At times, all you can hear is birdsong. Listening to it is shown to be genuinely good for us; reducing cortisol, restoring attention and working its magic on a nervous system modern life tends to deplete. The farm offers it freely, at every hour, in every season.
But birdsong represents something even more significant here. Nine species of principal importance, seven Devon Biodiversity Action Plan species, all recorded at Fowlescombe in a recent ecological survey. Birds that are struggling across the UK, finding what they need here: hedgerows managed for habitat, field margins left wide, land farmed in a way that gives wildlife a place in the picture.
This is what a healthy ecosystem sounds like. We’re working to make it even louder.
A week on the farm…
And off of it; wild horses and dimpsey light making magic on a private tour of Dartmoor. Seaweed, delivered with the scallops and destined to become plant food for the garden. Nothing wasted. The natural order when the sun shines here: terrace drinks, then dinner. Herbal ley becomes silage, baled while the sun shines, well ahead of serving as winter fodder for the cattle. Mark, a mason’s hammer, and the final piece of the puzzle for new walls sourced from the old quarry.
Seeing that first cut is almost as satisfying as knowing you joined the chef to pick rosemary from the garden. Watched as they gave the dough a little stretch and dimpling. Waited for the moment it came out of the oven.
But nothing quite beats the satisfaction of knowing you were part of making our daily bread, as it arrives at your table in the Refectory that evening.
Sophie pulled the last of the leeks today.
They’ll become a terrine, with almost as many layers of green as the garden itself. Served with lavoche crackers made with their burnt ends, because nothing we grow in this soil goes to waste.
Most importantly, a final call for leeks means the next stop is summer…
Rafters gives new life to old bones. Victorian beams that once watched over animals below; a bed made with the wool of the sheep that are grazing outside your window; walls that have seen the rhythms of a working farm for more seasons that anyone can remember. It all makes for a very good night’s sleep.
And that slip of a window that stretches from one side of the room to the next? That makes for your very own private view of the farm going about its day. It’s one of our favourite scenes.
A week on the farm
Setting places at golden hour and sea kale cut for service. Blue skies and breezy. The ritual of fire pit preparation resumes. Back in the orchard and laying well, and orange blossom cake for a 3pm pause in the day, which happens like clockwork around these parts.
Rain this weekend. But that’s ok; fields and gardens need days like this, to make summers like these.
Fortunately, the Farmhouse makes for a sweet spot to hunker down and weather the storm.
Taking place on Saturday 9 May, our first seasonal supper welcomes Eleanor Henson, culinary director of Spring London and Heckfield Place, to the Farm Table at Fowlescombe.
Welcome cocktails sourced from the garden and a one-off five-course menu, created by Eleanor and our executive chef Elly Wentworth, sourced from our fields, gardens and the surrounding Devon landscape. It is the guest-chef collaboration that celebrates spring in every sense.
Dinner is open to guests and non-residents alike, with limited tickets available to book on our website now. Join us for a very special evening at the Farm Table.
A week on the farm
Apple cider vinegar made with the last harvest’s glut, and Greenhouse blooms bound for geranium custard. Branston, lending important weeding assistance between ball throws and sticks. Old stone and old ways building new walls. The bits that don’t make dinner make next season’s garden grow. Shorthorns and Manx, grazing together, the lambs growing braver and bigger by the day. The first signs of blossom as the orchard cycle turns.
There’s something about the way the Devon light pours in come spring. Late in the day: pouring over the fields, dancing through the garden, and throwing its glow into suites, onto rooms and across the Refectory table, just in time for dinner.
We like to think of it as nature’s reward for doing right by the land, but deep down we know that it’s just the way afternoons look around these parts. Syrupy and golden.
A little while ago, we sat on our regenerative farm in Devon with a simple question: could a place be genuinely good for the land and genuinely exceptional for the people who stay? Today, Condé Nast Traveller named Fowlescombe Farm on the Hot List 2026, among the best new hotels in the world. And with it, our question was answered.
We are beyond proud, honoured, and more convinced than ever that what we are building here is something quite special: "A truly spoiling yet authentic farm stay"
Everything begins with the land. Earth Day is a reminder of that, and of what we stand to lose if we stop paying attention. The planet doesn't need us to slow the damage, but to reverse it; to take even tiny steps towards leaving the land genuinely, measurably, better than we found it.
That's the work to be done, today and every day.
