Michelin star venue Holbeck Ghyll looks to the future

Holbeck Ghyll has two enviable assets – a stunning location with lake views far from the madding crowd with a fell and field backdrop, and an outstanding example of Arts and Crafts interiors, all oak panelling, stained glass and copper doorplates.

Now it is aiming to add a third special feature – its food, courtesy of head chef and now director Ross Marshall.

In a unique move, Ross has taken on responsibility not just for the kitchen but the entire hotel after owner Stephen Leahy handed over the management to the team. Ross is leasing the property and, together with his two senior managers, will lead the team on a mission to restore Holbeck Ghyll’s reputation principally for dining but also as a warm and welcoming hotel.

Ross Marshall

“We are returning more to a restaurant with rooms feel,” says reservations manager Gregory Simons. “I think we had a reputation for being the posh hotel on the hill but that’s definitely not what we’re about now. If you’ve come off the lake or the fells and want a coffee or afternoon tea or a drink in the bar then you can enjoy that here.” Similarly, if you want to celebrate a special occasion with an eight-course tasting menu or just a main course and pudding on a Friday night after work then you can do that too.

Holbeck Ghyll has a fresh outlook and its democratic approach to food will do the talking. It is a significant change from the hotel of old when it was known for its Michelin star and as a haunt of celebrities.

The star was awarded nearly 25 years ago and was retained for a further decade under then head chef David McLaughlin and owners David and Patricia Nicholson. The accolades initially kept on coming as engineer and entrepreneur Stephen acquired the hotel in 2010, his first foray into hospitality. Guests were treated to helicopter rides, a spa was added and interest only increased with the arrival of the BBC comedy series The Trip, starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, which, thanks to streaming services, still brings in guests today.

“It was seen as a playground of the rich and famous but in achieving that I think we lost our way a little,” admits Gregory, who has been at the hotel for ten years and previously worked at Sharrow Bay and The Samling. Things did seem to slide – “not worth the trip,” said one review in reference to the TV stardom – and in 2014 the star went out.

That, however, is a long time ago. Ross arrived in 2020, just ahead of the first lockdown, with a CV that begins with young chef of the year at the Scottish Food and Drink awards and continues to include some of the UK’s best-known restaurants and hotel groups.

He served his apprenticeship at The Balmoral, in Edinburgh, then the Waldorf Astoria Caledonian and was a member of the opening team of Harvey Nichols in the city.

Holbeck Ghyll

From there he headed to Australia and worked under Peter Gilmore at his celebrated Quay restaurant in Sydney. He returned to Scotland as chef de partie at the Old Course Hotel, Golf Resort & Spa in St Andrews and within a year was running the restaurant, going on to achieve three AA rosettes. From there he spent a year a Celtic Manor Hotel in Wales followed by a move to the Dorchester group as head chef at Coworth Park, in Ascot.

He first arrived in Cumbria in 2016 to complete 18 months at Storrs Hall followed by a similar spell at Hotel Gotham in Manchester before making the permanent move back having identified the Lake District as the best place in the world for him and his wife Grace to bring up their two young children, Ivy and Oliver.

Despite the pandemic, Ross has quickly made his mark at Holbeck Ghyll. “It’s gone from strength to strength as I’ve built the team,” he says. “I had a great relationship with Stephen and he wanted to become more of a landlord and allow me to run the business.

“It’s daunting but I have been incredibly blessed to work for so many general managers who forced me out of my comfort zone so I have experience.”

Gregory, who grew up in Keswick, adds: “Stephen had other paths to follow and in Ross we have the only head chef who has also had a keen interest in the whole business. He is very service orientated, not just about the food but the whole guest experience.

“We were looking at a restructure and Ross was offered the opportunity to start a company within Holbeck Ghyll and effectively lease it off Stephen, who has pledged to continue to invest, starting with a full refurbishment of the rooms.

“Working with Stephen has always been good fun, but he has in the past had a management company working for him. This is an opportunity for those of us managing the hotel to have much more flexibility and autonomy to do it our way.

“There are many hotels in the Lakes with multi-millionaire owners who aren’t local and don't live here, but there aren't many 23-bedroom country house hotels with a very good restaurant with a view that are run and owned by the head chef and their team, in fact I don't think that exists anywhere else. Having a chef as director speaks to a lot of people about what we intend to be.”

Holbeck Ghyll

Ross adds: “We need Holbeck Ghyll to be a destination again and that's all going to be about the restaurant.”

He describes his food as modern European in its flavours and techniques. “It’s always evolving but I only buy the best of the best, so Scottish scallops, venison from Scotland and Herdwick lamb. I’m not into foraging, it’s not my thing, but we change our menus as things come in and out of season, so it was morels last month and truffles are just starting to come back. The lamb is fantastic at the moment and when it dies away we’ll go back to beef.

“We want to be a restaurant for all occasions. I want us to be busy every day, not just at weekends, to be good value and to offer plenty of choice, so we are big on vegetarian and pescatarian. I want choice when I go out and I think other people do too.”

Local suppliers include Mr Duffins Coffee, from Staveley, and wholesale fruit and vegetables from Caterite, of Cocermouth, and McClures, up the road in Windermere. Cheese is selected from Harvey & Brockless in London. “I’ve worked all over the country so I’ve come into contact with the best and can bring it here,” says Ross.

With the cost of everything in hospitality going up, he recognises that customers are facing price rises everywhere too. Consequently, his five-course and eight-course tasting menus are competitively priced at £55 and £80, and there is also a la carte for those who just want one, two or three courses, as well as a light bites menu during the day, making fine dining accessible for all occasions. It is all possible thanks to his enormous kitchen with every bit of kit a chef could need, a legacy of more hedonistic days.

“We make all our own brioche and sourdough; the only thing we don’t make is sliced bread for toast. We get whole lambs and use everything; we’re making sausages for breakfast at the moment. Doing everything is enjoyable and it keeps everyone learning.”

Of course, being a hotel means that service runs from breakfast through to dinner and room service. The team take turns to cover breakfast which allows them to have a rare night off. “I grade a hotel on its breakfast and its club sandwich,” says Ross. “If you’ve had a great breakfast you’re more likely to book dinner. Breakfast is the last meal you have before you check out, so you want it to leave good memories.”

Food by Ross Marshall, at Holbeck Ghyll

He has a team of five who include sous chef Steve Jackson, who has been with him for 18 months, and junior sous chef Pauline Charneca, who has worked with Ross for three years. “My last sous chef was with me for 12 years and has just gone back to Scotland. All the people who work for me stay for quite a long time, we become more like a family. If the team are invested in it, we try and push forward together,” he says.

Gregory adds: “We’ve got a lot of people here who see hospitality as a career, not just a job. You have to hang on to those people and we have done for a long time. The hotel is about the people who work here and the people who come.”

The point of it all is to ensure that all guests are looked after in the same way, a service led by the other member of the senior team Tom Blakeley, who is renowned for remembering every guest who returns.

“The stuffiness and high prices that people may have associated with the posh hotel on the hill is not what we are about at all,” adds Gregory. “We are a relaxed country house hotel where you can come for food or a drink on the terrace before a walk into Ambleside.”

Dinner is served in the Oak Restaurant. Most guests still want to sit at the table occupied by Coogan and Brydon and it is easy to see why. Framed in stone with part leaded glass, it is the perfect vantage point both for the garden and lake views outside but also for taking in your fellow diners.

As a dining room it is the perfect size, large enough to have a buzz when it is full but intimate enough if even a few tables are filled. The mix of polished furniture, some original Arts and Crafts, others repro, all add to a warm, unstuffy atmosphere. It also featured in the TV series Deep Water, based on novels by Bowness author Paula Daly.

Food by Ross Marshall, at Holbeck Ghyll

A second dining room has a different feel, much lighter a more feminine in its detailing. It is ideal for private dining, small group hire and modest family celebrations.

Opening up the back of the building has created a large, contemporary bar which opens onto a extensive outdoor terrace.

A large chef’s table is currently sitting in the kitchen ready for use and is likely to be given a new home when the former spa is converted into an additional coffee lounge cum cocktail bar and space for private dining.

“The great thing is that we have options,” says Gregory. “We are small enough that we don’t have to be doing the same thing every day. We’ve got that flexibility and can be spontaneous if, for example, it’s a lovely day and we want to do something outside. We want to play with it and have fun.”

Holbeck Ghyll is believed to have been built in 1889 as a hunting lodge for Lord Lonsdale of Lowther. At some point it was acquired by the Clegg family and they are credited for commissioning its Arts and Crafts interiors – a large stained glass window on the landing bearing their coat of arms also carries a date of 1902. It is believed it went from being a family home to a hotel in the 1970s.

It is a gem; most of its ground floor interiors preserved with oak panelling and nooks with oak and stained glass dividing walls, intricate plasterwork borders on the ceilings, cornicing, columns and fire surrounds. Tiled floors remain intact and copper ironmongery adorns original doors.

From entering through the front porch, there are details everywhere, but the piece de resistance is the oak staircase that leads up to the oak and glazed entrance to room one, the Lord Lonsdale Suite. As a door to a hotel room it takes some beating.

The bedroom refurbishment programme will be carried out over the next few years, each one completed to exacting standards of restoration of the old and installation of new technology and modern comforts – £80,000 has already been invested in room one alone, which has included removing, restoring and replacing the original stained glass.

The Oak Restaurant at Holbeck Ghyll

Gregory explains: “In the main building the style is grand country house – locally, handmade, oak furniture, new windows, panelling, big beds and William Morris wallpaper, but the more colourful designs, with all mod cons. The aim is for them to be to the latest modern standards but with soul. We don’t want it to be a museum, but we do recognise what we have.

“Room one is our template for the rest of the hotel. There are some lovely hotels in the Lake District but coming here gives you a picture-perfect view and a sense of grandeur that is really special.”

Guests with dogs can stay in one of seven pet-friendly rooms within a cluster of other buildings on the estate. There are several rooms like this, such as Buttermere, behind the main house that have an apartment feel with large bedrooms, bathrooms and living spaces. They include the Miss Potter Suite, which is more like a detached bungalow and famously accommodated Hollywood star Renee Zellwegger during the making of the film released in 2006. It has a balcony with hot tub and a slate bathroom with twin basins and a roll-top bath.

The range of rooms is broad enough to suit all requirements, and there are plans for more as the hotel steps into a new era.

“We had dropped off people’s radar for a little while. We never left the foodie world but being prominent again is our driver now,” says Gregory. “We haven’t promoted ourselves for years or been involved in the community, so we are reaching out now and looking forward to being back involved in the area.”