THE PIG - on the beach

Character and identity

The fourth in the Pig litter sits above a wild stretch of Dorset's Jurassic Coast, a rustic-chic country house with sea views and the group's familiar shabby-grand interiors. Just 23 bedrooms are split between the kooky main house and a pair of shepherd's huts in the grounds, several with claw-foot baths. A walled kitchen garden feeds the greenhouse restaurant, where the cooking is unfussy modern British built around what's grown, foraged or landed nearby; the pork crackling batons are a fixture. Service is informal and country-house warm rather than starched.

Who's it for

Bottom line

What you're really booking is the kitchen garden and the greenhouse restaurant, with the Dorset coastline as backdrop; this is a food-and-setting hotel first, a bedroom product second. Spend the money if you want a two-night dinner-driven escape, book a main-house room with a claw-foot bath over a shepherd's hut if comfort matters, and aim for shoulder season when the coast path is at its best.