The Old Parsonage

The Old Parsonage

, Ancroft, Berwick-Upon-Tweed, Northumberland.

The Old Parsonage B&B is a lovely country retreat close to Berwick-Upon-Tweed and Lindisfarne.

The extensive gardens are a great place to relax. There is a lawn where you can play croquet, a terrace with tables and chairs, a pretty summer house for a little shelter if required, a wildflower meadow, and even a tennis court.

Indoors there is a cosy drawing room with squidgy sofas, a television and board games and books. In cooler months there will be a fire blazing in the fireplace. Breakfast is served in the spacious dining room, which has french doors opening out onto the garden. Just about every option is covered by the breakfasts: fresh fruit, juices, yoghurt, eggs "the way you like them", smoked salmon, "Ancroft rarebit", warm croissants, toast crumpets and homemade preserves. For drinks, choose tea, coffee, hot chocolate or herbal tea. There are many and varied local pubs and restaurants around the area for lunch and dinner.

The three guest bedrooms have cotton bed linen, fluffy towels, cosy dressing gowns, hairdryers and luxury toiletries, along with complimentary teas, coffee and bottled water. Each room has a flat screen TV with DVD player and free WiFi internet. Dovecote has a superking four-poster bed and (guess what!) a view of the dovecote in the garden, and then right out across the fields and woods. Orchard has a kingsize sleigh bed, a private adjacent bedroom and a south-facing bay window overlooking the orchard and beyond to the coast. At the top of the house, Treetops is a spacious twin room with dormer windows looking over the treetops towards the coast.

Close to the Northumberland coast, Holy Island, Bamburgh Castle and the Farne Islands are within easy reach, ideal for walking, horse-riding bird-watching or taking a trip out to see the seals and puffins. Inland, the walled town of Berwick-Upon-Tweed is close by, and the area is perfect for visiting the grand houses of the Scottish borders, touring the Cheviot Hills or fly-fishing in the River Tweed.