Middleton Lodge Estate

Middleton Lodge is a 200-acre Georgian estate at Middleton Tyas, near Richmond in North Yorkshire. Its centrepiece is the Palladian Main House, finished in 1780 to a design by John Carr of York. The Allison family bought the estate in 1980 and has restored it building by building: the Main House reopened for exclusive use in 2005, and the Coach House followed in 2014 with bedrooms and a restaurant. There are now 58 bedrooms across the Main House, the Coach House, the Dairy and the Orchard, plus the Forest Spa.

The Main House is still the family residence, and its seventeen bedrooms are let whole on selected dates. A party can take the house with its sweeping staircase, its cellar bar and the new Garden Marquee on the lawn. The second event space is the Fig House, a contemporary room inside the two-acre walled garden that Tom Stuart-Smith redesigned. Take both and the celebration runs across the estate for up to 200 evening guests.

Food is the reason many people come. Forge, in the estate's old forge, holds a MICHELIN star and a Green Star, and serves tasting menus from head chef Jake Jones from Thursday to Sunday. The Coach House is open all day with menus built on the walled garden, and takes lunch and dinner parties. The estate also has private dining rooms for business lunches and smaller tables. The estate is five minutes from Scotch Corner, and a 20-minute transfer from the station for guests coming up from King's Cross.