A rural Lincolnshire bed and breakfast, which attracts guests from as far afield as China, is celebrating after being revealed as one of TripAdvisor’s global favourites.
Brampton Dales Farm – where guests can get up close and personal with a host of animals from Longhorn Cattle and free-roaming sheep to chickens – has been placed in the top 10% of accommodation worldwide.
Despite the challenges of the past year, the family-run B&B, which sits in 26 acres of grassland near Gainsborough, has been recognised as a 2021 TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice award winner, which celebrates accommodation that “consistently deliver fantastic experiences around the globe”.
Run by Marian and Hugh McDaniel, the farm offers five rooms, two of which were opened in summer 2020, and among guests it regularly welcomed, in pre-pandemic times, were visitors from Russia and China.
Helping spread the word, Hugh spent 10 years as a political consultant working with clients to improve relationships with overseas governments, including in China, and he still has some business links with the country.
After buying Brampton Dales Farm, initially as a place for his Lincolnshire born and bred wife to keep her horses, the traditional farmhouse B&B has gone on to prove popular with those wanting to escape the city – as well as with overseas visitors looking for a taste of English country life.
And as a working farm, there are plenty of friendly wildlife around, including horses, sheep, cows and even a big old turkey called ‘Christmas Boy’, while the Farm is also famed for its hearty breakfasts, with home baked bread and jams winning praise from guests.
Each room is detached from the farmhouse and en-suite, with breakfast served in front of an open wood fire during winter months and in the courtyard in the summer, weather permitting.
Brampton Dales caters for high-flyers too, last summer an international pilot and airline owner on his way from South Africa to the US, flew in to the nearby Sturgate airfield and stayed at the farm overnight, before taking to the skies again.
Opened in 1944 as a bomber training airfield, and later used by the US air force until it closed in the 1960s, Sturgate is now home to Lincoln Flying Club, as well as an aero engineering and hire business.
For more details about Brampton Dales Farm, visit
For general information about visiting Lincolnshire, see www.visitlincolnshire.com