Five Lake District hotels have remained among Michelin’s best in the UK.
The prestigious food guide launched its Michelin Keys distinction last year – which it says are outstanding places to stay.
The Michelin Guide now includes over 7,000 hotels across the world and each is vetted by hotel experts and judged as excellent across five categories.
These include architecture and interior design; overall personality and character; quality and consistency of service; value between the level of the experience and the price paid; and the hotel’s contribution within its particular area.
It said: “Like the Michelin Stars for restaurants, the Michelin Keys are our most outstanding hotels.”
The Michelin Guide hotel selection for Great Britain and Ireland includes 14 three-key hotels, 43 two-key hotels and 82 one-key hotels, with 19 hotels newly awarded for 2025.
All five luxury hotels named in the guide last year have this year retained there keys.
Gilpin Hotel & Lake House and The Samling, both in Windermere, have retained two keys, while Forest Side at Grasmere, Farlam Hall near Brampton and Linthwaite House in Bowness each retained One Key from Michelin.
Inspectors praised Gilpin Hotel & Lake House, which it describes as providing ‘classic country house hospitality’ and a lack of pretentiousness combined with ‘unique contemporary Georgian style’.
Special praise was reserved for the restaurants at the property, including SOURCE at Gilpin Hotel which Michelin highlighted as ‘perhaps’ Gilpin’s “greatest draw, serving sophisticated, award-winning dishes crafted from local Cumbrian ingredients.”
Thomas Ferrante, General Manager at Gilpin Hotel & Lake House said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to have retained the two Key distinction from the Michelin Guide for 2025.
“This accolade – the hotel equivalent of Michelin stars – celebrates us as a truly exceptional and one-of-a-kind destination, and we are over-the-moon to have received it for another year.
“We are very proud to be one of only two hotels to have this rating in the Lake District, and would like to spotlight our amazing team, whose care and consistency make everything possible, and our wonderful guests, whose support means the world to us.
“You are at the heart of everything we do – thank you.”
Inspectors also praised The Samling as a exceptional stay and described it as ‘intimate’ and more like a private vacation home where service is excellent, but secondary to the main spectacle, which is the house, the estate and the lake.
The guide also said from the stately rooms to the elegant restaurant to the bramble and bush on the hillside above the lake, that the Samling is ‘an experience of contrasts’ from beginning to end.
The Forest Side in Grasmere was also praised for its rooms being no afterthought and that while many may visit for the restaurant which earned a Michelin star under the direction of chef Paul Leonard, its style stands out.
Inspectors added that it splits the difference between the crisp modernity of the restaurant’s dining room and the house’s well-preserved antique atmosphere, while the in-room comforts are subtle but substantial.
Farlam Hall, in Brampton, was praised for its understated elegance accentuated by a tastefully applied infusion of contemporary design and modern art.
Inspectors added that the rooms combine classic-style furnishings with minimalist modern colours, and feel true to the house’s history without reproducing a specific era.
Farlam Hall’s restaurant The Cedar Tree, was also praised as one of the hotel’s great strengths.
Linthwaite House in Bowness was also praised as a very special stay.
Inspectors said that few Lake District hotels and bed-and-breakfasts can compete on the level of Linthwaite House.
The guide added that the hotel has style credentials many city hotels would kill for and is intimate with a professional edge.
