Spa Kesgrave Hall, Suffolk: a Woodland Wonderland Across the Essex border

The long-established Milsoms collection of hotels and restaurants in Essex and Suffolk is hard to fault. Restaurants range from fine-dining and formal to casual order-yourself affairs. Guests can choose to stay in a combination of options from a design-led cottage to boutique or country house hotels. Until now there was only a small-but-well run spa at Maison Talbooth in Dedham offering Elemis treatments, massages and mani-pedis but I imagine it wasn't enough for the volume of guests. 

Just before Lockdown, the Essex-Suffolk empire was about to launch a £2million spa in the grounds of Kesgrave Hall, the boutique hotel within a grand mansion not far from Ipswich or their Dedham/Harwich properties.

A former RAF base and boarding school, Kesgrave Hall feels like a country house hotel despite a mere 23 rooms, which is enhanced by the arrival through acres of woodland flanked by rolling lawn. En route to the hotel, a long wooden structure holds the new spa, now open. Nesting in the grounds, it's a beautifully-built low-level structure that rather than blend in with the surroundings, enhances them, helped by the use of natural stones, wood, granite and copper inside.

Everything is perfectly designed, from the clever, silver sculpture-like towel holders on walls to the copper-topped tables in reception. Bi-fold doors lead out to an alfresco relaxation area lined with day beds, sofas, a double-sided log burner and Big Boy beanbags, hot tub and plunge pool. 

It's not on the spa menu but I'm guessing you could do a bit of forest bathing in such a rural situation. What is on the menu are Elemis treatments and packages including lunch at the hotel's bistro-style restaurant.

I popped in for a luxury manicure, sat in one of the five treatment rooms on a clear-perspex chair looking out at the forest. Grey is overdone for home interiors but here it seems soothing in towels, uniforms including branded face masks. Nails expertly clipped and filed, rough-looking hands gently scrubbed and given a soothing OPI mask (I don't need to say anything about hands right now do I?). A few coats of glossy coral nail varnish and I'm ready for my lunch, the therapist kindly digging my car keys out of my bag.

It was one of the hot, hot days we've been having recently. I sat overlooking the lawns, with children rolling around and families taking selfies. Not that hungry, but always greedy I chose two starters to come at the same time: duck spring roll with a crab and prawn cocktail.

A clever up-sided glass bowl lined with slivers of cucumber prettified the 70s starter which came with a teeny loaf of granary bread and a round of zesty lemon butter.  The spring roll surprised me in its size - the same as a Gregg's sausage roll. But here the comparison ends. Crunch outside, it was sweet and soft within with a leafy salad of dark green pointy mizuna leaves (Japanse mustard greens).

As usual, I had smudged my nails before I'd even left the grounds but given the serenity of the surroundings and the easy-yet-attentive manner of the staff I somehow didn't care.

*The three-night Summer Staycation in Suffolk package at Kesgrave Hall from £330 B&B, based on two sharing.