Buttervilla - A Special Place to Stay
"Warm, welcoming, great advice on what are where to go. Recommend the View restaurant. Some excellent walks also. Breakfast is a real treat!"
John & Isabel, Germany, March 2013
"We've really enjoyed staying here - cosy room, beautiful house. Many thanks for the recommendation to go to Stacy's farm shop. We'll be back!"
John & Julia, London, March 2013...............more
London Evening Standard 18th July 2012
International Travel News Jan 2013
TimeOut - Cornwall's South-East
DIE ZEIT empfiehlt dieses Hotel 
Readers of Alastair Sawday's Special Places to Stay Guide voted us runner up in the 2010 Greenest B&B or Hotel Awards
Buttervilla a boutique B&B located on the romantic Port Eliot Estate takes local organic sourcing to the next level with almost everything it serves produced on the farm itself. Bread and granola is home made, the preserves contain Buttervilla fruit, the eggs are from the hens scrambling about outside and the fruit and vegetables are home grown. This place is sure to appeal to the sort of person who mourns the disappearance of real tomatoes. In season you can sample Buttervilla heirloom tomatoes served at Fifteen Cornwall and Michelin stared Gidleigh Park in Devon. There are three spacious well equipped double rooms with peaceful views."Buttervilla, Polbathic, St Germans
The location is not exactly seaside (Polbathic is a seven-mile drive to the beaches at nearby Whitsand Bay), but in high summer it’s good to get away from the coast sometimes. Only 10 miles south of the Tamar crossing on the Devon border, this rustic boutique farm stay has other waterfronts to offer (the Tiddy meets the Lynher river at St Germans Quay, a field or so away). And the seaside, when you get there, is gloriously sandy and, by Cornish standards, undiscovered.
Set in 15 acres, on the edge of the Port Eliot Estate, Buttervilla is the home of a Cornish couple, Gill and Robert Hocking. Doing b&b is a supplement to their organic smallholding (they supply soft fruit and salad leaves to Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Cornwall in Watergate Bay), but they run both businesses with the same passion and attention to detail. The rooms are eco-luxe farmhouse – big comfy beds, solar-heated power showers, Wi-Fi and birdsong (our morning call was a woodpecker tapping on the window).
Award-winning breakfasts include Buttervilla eggs, yogurt, tomatoes and fruit jams, local bacon, and home-baked bread. All that’s lacking, to my mind, is a comfy communal sitting room, but in fine weather you can lounge around outside.
Read the full article here.
Just beyond the River Tamar is a little-known corner of Cornwall; little known, that is, to motorists negotiating a tricky stretch of the A38 between Plymouth and Liskeard but familiar to rail travellers on the Paddington to Penzance line. St Germans is the gateway to a web of tidal rivers that meander down to the trail of beaches and headlands west of the Tamar Estuary.
It is only a short drive from the village to the gloriously uncrowded beaches of Whitsand Bay, a five-mile stretch of creamy sand and cliff-top walks with views across Plymouth Sound to the lovely, lonely Rame Head, at the tip of southeast Cornwall. At Kingsand-Cawsand, you can wander the narrow streets of what was once two fishing villages, on either side of the Devon-Cornwall border.
From St Germans station, you can also catch a train south west to the fishing quays of nearby Looe (change at Liskeard for the scenic Looe Valley branch line).
But you need only walk through St Germans to discover one of the highlights of the area - Port Eliot, on the banks of the Lynher Estuary. It is the gloriously eccentric home of Peregine Eliot, the 10th Earl of St Germans. Lined with faded Georgian wallpapers and crammed with treasures, the Grade I listed mansion was open to the public for the first time last year, and one month into its second season continues to provide a peek into the history of the family, who took possession of the former monastery in 1565.
If you want to stay nearby, Buttervilla Farm, at Polbathic, is an eco-luxe B&B offering comfortable rooms with solar-heated power showers in a stone-built farmhouse, set in 15 acres on the southern rim of the Port Eliot estate. Gill and Robert Hocking, the owners, grow organic salad vegetables for Jamie Oliver's Fifteen Cornwall at Watergate Bay.
Read the full article here
Set on the edge of the romantic Port Eliot estate in a picturesque corner of Cornwall, Buttervilla offers three stylishly furnished guest rooms. The accommodation is part of a 15-acre organic farm, three of which supply organic fruit and vegetables to Jamie Oliver’s restaurant, Fifteen Cornwall. The farm is near the sea, so surfers and water babies should head straight for Freathy Beach. Visit the Eden Project, Bodmin Moor or the sandy beaches of the unspoilt Rame Peninsula.
The owners: Robert and Gill Hocking are avid exponents of the organic movement and serve up their own organic produce.
What makes it so special? The eco-friendly farm is chemical-free and the bedrooms have solar-powered showers. Guests enjoy 12 acres of landscaped gardens, so it’s popular with city dwellers.
Buttervilla is a funky farmhouse B&B situated within fifteen acres of rolling countryside on the Port Eliot Estate near St Germans in an area of exceptional beauty with panoramic views across two valleys.
The Roundroom at Port Eliot
We care for our land in a sustainable, natural way and are rewarded with an abundance of wildlife around our grounds and trails to really help you get close to nature. Buttervilla has no farm animals so we have been able to remove all fences to allow guests to roam freely in the beautiful countryside. We have never used chemical sprays so the environment is clean, pure and influenced by the Atlantic breezes with the south Cornish coast just two miles away.
Nearby Places to Visit in South Cornwall
The nearby stunning coastline of the Rame Peninsula offers great walking, with fine views and some of the best tucked away beaches in the county. The well preserved and very quaint twin coastal villages of Cawsand and Kingsand are just 7 miles from Buttervilla with 3 pubs and a couple of good cafes serving local produce to choose from, a great starting point for walks along the coast in both directions.
Cawsand Bay
The fishing village of Looe is 7 miles away, the coastal villages of Downderry, Seaton and Portwrinkle just a few minutes drive. The historic city of Plymouth is 12 miles from Buttervilla and can be reached via the Torpoint ferry or Tamar bridge and the Eden Project is 30 minutes drive.
The Rame Peninsula
Organic & Eco Friendly
We care for our land in a sustainable, organic, eco-friendly way and hold a sought after Soil Association Organic Standard Certification. We grow a range of heritage varieties of fruit and vegetables for Jamie Oliver's Fifteen Cornwall along with some of the finest restaurants in Cornwall. Check out our restaurant produce website here.
From our secluded sitting areas red
deer can be spotted at dusk, as can barn owls, kestrels and woodpeckers, while buzzards soar on
thermals throughout the day. A walk around the farm will treat you to
a multitude of bird song to help soothe your stresses and put you at peace
with the world.
In season we provide fresh produce from our own extensive gardens, grown using organic methods for maximum quality, purity and a great taste. We provide a hearty farmhouse breakfast made with locally sourced ingredients. We have been voted one of the best b&b's in Cornwall and the South West for food by the Guardian and Alister Sawday has awarded us the "Fine Food Stamp"
Situated within the ancient 3000 acre Port Eliot Estate, Buttervilla is a refurbished farmhouse equipped with modern conveniences. The three spacious double en suite rooms are comfortably furnished in a contemporary style and you can enjoy an eco friendly solar heated spring water shower . Don’t worry, we do have alternative heating methods if the sun is not shining.
The
kitchen at Port Eliot House
We have been featured in two episodes of the ITV 1 series "Cornwall with Caroline Quentin" The TV crew followed us for a couple of months during summer 2011 filming at Buttervilla, Port Eliot festival, the Fifteen restaurant Cornwall and with our family sailing at Looe. We are featured in Episode's three and five of the eight part series. The first in the series features our local restaurant The View and chef Matt Corner, which is situated just a few minutes away on the beautiful Rame Peninsula.
You may like to view Anna Greenland's wonderful little "Buttervilla Photobook" - a growers year working in Buttervilla's gardens.
Click here to download.
"Thank you very much for the wonderful welcome and your attention to detail. We have enjoyed the peace and quiet in these beautiful surroundings - and the lovely weather ! We hope to be able to return sometime."
Tess & Peter - Winchester, June 2010
"A lovely, peaceful place to wake up in on our 44th wedding anniversary! Excellent breakfast & very comfortable room. Welcoming and very friendly"
Roger & Diana - Devon, June 2010
"The description "bed & breakfast" just doesn't cover it. We melted into the bed and so soft sheets. A better breakfast couldn't be imagined - especially the red and yellow cherry tomatoes picked moments before. Blue tits at the window - you couldn't arrange it!."
Gina & Phil - London
"Wonderful to wake up to sunshine and birdsong and a woodpecker
at our window - we hope t be back soon. Thank you for the
beautiful breakfasts and all the lovely little touches too."
Lynne & Nigel, Somerset
"Lovely stay in a beautiful, tranquil place. Thank you."
Kathryn & Andy H, Tamworth