Photography: Gara Rock Hotel.
The award-winning Gara Rock Hotel & Spa, a lifestyle resort and wellness retreat near the seaside town of Salcombe, has hosted a raft of celebrities over the years, including Laurence Olivier and the English poet John Betjeman. Now the clifftop hotel, perched over the South Devon shore, has hit the market for £8m.
The former coastguard cottage was purchased in 1909, served as a family boarding house and by the 1930s had launched as a successful hotel. It underwent a major £11.2m renovation in 2017 and now boasts 33 rooms, suites and cottages — many with freestanding roll-top baths and unbroken, dramatic sea views. There are indoor and outdoor pools on the site, along with a spa, restaurant, bar and cinema. Guests and locals can visit the property’s outdoor coffee stop and walk rugged coastal paths down to the beach or, for the more adventurous, into Salcombe.
Stephen Champion, director of Hotels South West at Christie & Co, says a property like Gara Rock, with its ‘spectacular location and highly regarded reputation’ is a rare addition to the UK’s wider hotels sales market.
‘This thriving business provides potential purchasers with numerous upside options,’ he adds. ‘We expect this unique hotel to appeal to a wide array of buyers, both domestic and international.’
