THE VERY GRAND COUNTRY MANNER

Forget about getting back to the land and enjoying the simple life close to the soil. The type of break that the Kinnaird Estate in Scotland is offering takes country weekends into a grand new category.

You may have your own tailored fishing and/or shooting outfits awaiting for you on arrival (given two months notice). A private wine tasting session can be arranged with James Payne, general manager of the hotel and 2001 UK Sommelier of the Year. This includes a case of your favourite fine wine to take home. And instead of a limo, you may opt for helicopter transfers from and to the airport.

Kinnaird is set in 7,000 acres of beautiful Perthshire countryside, and has just nine bedrooms in the main house, with two courtyard cottages and some other cottages on the estate. With a fine restaurant and good wine cellar, it aims to give guests the opportunity to Live like a Laird – though there’s undoubtedly many a penurious laird who would like the opportunity to live at this luxury level.

The Laird Experience is offered as a two-night break and guests will be met at the nearest airport or station of choice by a chauffeured car.  At the estate, they may take a spa treatment and explore the surroundings, until dinner.  Next morning, Kinnaird’s ghillie will lead the way to a private beat on the River Tay for a morning of salmon fishing, before transfer to the picturesque Millpond on the estate for a picnic.  In the afternoon, there’s clay pigeon shooting, with a private instructor on hand, and then its back to the hotel, for vintage champagne and a gourmet meal. Breakfast in bed the next morning completes this treat in the lap of luxury.

It bears little relation to the spartan, chilly and daunting occasions endured in many country houses of the past – and in some still now.  Indeed, there is a case to be made for the fact that sporting activity, by day and night, developed as  the only way to keep warm in such surroundings.

Thankfully, modern amenities have now transformed many a lovely old pile, ensuring they are just as attractive for non-sporting guests as the sporting kind.

The Laird Experience starts from £950 per person. Go to www.kinnairdestate.com

AIRPORT CHAOS BOOST TO COTTAGES

The chaos at Heathrow has undoubtedly boosted interest in British holiday resorts, as well as train and boat travel. Marsden Cottages of Devon reports happily that the problems at Terminal 5 prompted a marked increase in bookings for their cottages, one of them shown here.

This is Modbury Cottage, the quintessestial picture-postcard thatched delight, in the village of Buckland Filleigh, near Bideford. With two bedrooms, amongst woodland and fields, and beside a babbling brook, it costs just £375 for a weeks stay. www.marsdens.co.uk

FOODIE ATTRACTIONS IN BRUGES

Latest place to benefit from getting its name up in movie lights is Bruges.  The film, In Bruges, has received a mixed reception but its setting in this city has prompted plenty of complimentary comments that in turn have prompted a boost in visitors.

The Flanders tourist board is making the most of this celluloid opportunity and has sent out a list of ten things to do in what has always been thought of as a boring if beautiful medieval city. Not surprisingly for a region noted for well padded citizens, food and drink figure prominently.

There’s the Chocolate Walk for samples of Belgium’s most famous export specialty; the Michelin-starred restaurants De Karmelit or Hof  Van Cleve to visit as well as the famous Den Dyver; taste the beer, brewed here for centuries, at the Half Man Brewery, with its own bar; more chocolate, in drink and cake form, at Chocolaterie Sukerbuyc on Katelijnestraat; there are even chocolate  facials at some of the towns many spas; the Groeninge Museum for art; Lovers Lake or Minnewater for a romantic interlude; the oldest bar in town, Vissinghe, which dates back to the 16th century; if you can’t stay at the luxurious Hotel Orangerie on Kartuizerinnenstraat then take tea on the canal-side terrace; and no trip to Belgium can be without chips, so don’t miss the new chip museum! Naturally, there is also a chocolate museum.

Look at www.visitflanders.co.uk for more info.