Barton Court | Malvern country estate, sleeps 40

Take the whole of Barton Court for your own. A Georgian country house and its four renovated ancillary buildings, set in seven acres at the foot of the Malvern Hills. A virtual hamlet to yourself for up to forty guests, with the gardens, the barns and the views entirely yours.

The Manor House sleeps twenty-six across eleven bedrooms, most of them en-suite. There are long tables made for big dinners, deep sofas and room enough to gather everyone together or let people find a corner of their own. It has held milestone birthdays, family reunions and company retreats, and it suits all of them.

Four further properties sit within the grounds: the Coach House, the Clock Tower, the Hayloft and the Loose Box. These add fourteen more beds and a bit of privacy for couples, grandparents, or anyone who likes their own front door. The Clock Tower, built in the nineteenth century for the head gardener, has a deep, double-ended outdoor bath out on its deck that faces the hills; on a clear night it's one of the best seats on the estate.

Outside, are garden rooms to wander through, with two ponds, mature trees, roses and sweet-smalling plants galore, your very own bridge and plenty of private parking. A converted barn complex - the Saw Mill, the Dutch Barn and the Engine Room - gives you proper space for a party, a yoga morning, a long lunch or a working session, licensed until midnight. This is dark-sky country: the Malverns carry some of the least light-polluted skies in England, and the stargazing is genuinely good.

Dogs are welcome. Catering can be arranged, from a relaxed supper to a full celebration. And because the estate is yours alone for the stay, it shapes itself around whatever you've come to do - a big birthday, a reunion, a retreat, a small wedding, or simply everyone under one roof for a few days.

Barton Court is on the edge of Colwall, where Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire meet. The village station is about a mile away, Birmingham Airport around forty-five minutes, the M5 and M50 within easy reach — far enough to feel away from it all, close enough to be easy to get to.