Mad Swans in the Mendips officially opens in a sleepy corner of Somerset on Thursday. It’s the latest project from Longshot, the team behind Beaverbrook, in Surrey — one of the UK’s chicest (and most expensive) country house hotels. In hospitality terms, Mad Swans represents a 180-degree handbrake turn for the company. It’s folksy, affordable and promises to redefine how we have fun by getting us to play — wait for it — golf.
Rest assured Longshot’s owners Joel Cadbury and Ollie Vigors do understand what fun is — they ran the A-list playground that is the Groucho Club in London for years after all. Still, as my interest in golf begins and ends with googling what the American fans at the Ryder Cup said to Rory McIlroy’s wife, my instinct is to respectfully decline the offer of an exclusive preview. However, I’m intrigued. The duo are collaborating in the West Country with experts who helped make Beaverbrook an award-winner, so I decided to risk talk of bogeys and birdies at the bar.
I arrive in Farrington Gurney, a 30-minute drive southwest from Bath, to find an unimpressive stone farmhouse that morphed into a golf club some years ago, courtesy of a bland clubhouse extension, set in 200 acres. I wistfully recall Beaverbrook’s eye-candy Victorian architecture. It’s also raining heavily, so I check in with as much enthusiasm as I imagine Keir Starmer can muster for a call with Donald Trump.
I perk up immediately, partly because the Mad Swans team are so endearingly warm and friendly but also because signs of Surrey swankiness are everywhere. The Nest, for example, is a generous sweep of lounge painted a hunker-down inky blue with shelves bursting with books, board games and trailing house plants. The space is crisscrossed with slouchy velvet sofas in jewel-like shades and dotted with wood-turned table lamps with cutesy ikat lampshades. Sisal rugs patchwork the wooden floor and a smart tiled cocktail bar props up one corner.
What you need to knowWhere is it? Farrington Gurney, a 30-minute drive southwest from BathInsider tip Dinner in the hotel restaurant, the Potting Shed, is fantastic valueWho will love it? Golfers, non-golfers, fun-seekers, nature-lovers
It’s a nostalgia-laden jumble of colours and textures that invites enjoyment. A good mix of ages are doing precisely that. Older couples sip wine, thirtysomethings tap at laptops and giggling kids and their yummy mummies eat cake. It reminds me of the Village, Beaverbrook’s family-friendly enclave. Later I discover the interior designer behind it, Sabine Gern, worked for Nicola Harding, who was responsible for the Village’s homespun styling.
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In marked contrast, a short walk away are 16 identical, sexily minimal, sleek eco-cabins (another 32 are en route), which are arranged in clusters of four so they can be easily interconnected for families and groups.
Mad Swans eco cabins can be configured to accommodate families and larger groups
Mine has an uncluttered black-clad interior, with a pop of postbox red for chairs and crisp white bed linen, a palette that enhances its zen-like simplicity. There’s just about enough storage space and nice touches such as lifestyle hardbacks, backgammon, jigsaws, complimentary homemade biscuits and a minibar that can be customised for indulgence or wellbeing. It feels thoughtfully curated.
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My only criticism is that the wow-factor picture window — overlooking what by spring will be wildflower hillocks and fruiting trees — compromises privacy. I feel compelled to draw the sheers so that passers-by aren’t treated to an impromptu Susan d’Arcy floor show. Full marks for refusing to stick a TV on the wall though. Instead there’s a projector and a drop-down screen, which feels more fun.
Have an elevated pub classic at the Potting Shed
ADAM LYNK
The rain sets in hard so I can’t play golf, or try out the other activities, which include padel, pickleball and a putt patch. Instead I happily idle until dinner. Ollie Dabbous, who held Michelin stars at his Dabbous and Hide restaurants in London, has created the recipes with the executive chef Steve Rooney, who previously headed Beaverbrook’s kitchen. Dining is exceptionally good value. Choose between fabulously thin-crusted, indecently cheesy pizzas from £12 at the laid-back Hangout and elevated pub classics at the Potting Shed, where my crispy Cornish squid with chipotle aioli is a steal at £9, as is my tasty fish pie (£19).
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The 12-hole golf course
I wake the next day and for the first time in my life I’m curious about golf. It’s all Cadbury’s fault. He’s in charge of enthusiasm at Longshot, and it’s clearly contagious. “We’re trying to make Mad Swans a place for people who hate golf,” he tells me. So he and Vigors commissioned Tom Mackenzie and Martin Ebert, who are responsible for 41 of the UK’s top golf courses including Turnberry, to design a 12-hole golf course. It’s the first one built in the UK in 100 years.
Here’s the hard sell: 12 holes suit the 21st-century lifestyle better, because a round is quicker, taking about two hours, which means women and youngsters find it more appealing. “Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods are evangelical about 12 holes,” Cadbury continues. “It’s the future of golf. It’s also the heritage of golf. The first Open championship was played over 12 holes.”
The 12-hole golf course
ANDY HISEMAN
Just as importantly Mad Swans is loosening those clubhouse corsets so there’s no snobby dress code, the buggies have chiller boxes for beers and it’s OK to listen to music as you play. Cadbury wants the mood to be relaxed, sociable and as much about being in nature — and there that means the soft-focus folds of the Mendips. When you add all that up, it does sound like, whisper it, fun.
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I meet the golf pro Matt Jagucki in the Swing Barn, Mad Swans’ driving range, where the 14 bays are decorated in jaunty pea-green and white stripes. There are sofas, music, TVs. You can order drinks. It’s full of families hitting balls and laughing. It feels like a party.
I’m pretty hopeless but Jagucki is patience personified and I’m genuinely raring to get out on the course. Sadly, a biblical downpour scuppers my plans. I’m genuinely disappointed. I thoroughly enjoy my time at Mad Swans, no ifs and, sadly, no putts either.
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Susan d’Arcy was a guest of Mad Swans in the Mendips, which has B&B doubles from £195 (madswans.com)
