Travel: an African cruise with Over the Rainbow
14 August 2024
Beyond carbon: the J.Laverack Aston Martin .1R
16 August 2024Best of British
We took Rolls-Royce's new Cullinan on a trip to the Lake District's splendid Gilpin Hotel for a special celebration. What could be more delightful?
I n early March of 1969 Paul McCartney tied the knot at Marylebone Registry Office in London while, just a couple of weeks later, John Lennon was married in the sun in Gibraltar. It was a momentous matrimonial month for the Beatles only a matter of weeks after they had had their last public performance atop the Apple Records building in London. For just 42 minutes in Savile Row the band played a selection of tracks before, unceremoniously, the police arrived and asked them to turn down the volume. What killjoys.
Two other people got married in 1969 – in the July. These folks are nowhere near as iconic as John and Paul in the wider scheme of things. But they are to me; these two individuals celebrating their nuptials were my parents. As the publisher of Halcyon magazine I am the moderately talented scribe who has the enviable job of jotting down scattered thoughts on cars and hotels for your entertainment and / or edification. In this capacity I decided to ask a favour from two more British ‘names’ to help me treat my parents for their golden wedding anniversary. I am very grateful to both Rolls-Royce and the Cunliffe family of the Gilpin Hotel in the Lake District for their generosity.
Normally for a road test I will get a vehicle for three or four days. For this jaunt Rolls-Royce allowed me ten days to jounce around in the Cullinan, during which time we were to stay in the tranquil surrounds of the Lake District at the Gilpin Hotel’s Lake House. There’s little that could be more British than the Lake District; an area where the Romantic poet William Wordsworth lived and who described his home, Dove Cottage in Grasmere, as ‘the loveliest spot that man hath ever found.’ What a treat we were in for.
Having hidden the Cullinan around the corner for my parents’ arrival, the look on their faces, on being presented with their chariot for a few days of serenity, was a picture. The first thing that has to be said is that this particular offering from the Goodwood factory is big. Very big. This is a vehicle so large it could be intimidating but, strangely, it’s not. I have driven large cars, powerful cars, frightening cars but this is the first car that is actually taller than me.
It does actually feel somewhat antithetical to use the term ‘car’ for a personal vehicle of such gargantuan proportions. It may well be a hair shorter than the Phantom but it’s a full, thumping, two metres wide and heading towards three tonnes unladen. There is a means of lowering the body on its chassis to enable ease of entry but I didn’t find it. My poor mother had to suffer the indignity of being boosted into her seat before we could set off.
Rolls-Royce is such a quintessentially British name that it is always reassuring in its stolidity. BMW’s ownership of the brand does lend a whiff of the Teutonic to proceedings but in a good, efficient, way rather than an invasive brutalist manner. Put it this way, there’s German heritage in our royal family but Windsor Castle couldn’t be more iconic as a paragon of British history. The ‘Parthenon’ grill on the front of the Cullinan could double as a portcullis should it be needed.
‘But now, like one who rows,Proud of his skill to reach a chosen point
With an unswerving line, I fixed my view
Upon the summit of a craggy ridge,
The horizon’s utmost boundary'
The armchair ride up the M1, powered by the 6.75-litre V12 was magnificent in its comfort and presence. There was slightly more road noise than I have become accustomed to with other models but the all-round vision from the driver’s seat was outstanding, meaning a five-hour drive passed with little to fret about. Despite the weight of the vehicle the 563bhp and 627lb ft of torque gave a responsiveness that was unexpected in its rapidity. The four-wheel steering provided precision at both low and high speeds and the gearbox is that golden, satellite-assisted, ZF eight-speed nugget I fell in love with on other models.
The overall size of the Cullinan also induced drawn breaths as we swept nearer our destination
There’s little point in talking about the build quality of the Cullinan. Why? Well it’s a given that it’s not just good, but spectacular. How difficult it must be to maintain such standards when the only time it’s worth remarking on them is when they fail to be met.
The only complaint I had was the placing of the clock on the dashboard which upset my sense of aesthetic balance, sited as it was most of the way over towards the passenger door; why would you put it there?
The space in the back for the passengers (and, let’s be honest, most purchasers of this vehicle will be in the back rather than up front) left my father giggling about being able to cross his legs in a car for the first time ever while he watched the in-built television rather than the passing scenery.
We had the standard bench seat option in the back but you can specify two captain’s chairs with a refrigerator, champagne and glasses between them. Actually, in reality, there’s very little that you can’t have as an option when it comes to a Rolls-Royce – all you need is the money and the vision.
Coming off the motorway was when things became more interesting. This £337,470 behemoth, with the fabled ‘magic carpet’ ride that Rolls-Royce is noted for, was not quite as stable as I would have like on the undulating roads of the Lake District.
Neither I, nor my passengers, suffers from seasickness but it could be a potential hazard if these sorts of lanes are to become a regular habitat for this ‘off-road’ tank. Up hill down dale is a challenge for the suspension.
The overall size of the Cullinan also induced drawn breaths on occasion as we swept nearer our destination. Narrow lanes and oncoming traffic meant I was grateful when we arrived at the Gilpin Hotel and Lake House.
There are many country house hotels dotted across our green and pleasant land, ranging from the eclectic to the idiosyncratic, from the run-down to the luxury and the multi-room to the boutique. The standard of the general offering just gets better as, in this period of ‘Brexit’ uncertainties, we adjust ourselves to ‘staycations’ – two portmanteaux nouns I categorically loathe and apologise for using.
Terminology notwithstanding, there are some simply wonderful destinations in Britain that don’t have the soul-destroying ambience of a chain.
The Gilpin is one of these. Owned and run by the Cunliffe family the property has been in the family since the turn of the last century. In 1987 John and Christine Cunliffe bought John’s grandmother’s home and created a five-bedroom hotel.
Fifteen years later their son Barney and his wife Zoe joined them and, in turn, with their son Ben, an architect, they have expanded the hospitality offering to 31 bedrooms, including six Garden Suites with private hot tubs, five luxurious Spa Lodges also with private en suite tubs and saunas and, a hilly mile away, six bedrooms at the Lake House where we were to stay. The Lake House is nestled in its own private estate with a lake, boathouse, pool and spa and comes with an on-demand chauffeur service up to the main house for the gastronomic opportunities.
We were at the Gilpin for two nights and, conveniently, the hotel has two main dining options. British food has come on leaps and bounds since my parents got married and my mother wobbled into her first culinary adventures. The year 1969 saw the Fray Bentos pie as the latest in a long line of convenience foods which just goes to prove that this was the era that taste forgot. The old trope about British cuisine being either bland or horrible or bland and horrible is utterly bogus nowadays as outward-looking chefs and inward-arriving immigrants have expanded the culinary repertoire of our establishments.
At the Gilpin we took the opportunity to try one restaurant on each night and were, quite simply, blown away by both. The concept of fusion food has become somewhat mocked of late with adventurous chefs looking, in my opinion, to shock rather than excite with the mixing of sweet with savoury, or cold with hot. There’s also a cynicism about ‘authenticity’ and the suggestion that you can only really deliver a Lake District fish dish if you had personally trudged through Wordsworth’s sylvan Wye and then waded, hip-deep into ‘the deep rivers, and the lonely streams, wherever nature led,’ just to land a trout with your own gnarled hands.
The Lake House has a full complement of staff on hand as well as a fully stocked bar
Fortunately, Hrishikesh Desai, a native of the Indian state of Maharashtra and a one-time Roux Scholarship winner is the chef in residence at the Gilpin and, since his arrival in 2015, he has taken the notions of fusion food and authenticity and reinstated their lustre. His first venture, Hrishi, is the more formal of the two restaurants on-site and is the proud bearer of a Michelin star. We opted for the multi-course tasting menu with accompanying wines and, undertaking some exciting challenges, we passed happy hours amid indulgence and expanding waistlines.
The second culinary option is the more relaxed Gilpin Spice where Desai has indulged his heritage with all sorts of subtleties thrown artistically at the dishes. Imagine if you will a menu that has the chutzpah to offer Thai-style octopus alongside Schezwan chicken pancake and ‘Kachori’ chaat with a side snack of ‘A Study in Satay’ and you get the idea. Regionality be damned. We needed some help navigating the menu and the ordering protocols but the food was extraordinary. No Michelin star here, but surely that’s just a matter of time.
The Lake House itself is a little(ish) gem. It’s only ‘little’ in the sense that it has just six bedrooms but it has a full complement of staff on hand as well as a fully stocked bar and kitchen for breakfasts. Off the main road and along a meandering lane you sashay forth from the canopy of trees, pass through the (extremely slow!) electric gates and are presented with a clear sign that this is not simply the average part of your average Lake District hotel.
My recommendation is that, if this is a place you want to come (and you really do want to), you should aim to take the Lake House in its entirety. Weddings are a frequent offering here and you can see why. The privacy and sense of indulgence are nonpareil while the staff, all of whom seemed incredibly young to my jaded eyes, come armed with smiles and a ‘yes’ attitude that is remarkably relaxing and welcoming. It would have been easy for a staff member to dip into the obsequious in such a setting as they were laying out drinks or breakfasts but not a bit of it.
Two remarkably relaxed, easy nights spent, cocooned in comfort and luxury, and it was time to return to reality. I have stayed at the Gilpin Hotel before but never in the Lake House; this really was a treat both for me and for my parents and a return visit will be on the cards in the fullness of time. I heartily recommend it and it was wonderful to be able to include my parents in my peregrinations.
Across the seven seas, through thick and thin, and in joys and sadnesses, my parents have been amazing. It may well have taken my father seven proposals to get my mother finally to say ‘yes’ but eventually she did so. And here, fifty years later, we are. This is my small paean to Rolls-Royce, the Gilpin Hotel, the Beatles, William Wordsworth and all the icons of Britain and to my parents above all. Thank you for reading.
Words: TG
How difficult it must be to maintain such standards when the only time it's worth remarking on them is when they fail to be met
The Gilpin Hotel and Lake House
The Gilpin Hotel is available from £275 per night based on two adults sharing a Classic Room on a B&B basis.
The Gilpin Lake House is available from £445 per night based on two adults sharing a room on a B&B basis.
Treatments at the Jetty Spa cost from £75. The 3-hour Jetty Spa Trail costs from £100 per person.
Spa Lodges available from £615 per night based on two adults sharing on a B&B basis.
thegilpin.co.uk01539 488 818