Things Worth Leaving Town For – Autumn

The Cornish coast has plenty to offer now the summer crowds have gone, not least beside the practically Caribbean waters of Carbis Bay. Here, chef Tom Sellers – of Bermondsey’s two-Michelin-star spot Story – has opened a new restaurant, Mor (Cornish for “sea”), where the seafood-heavy menu runs hot (crispy fried Porthilly oysters, chilli-baked scallops, just-caught fish fresh from the grill) and cold (cured local bream, smoked tomatoes). Up the coast in Rock, the iconic shoreside hotel St Enodoc has been transformed by chef Paul Ainsworth and his wife, Emma, to include a 120-seat sea-view terrace, an Indian-accented all-day restaurant and a low-key pizza joint.

If you didn’t score tickets in the hours-long queue to gawp at the Bayeux tapestry, head north instead. At the Hepworth Wakefield, Mrinalini Mukherjee: Unbound Forms celebrates one of India’s most important modernist sculptors through monumental hemp-fibre works and bronze sculptures. In Yorkshire Sculpture Park, an hour west, Hold to This Earth brings together works by 38 contemporary Indigenous North American artists in the largest exhibition of its kind ever staged in the UK – a powerful testament to the modernity and relevance of Indigenous cultures today.

Regenerative estate Denton Reserve has unveiled Dunkirk Barn and Dunkirk Farm House, two beautifully secluded stays tucked away on Denton Moor with access to a private swimming lake, woodfired sauna and uninterrupted views across the Wharfe Valley. The group-stay-perfect retreats are the latest additions to 2500 acres of sensitively managed Yorkshire countryside, where ambitious rewilding projects, sustainable farming and newly planted woodland are as much a draw as the stylish digs.

Salisbury, the sweeping chalk grasslands of Cranborne Chase and some of England’s prettiest country walks are all within easy reach of Teffont House, a handsome 17th-century home turned village hotel that opened this summer with 17 cosseting bedrooms. The Beckford Group (the team responsible for The Beckford Arms, The Talbot Inn and Bath’s lauded Beckford Bottle Shop) is behind the new venture, so expect characteristic attention to detail: goose-down duvets, a well-stocked drinks trolley, seasonal menus and, come nightfall, telescopes for slow, silent contemplations in this dark-sky reserve.

Scottish Highlanders love a good story and the Loch Lomond Arms, in the picturesque shoreside village of Luss, just 45 minutes outside Glasgow, is full of them. The 17th-century coaching inn has been lovingly reanimated by designer Russell Sage (behind recent Scottish successes The Fife Arms and Ardbeg House) who has parlayed unlikely real-life tales from generations of the landowning Colquhoun clan – including speedboat-racing septuagenarians, lions in trenches and badgers on leads (“You couldn’t make it up,” says Sage) – into a warm, inviting and richly detailed rest stop for adventures on the loch and into the Highlands.