Owning a farming estate is a beautiful idea until the realities of pest control and constantly rising maintenance costs ruins the fantasy. This is where Yarlington Lodge steps in, providing country cosplayers like me with the essence of rural bliss without actually shouldering any of the responsibilities. The entrance to this Regency-era lodge has to be one of the most visually arresting entrances I’ve seen in a while. From the blue-themed entrance hall I had a sightline to the lounge whose green walls blend in with the back garden’s similarly hued lawn, visible through the rear doors. As I ascended the polished dark wood staircase I immediately felt at home, a sense enhanced by the absence of a check-in process – the butler team welcomed me warmly, as if I were borrowing someone’s private country pile for a few days.

Yarlington Lodge is the latest opening by South African couple Koos Bekker and Karen Roos whose farm-cum-hotel, The Newt in Somerset, set the standard for country estate stays as an artform when it opened in 2019 complete with resplendent gardens, orchards, a working farm, spa and high-end cuisine. It’s a formula partially duplicated here at Yarlington Lodge, a 12-acre retreat in Yarlington village, one mile away from The Newt’s main hotel. This estate once belonged to Catherine Parr, a gift from Henry VIII in 1544, before being owned by various families of the landed gentry. It comprises three distinct residences: the eight-bedroomed Yarlington Lodge, a restored rectory built around 1850; the Coach house and the Cottage in the Wall, a former gardner’s lodgings. Surrounded by landscaped gardens and woodland, the three buildings can accommodate up to 32 people between them – perfect for intergenerational families or friendship groups who can have the run of this place in exclusive-use buyouts.

The interiors are devised by Karen Roos in collaboration with Richard Parr architects, who have combined Regency elegance with flashes of the contemporary. Karen and Roos handpicked many of the details like the Victorian oil paintings, Napoleonic campaign furniture, second-hand books and old globes, and peppered them with playful anachronisms such as the living room’s red lacquer ‘LOVE’-insigned cabinet. Nineteenth-century literary references are everywhere including the bedrooms, which have names like “Becky Sharpe” – the tenacious social climber immortalised in Vanity Fair – and “Mrs Dashwood” from Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility.

The main house, Yarlington Lodge, contains eight bedrooms, two of which can form a family suite with a shared bathroom. The Coach house and Cottage in the Wall have four bedrooms each, including children’s quarters with twin beds. Bedrooms are not allocated, so it’s best to shoulder past your friends or relatives and bagsy your favourite. A contender would be my room, “Fanny Price”, named after the modest Jane Austen character who would be suitably impressed by the solid refinement of the king-sized four-poster bed, the eggshell blue tongue-and-groove wall panelling, the large chequered-floor bathroom with slate walk-in shower and copper bathtub glinting beneath a sash window.

It looks out onto the lawn where the distant statue of a stag looms, imperiously illuminated at night. I saw real deer trotting through this garden space where kids can run amok without leaving their parents' watchful eyes. The lawn is also where the beautiful blue-mosaic outdoor pool stretches towards an indoor jacuzzi. Both of them face my favourite space, the Palm House, a foliage-filled glass-and-Crittall venue for activities ranging from morning yoga sessions to supine gossip fests on the sofas and dinners by candlelight.

It’s where I enjoyed a fantastic dinner on my first evening after a spirited speed croquet competition. Head chef Hannah Woodburn uses The Newt’s extensive farm produce to rustle up meals made from fresh and high-quality ingredients such as juicy fillet steaks from the Newt’s unique British White beef herd. Among my favourite dishes were the whole seabass, fished from Cornish waters, and the spring lamb tartar with apricot and capers; desserts such as Choux bun, British strawberries, buffalo cream & white chocolate made for a very happy ending. I paired it all with The Newt’s famous sparkling ciders, Yarlington Mill and The Winston, home-pressed from their apple orchard, plus a glass of red from Roos and Bekker’s renowned Babylonstoren wine estate in South Africa's Cape Winelands.

The dining here is flexible in that a team of butlers and chefs could take my orders and cook them, but if I wanted to I could have wandered into the casual kitchen-slash-breakfast room the next morning and helped myself to the contents of the fridge, used the toaster and microwave, and cooked the Full English breakfast ingredients laid out by the stove. Displayed on the Shaker-style cabinets was a spread of fruits, cereal, yoghurts, cheeses, hams and puffy pain au chocolats. Choosing what to eat was quite the dilemma.

Deciding what to do for the rest of the day was equally tough. I could’ve done a few rallies in the tennis court, but I opted to don a pair of Le Chameau wellies (supplied by the lodge), hop into a buggy and try flyfishing at the nearby Yarlington Lake. My instructor was the fabulously dapper Atsushi Hasegawa, The Newt’s Head of Creative, who has a side hustle as a Japanese jazz DJ. After about 10 attempts, Hasegawa helped me reel in a 12-inch trout, which we promptly returned to the water to face another day against predatory local otters.

As a guest at Yarlington Lodge I was also entitled to all The Newt’s five-star amenities and activities, accessible by a short buggy or car ride. On my itinerary was a soothing massage at the spa, followed by a raspberry cheesecake ice cream at the gelateria, and a visit to the ruins of the Roman Villa. Kids will enjoy the to-scale reconstruction of the original building and the VR headsets for watching immersive re-enactments of Roman villa life. Through Yarlington Lodge’s butler team, guests can sign up for various workshops like cider-making and mushroom foraging, or down pints at The Stag’s Head Inn pub in Yarlington village, or head to nearby Bruton, the market town that has remarkably good restaurants and art galleries for a town of its size.

Another highlight of my stay was spending time with sparky brand ambassador and font of knowledge, Arthur Cole, who took me on an e-bike tour of Yarlington village and The Newt, filling me in on everything from the local church’s opera performances to the spiritual significance of yew trees. There had been a plan for Cole to take us to the hedgerows to spot glow worms after dark but we got sidetracked by a post-dinner screening in Yarlington Lodge’s supremely comfortable subterranean cinema. Munching popcorn, we watched an episode of Rivals, the television adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s novel about scandal and sexual intrigue among the horsey set. My stay at Yarlington was a lot more innocent than that (that’s the official line, anyway), and by the end I was getting extremely comfortable in this place. A few days of its elegant homeliness, impeccable food and plethora of activities is all it takes to start considering this your home and the next set of guests a bunch of trespassers.

From £10,500 per night for exclusive use across the 16-bedrooms at the Lodge, Coach House and Cottage in the Wall. The house and the cottages can also be booked separately. Enquire at thenewtinsomerset.com/hotel/yarlington.