What’s the draw?
Ahh, the Cotswolds. Forever the quintessential weekend getaway from London. A scene of storybook villages, country pubs, rolling hills and tourists, like me, on the lookout for Jude Law.
Owned by Matthew Freud (yes, that Freud family), Bull Burford sits in an old 16th-century coaching house transformed into a hotel. It’s been refurbished, but they’re smart enough to know that the quirks inherited from taking over a Grade II-listed building are part of the draw, not discomforts to cover up with modern airbrushing.
Not a single one of the 18 rooms is the same – one of them, the Drunk Tank, lives up to its name with a tilted floor and close proximity to the bar, and is generally not advised if you’re usually the first to turn in for the night.
The Bull boasts an industry-leading array of artwork
Seb Gardner
Next door is a charming antique sports shop, where they sell various forms of hand-carved wooden sporting equipment, ancient skis and tennis rackets that would humble even Jannik Sinner. You might think it was kitsch if it weren’t genuine.
Nowhere does the unique, idiosyncratic energy of Bull shine through quite like its art. Take in a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II while walking down the stairs to breakfast, and one of Che Guevara while having a drink in the den.
Given the family ownership, you sense they felt compelled to do something that would arrest guests in their tracks. The collection is self-admittedly incoherent, featuring originals from celebrated names including Damien Hirst, Matisse and Grayson Perry.
Hereford steak tagliata at Horn
Seb Gardner
What to eat and drink?
For dining at Bull, the standout is Wild, an 11-course tasting menu in which chef Ben Chamberlain invites you into an outdoor tent where an open fire and some of the best local produce await. In the tent, the same fire that cooks the food warms the diners (although blankets are provided if, like us, you’re there on a winter night approaching sub-zero).
The menu is subject to seasonal change, but expect 11 courses of hit after hit, cooked over an open fire – from chalk-stream trout with jalapeño and wild venison to an aged rib of beef, cooked progressively throughout the evening before being served as the showstopper. What it amounts to is something truly unique that’s worth the trip in and of itself.
The interiors at Vincent
Seb Gardner
Other dining options include Horn, the main restaurant, which serves up proper country fare like a signature Bull burger and Bull pie alongside European-influenced veal ragu rigatoni and roast cod with gremolata. In the summer, they’ve wisely copped on to the fact that guests sipping a pint in the garden would inevitably devour a pizza, and went and hired 2025 Pizza Maker of the Year Michele Pascarella (Napoli on the Road) and ex-Connaught chef Anshu Anghotra to sling them out from a wood-fire oven.
Go classic with a margherita, or elevate things with ingredients like truffle, pickled jalapeños, and Puglian stracciatella. The cocktail programme, headed up by lead mixologist Gregory Woods, is playful and creatively utilises seasonal, local ingredients, incorporating everything from sloe gin made in-house to locally sourced biltong.
A room at The Bull
James French
What to do?
The high street in Burford means something very different from what it does in London; Pret and Greggs are replaced by old antiquaries and enough sweet shops to make you think it must be the most prosperous place in the world to be a dentist.
There are surely few places on earth better for a hard-boiled sweet crawl. To someone who, despite living in England, has visited vanishingly few places in the country outside of London, it feels positively exotic, like stepping into the Enid Blyton books I loved as a kid.
A romp around the surrounding fields, into the 15th-century church, and into one of the many, many pubs is a country afternoon as perfectly spent as any. Drive for five minutes and you’ll also come to one of the most famous pubs in Britain – the Farmer’s Dog, which apparently has a celebrity owner, and slots perfectly into the ‘worth seeing, not worth going to see’ mantra; so, when in Rome.
Don’t miss out on a massage at the spa, either, with a huge array of options led by Rheane Cole – because while Bull’s dedication to maintaining tradition is lovely, some modern luxuries are worth it.
