Looking for a green hotel? There’s nothing middling about Middleton Lodge.

Living a greener life can mean finding hidden eco-gems, like Middleton Lodge, a country estate turned hotel in North Yorkshire which combines sustainability with luxury and style. Our Founder & CEO, Lucy, had the tough assignment of checking out whether the hotel was as gorgeous as it looked. Here’s her review:

Roses cover the facade of the Fig House at Middleton Lodge

Once upon a time, a family called Hartley built an exquisite Georgian manor house on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales out of the honey-coloured local stone. They used logs from the surrounding woods to heat the house, water from their own wells, vegetables and fruit from their gardens and game from the estate. In those days it wasn’t called sustainability, it was simply how they lived.

Two hundred years later, another family, the Allisons, have bought the Grade II-listed house and returned it to its 18th century roots, but with a very modern twist. Middleton Lodge’s new owners have transformed it into a boutique hotel and wedding venue that recaptures it’s original spirit of self-sufficiency with a large dollop of luxury on top.

We stopped off there for the night as a family over Easter en route to Scotland as I was impressed with its eco-credentials and wanted to see for myself whether the hotel was as lovely as its photos suggested.

We were not disappointed. 

The hot tub in the Diary at Middleton Lodge uses fresh spring water

Approached by sweeping beach-lined drives, the elegant Palladian lines of the manor house set the tone for the impeccably designed hotel scattered across its rambling Georgian outbuildings. The creative director, Rebecca, one of the owners, is an architect and interior designer with a faultless eye and an evident love of the history of Middleton Lodge. 

After a long drive from London, we arrived in the hotel’s sanctuary and were met with a warm welcome at reception. The wide smiles, honey-toned stone and muted interior hues created an immediate sense of calm. There is a softness to the hotel’s rustic farmhouse style with a hint of Tuscany in the pale beiges, creams, soft blues and sage greens that flow through the interiors. And everywhere you look, you spot clever antique finds and thoughtful touches that remind you of the estate’s past.

My first stop was the spa. It’s housed in the converted former Coach House and from the moment I stepped into its candelit ante-chamber, I felt any left-over London stress begin to melt away. One Moroccan Rose Massage later and I was floating on air. 

Get pampered at the spa at Middleton Lodge

While I was indulging in some R&R, my husband and the kids explored the 200-acre estate and stumbled on a glorious woodland walk, and a rustic, red-tiled farmhouse that is part of the hotel and was overflowing with wedding guests. By the time I’d finished, they’d installed themselves in our bedroom in a former potting shed, and were luxuriating among the iron bedsteads, stone walls and super soft duvets.

Perhaps the piece-de-resistance of the hotel is the Elizabethan-style walled Kitchen Garden. Designed by superstar garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith, the two and a half acre garden crams in apple, peach and fig trees, vegetable plots, a prairie garden and a wedding arbour and still retains a generous sense of space. 

The walled Kitchen Garden is overflowing with fruit and vegetables for the Coach House restaurant

Not only does the walled garden provide a lovely spot to wander and a magical place to get married, it also produces a cornucopia of produce for the Coach House restaurant where we ate that night. My starter of Heritage beetroot salad, with walnuts and Ashlynn goats cheese, tasted sublimely fresh and my husband’s Burrata with Yorkshire rhubarb, Monks Beard and candied pecans was a masterclass in combining seasonal  flavours.

While not entirely local, the rest of the menu did not stray far from the Yorkshire Dales. My chalk stream trout came from as far afield as Hampshire and my husband’s beef was hand-reared and pasture-fed by some local Allison siblings. 

Even the wine list included some local English treats, including an Ortega from Biddenden Vineyards in Kent and a Bacchus from Bury St Edmonds in Essex. Once seen as the kiss of death on a wine list, the northward trail of summer heat means English wines now put up stiff competition to the continent’s vineyards. We went to bed feeling pampered, plump and pleasantly drowsy. 

The Coach House restaurant spills out into the courtyard when the sun is shining

So what of Middleton Lodge’s eco-credentials?

Its sustainability is as thought-through as its under-stated luxury. From its own water source for the hotel, which it also bottles, to the wood-chip boilers that provide heating and are fed with its own wood to serving its own mouth-watering organic produce, it seems the Allison’s are doing their utmost to return Middleton Lodge to the circular estate it was in Georgian times. 

If you’re looking for a way to travel sustainably, you could do worse than head for Yorkshire and Middleton Lodge’s magical modern spin on the past.

We analyse each brand for their commitment to sustainability but we are not a certification body, nor are we auditors, and we have taken the approach that we trust brands to tell the truth about their sustainability policies, practices and plans.

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This review was not paid for and we stayed at Middleton Lodge at our own expense.

Photo copyright: Middleton Lodge

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