The Bothy at Heckfield Place

Welcome to the third iteration of Vogue’s global spa guide, a collection of the 100 best spas in the world, compiled based on first person reviews and careful editing. This year, we’ve renewed our focus on places that have established a reputation for exceptional care of body and mind. Whatever you are seeking when it comes to wellness, there is something here for you.

Why go here?

Heckfield Place is less than a decade old—this delightful hotel and 438-acre estate in the Hampshire countryside, just an hour’s drive from London, only opened in 2018—but it already has the feel of an institution. You can chalk that up partly to the grandeur of its setting: the sweeping driveway, the Grade II-listed Georgian manor house that is its beating heart, and of course, the elegantly landscaped gardens, which include two lakes, a seemingly endless number of forest trails, and a working farm.

Any reliance on the clichés of an English country house hotel ends there, however: The interiors have been very stylishly reimagined by Ben Thompson, a protégé of Ilse Crawford, with bespoke contemporary furniture, crackling fireplaces, and a distinctive palette of soft greys, sages, and earth tones that threads its way through every room. (I especially loved the earthy feel of the hand-woven rush mat sourced from a local workshop at the foot of my bed, and the terracotta tiles in my bathroom.) It doesn’t look, or feel, quite like anywhere else, which is exactly what you hope for from a hotel of this caliber.

And then, there’s the 17,000-square-foot spa, which only opened in 2023, The Bothy by Wildsmith (Wildsmith being the hotel’s in-house skincare line, named after the estate’s head gardener in the 19th century. The brand has become so popular that it’s now sold in Liberty and often appears in the bathrooms of rival hotels—it’s just that good.) The reason it opened so many years after the hotel is that the team wanted to make sure every detail was right, and that patience paid off: it’s a doozy. In the words of The Bothy’s director, Reka Seres-Erdei: “The Bothy is the reknitting of all parts of the estate—it represents the vision of accepting and living by the natural cycles of seasons.”

What’s the vibe?

To access The Bothy, you first pass through a beautiful walled garden filled with fragrant lavender and English roses—this is very much intentional, the team later tells me, as it encourages you to begin the necessary process of winding down before entering. (You’re encouraged to check your phone into a locker when you enter The Bothy, and I can certainly recommend doing so.) The spa itself is enormous, spanning both an expansive, glass-walled pool and thermal circuit—as well as a lovely hot tub perched on a deck with views over the rolling Hampshire hills—and a subterranean network of treatment rooms and relaxation areas, which sit along darkened stone-floored hallways. There’s no cliché spa music here, but rather the sounds recorded over the course of a week from the grounds of the estate during lockdown.

All of this was the vision of Heckfield’s owner, the Hong Kong-American billionaire Gerald Chan, and has been curated carefully by Wildsmith Skin’s general manager, Katherine Pye. (There’s also a lovely little shop selling Wildsmith products.) The principles of the spa are based around the body’s circadian rhythm—sessions, which can span many hours, are scheduled at dawn, noon, and dusk—and are aligned with the overall spirit of the estate, whether that means using farm equipment (milk churns for its functional Farm Fit workout sessions, for example) or heading for a spot of cold-water immersion therapy in the lake.

In addition to phones, children and alcohol are not permitted. The total number of spa guests is capped at 52, ensuring tranquillity and focus, while also avoiding the crunch of back-to-back treatments—for both guests and practitioners and therapists. You’ll feel instantly grounded.

The history?

The grand Georgian house of Heckfield was bought by American billionaire Gerald Chan in 2002 and then meticulously renovated before its doors were opened to the public in 2019. Art from his personal collection lines the walls of the property, giving it a home-away-from-home feel, and his personal touch can be felt in the spa as well: fossilized limestone floors and sinks, antique Hampshire bricks from the original building, and the 29,434 hand-laid tiles in the swimming pool.

What should you try?

The treatment menu offers a tight edit of wellness experiences, but Wildsmith Time—which spans 135 minutes—showcases the very best of The Bothy. After being ushered into one of the treatment rooms, I underwent a brief kinesiology session so that my therapist could figure out the right course of action: This essentially involved being gently prodded and nudged so that she could identify any physical, emotional, or energetic imbalances in the body. (I’d had an intense few hours of back-to-back Zoom calls before heading into the spa, and my therapist quickly detected stress, which impressed me.) I was assigned a relaxing lavender essential oil to help bring down my cortisol levels, and then lulled into a state of bliss for nearly two hours of deep tissue massage, foot zone reflex therapy, and a craniosacral hold that felt a little strange at first—my therapist essentially held my head in her forearms like an enormous melon—but quickly led to gentle tingles down my spine. Oh, and make sure to heed the candle that burns for exactly 20 minutes in the very lovely post-treatment room; it’s the minimum amount of time you should relax afterwards, to ensure that the reset sinks in.

How environmentally friendly is it?

The short answer is very. “It begins with the soil” is the motto at Heckfield Place, and sustainability is at the heart. The organic home farm, certified biodynamic market garden, and orchard all provide seasonal food from the land and livestock, even down to the milk and butter, which changes color according to what the Guernsey cows are eating at that time of year. There are on-site biomass boilers, while the water used comes from harvested rainwater and their own well—everything has been devised with sustainability at the forefront. There are woodlands with hundreds of trees planted and wildflower seeds sown to increase biodiversity—there isn’t an area of their environmental footprint that has not been considered. Be sure to make time to appreciate the house’s commitment to living respectfully off the land.

What else do we need to know?

The food at Heckfield Place is superb, and feels part and parcel with the spa’s philosophy: breads, butter, yogurts, jams, cordials, and liqueurs are all made in-house, and one of its two restaurants, the all-day Marle, has earned a Michelin Green Star for its efforts. I especially loved the open-fire cooking at Hearth, however, which is housed in an atmospheric former barn where you can watch flatbreads and chalkstream trout being flamed right in front of you. It’s contemporary English cooking at its finest—both hearty and healthy.

Who can go?

The Bothy is only open to hotel guests. Be sure to book and allow three hours to really soak up the special atmosphere they have created.

Booking details for The Bothy by Wildsmith

Address: 82WX+6J, Hook RG27 0LD, United Kingdom

Read more from Vogue’s Global Spa Guide.

This spa has been re-evaluated in 2026 with additional reporting.