Lucknam Park – 21 years of one star in a Palladian manor

Lucknam Park, Emblems Collection stands at the end of a long drive through five hundred acres of parkland on the southern edge of the Cotswolds, six miles from Bath. At its core is a Grade II listed country house raised in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century, a family residence long before it ever took guests. It is now owned by the Laskaridis family, the Greek shipping dynasty, and in 2025 became the debut flagship of Accor's new Emblems Collection, while staying privately owned and independently run. The MICHELIN Guide awards the hotel Three MICHELIN Keys, and at its table, Restaurant Hywel Jones carries one MICHELIN star, held by the same chef for twenty-one consecutive years. It is a rare combination: a working country estate, with its own equestrian centre and walled garden, run with the polish of an international luxury group but the memory of a single family home.

01The house

The story begins in 1688, when a Trowbridge cloth manufacturer named James Wallis bought a farm on the site, having already acquired the nearby manors of North Wraxall and Biddestone. He began construction of the mansion that stands today, work probably completed by his son Ezekiel. Ownership passed through a succession of families over the centuries, including the Methuens in the late eighteenth century and the Walmesleys, who held the estate from 1870 to 1918. The core of the building is a Grade II listed country house built in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century, its grounds since embellished with an Italianate stone archway flanked by a lodge on one side and a campanile tower on the other, and a Middle Lodge designed in neo-Regency style by the architect Oswald Brakspear.

Further out, a two-storey coach house and stables range, built of rubble stone in 1834 for J. C. Boode, forms a courtyard behind the main house, while a nineteenth-century octagonal dovecote in the kitchen garden is recorded as exceptionally large for its late date. The estate today belongs to the Laskaridis family, who also own Greek shipping companies and hotels elsewhere, and who have kept both the spa and an equestrian centre as working parts of the property. In June 2025 Lucknam Park was announced as the debut property of Accor's Emblems Collection, officially joining the brand in the last quarter of that year — a move the owning family described as a new chapter that keeps the hotel privately owned and independently operated.

02Rooms and suites

Lucknam Park, Emblems Collection features 42 individually designed rooms and suites, alongside nine luxury cottages scattered through the grounds, each styled with antique furnishings. Inside the main house, categories run from Classic, Country and Manor rooms up through Junior Suites to the Grand Suite and Grand Master Suite, every one furnished as what the hotel calls a treasure trove of antiques and collectables rather than a uniform set of identical boxes. Select suites offer four-poster beds, interconnecting rooms, bathrooms with walk-in showers, and views over the parkland — useful for families or groups who book the self-contained cottages, which sleep several and come with their own front doors onto the estate.

Insider tip

Reached via Junction 17 of the M4; six miles from Bath city centre.

The comforts are contemporary rather than purely decorative: beds dressed in Egyptian cotton, 24-hour room service, and complimentary bathrobes, slippers and toiletries as standard. It is the kind of detail that lets the eighteenth-century fabric of the house carry on quietly in the background while the stay itself feels entirely current.

03Where to eat

Restaurant Hywel Jones holds one MICHELIN star, and the kitchen's reputation rests substantially on continuity: executive chef Hywel Jones has held a Michelin star for 21 consecutive years, a run matched by very few chefs anywhere in Britain. The award-winning room presents refined tasting menus built on local ingredients and fresh herbs, with seasonal and vegetarian tasting menus alongside a four-course option. It opens from 6pm Wednesday to Saturday, with pre-dinner drinks from 5.30pm and last orders at 8pm on Wednesdays and 8.30pm from Thursday to Saturday; dress code is smart casual, children under five cannot be seated, dogs are not permitted, and a 10% discretionary service charge is added to the bill.

For easier, all-day eating there is the Walled Garden Restaurant, which offers à la carte and set menus built around estate-reared meats and seasonal produce, plus a destination bar for cocktails or English sparkling wine. It sits beside the spa, making it the natural stop after a swim or a treatment rather than a formal, separate outing.

04Spa and wellbeing

The Spa at Lucknam Park sits inside the estate's walled garden, built of wood, marble and glass to echo the colours of the parkland beyond its windows. It runs to eight therapy rooms for massages, facials, scrubs and holistic treatments, a hydrotherapy pool, thermal cabins and a relaxation lounge, alongside a twenty-metre indoor pool and an indoor/outdoor hydrotherapy pool with views over the arboretum. A social lounge with a skincare mixology bar and five thermal cabins round out what the hotel positions as one of the country's leading spas.

Membership is open to regular visitors and to residents of Bath, Bristol, Chippenham and the surrounding Wiltshire and Somerset villages, which keeps the spa in local use rather than purely a hotel amenity — useful context for anyone wondering whether a day visit, rather than a full stay, might be the better introduction.

05The neighbourhood

Lucknam Park is set within 500 acres of private parkland in Colerne, roughly six miles from Bath's city centre and easily reached from Junction 17 of the M4. The estate itself has a private arboretum and landscaped gardens, so the grounds can occupy a full day before anyone needs to leave for Bath's Georgian terraces and Roman baths, or the stone villages scattered across this edge of the Cotswolds. The equestrian centre on site means riding out through the parkland is as much a part of a stay here as anything inside the house.

06Making the most of a stay

Beyond dinner and the spa, the hotel runs its own calendar of dining events and cooking masterclasses, private dining for small groups, and curated spa days — Saddle and Spa, Afternoon Tea, and Couples Spa Days among them — that combine riding, treatments and food into a single booking. Given the scale of the estate, a stay of two nights rather than one makes better use of the walled garden, the arboretum walks and the equestrian centre, none of which reward a rushed visit.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.