Arriving at Heckfield Place is like entering Jane Austen’s world—the Hampshire hotel is a Georgian, Grade II–listed house within a 438-acre estate of manicured loveliness. The drive sweeps through woodland and lawns, and two lakes can be seen from the dramatic entrance hall. The reception rooms have the reassuring scent of log fires and fresh flowers gathered from the gardens.
Heckfield was nine years in the making due to the perfectionist tendencies of its billionaire owner, Dr. Gerald Chan, a venture capitalist whose family donated $350 million to the Harvard School of Public Health (now the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health).
Those instincts have been put to more cosseting use at Heckfield Place’s new spa, the Bothy by Wildsmith. It took nearly five years to build it in the 18th-century walled garden, and guests—only 25 are invited at a time—enter through a hobbit’s cottage door once used by the gardeners.
Inside, down a spectacular spiral staircase, is a vast cavern of wellness and tranquility—a womb with a view. Most of the Bothy’s practitioners are specialists in kinesiology, a therapy that uses muscle monitoring known as biofeedback to identify and relieve what it calls “imbalances” in the body. In addition to massage, treatments include reflexology, craniosacral therapy, and myofascial (soft tissue) release. Some massages are 135 minutes long, and after the therapists knead the body with essential oils, guests are led by the hand to a darkened relaxation room and encouraged to snooze.
At the Bothy, the busy world is hushed: no mobile phones, no children, no nonresident guests. The only sound in the treatment rooms is birdsong recorded in the estate’s woodlands. The 60-foot swimming pool is set in limestone, and it sparkles with light from the floor-to-ceiling windows. Outside, Guernsey cows slowly chew their cud, and fortunately, they are fenced off from the chlorine-free hydrotherapy pools.
The Bothy’s signature program is the four-day Reconnect retreat, which can be done solo, with a partner, or in groups. The aim is to reconnect mind and spirit by immersing the body in nature, and the pampering begins pre-arrival with a Zoom session with the Bothy’s resident psychologist, Dr. Amy Steadman, who assesses guests’ physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.
The only sound in the treatment rooms is birdsong recorded in the estate’s woodlands.
The retreat’s programming includes guided outdoor meditation and cold-water swimming in the lake, followed by a picnic around a firepit. Steadman takes guests on walks around the estate, where she administers positive psychology and eco-psychology, attempting to alleviate stress and promote inner calm. The retreat ends as it began, with a session with Steadman dedicated to clarifying post-retreat goals.
Heckfield Place’s hotel rooms, painted in shades of petal pink and Army green, reinforce that sense of safe cocooning. They distill thoughtfulness as well as mindfulness; you can plonk down without worrying about denting the cushions.
In addition to admiring Chan’s collection of contemporary paintings, other pursuits include a well-stocked library and a 67-seat cinema with a program of current films. Heckfield’s three restaurants are overseen by Skye Gyngell, the proprietor and chef of Spring at Somerset House, in London. Marle has an earthy atmosphere in both the design of wood-and-slate interiors and the food, which is strictly seasonal and centered around vegetables from the kitchen garden. Hearth, a more casual option, is a light and airy conservatory and terrace overlooking the gardens that serves open-fire cooking and wood-roasted meat, fish, and vegetables. The Sunroom, a vegetarian café at the Bothy, is an ideal place to refuel between treatments.
The crowd at Heckfield Place is well heeled and often accompanied by well-behaved children and dogs. And the rooms benefit from the soothing colors, cozy sitting areas, oversize beds, and high-quality linens. The large, modern bathrooms are stocked with Wildsmith products, named after the estate’s historic gardener, William Wildsmith. And all this loveliness is only an hour’s drive from London.
The writer was a guest of Heckfield Place, where rates begin at $690 per night (including breakfast)
Victoria Mather is a London-based travel writer and editor who has contributed to Tatler, The Daily Telegraph, the Evening Standard, and Vanity Fair
