and its resident swan, known as Chukka, alongside fallow deer and other wildlife sharing the parkland. Ascot racecourse, the reason royalty first came to Coworth in the nineteenth century, remains minutes away, with the autumn Fireworks Raceday among the calendar's fixed points.

06Making the most of a stay

Executive chef Adam Smith is himself a committed forager, a habit that also feeds the hotel's efforts to reduce food waste. House Membership gives regular guests a way to visit the estate year-round outside overnight stays.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.