There’s no shortage of luxury hotels up in the Lake District, but after another year calmly collecting awards for its shelves, The Gilpin is edging its way into the lead.
Now named the third-best boutique hotel in the entire UK, the intimate hotel is home to plenty of remarkable features – spa suites built on top of natural ponds, a Michelin-star restaurant, lakeside hot tubs, a sublime setting near Lake Windermere, resident llamas and pigs, and loads more to go at.
The Gilpin is actually spread across two sites, about a mile apart.
The first is The Lake House, a traditional country house with just six bedrooms in a fairytale setting beside Knipe Tarn. It feels quintessentially Lake District.
Then a little further up the road you’ll find the larger Gilpin Hotel, home to modern and tranquil spa suites and lodges as well as cosier, more traditional hotel bedrooms.
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The Gilpin Hotel is also the proud home of SOURCE, a Michelin-star restaurant, and Gilpin Spice, a more laid-back pan-Asian restaurant (more on those later…)
The top-level customer service here begins before you’re even out of the car, with someone popping up from a cabin in the car park to direct you to your suite.
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And that’s just the beginning…
We went to see exactly what it’s like to live the life of luxury with The Gilpin.
The spa suites at The Gilpin
Inside The Gilpin’s spa suite. Credit: The Manc GroupSpa Suites at The Gilpin have their own hot tubs on the decking. Credit: The Manc GroupEach spa suite has its own treatment room inside
There’s not much that can prepare you for the sheer scale and luxury of the spa suites when you first see them with your own eyes. I could quite easily hit my daily step count just by walking back and forth, taking it all in.
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Each one has its own driveway with EV charger, and as you crunch your way up the slate path you’ll be walking alongside your own natural pond and a giant decked terrace.
The decking also hosts your own private hot tub, so roomy you can stretch all the way out, a seating area, and views down into the woods that surround The Gilpin.
Inside to the rooms then – there’s a main living space which is half-taken-up by a spa-level bathroom (gigantic circular tub, rainfall showers, double gold sinks), the rest of the space given over to a corner sofa, kitchenette and floating fireplace. There’s a sizeable double bedroom perched directly over the pond.
And then the piece de resistance – your own in-room spa facilities. I never thought I’d be staying somewhere where I could roll out of bed, make a coffee, and stroll into a state-of-the-art sauna and steam room without setting foot outside the door, but here we are.
Halfway through our first day, we have massages in our own private treatment room without having to do the awkward shuffle back through the hotel in a robe and slippers – bliss.
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SOURCE restaurant
The world’s best bread at SOURCEWhite pork with braised spelt, chestnut and trufle at SOURCE in the Lake DistrictScallops in charcuterie sauceSOURCE restaurant at The Gilpin in the Lake DistrictA ‘tiramisu’ dessert at SOURCE
As for the on-site restaurants, The Gilpin is home to one of the Lake District’s best, the Michelin-starred SOURCE.
With head chef Ollie Bridgwater in charge of the kitchen, his team create a seasonal fine-dining menu that’s creative and impressive but remarkably laid-back.
You start your evening with a cocktail in the lounge, sinking into plushy sofas by the fireplace, before being taken into the dining room itself.
The staff are personable, approachable and relaxed, explaining each dish (and how to eat it) in plain English.
Standout dishes include their ‘gin and tonic’, a gravity-defying amuse bouche that pops in a burst of refreshing citrus in your mouth; hand-dived scallops swimming in a smoky sauce that has all the heart of an entire charcuterie board; and tiny homemade bread loaves with a glaze of fermented garlic honey.
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It’s a restaurant worth travelling for – but luckily for us it’s only a short trot back to our spa suite for a blissful sleep.
The Gilpin’s Lake House
The hydropool looks down the valley. Credit: The Manc GroupThe lakeside hot tub at The Gilpin’s Lake House. Credit: The Manc Group
After breakfast (posh rarebit and poached eggs for me) and a walk down to say hello to the hotel’s pet pot-bellied pigs (Salt, Pepper and Mustard), it was time to make our way down to The Gilpin Lake House.
It’s like stepping inside Jane Austen’s imagination. While parts of the Gilpin Hotel are bang up to date architecturally and decoratively, down at the Lake House things are far more traditional.
And while it’s a luxury hotel it’s a playful and familial one too, with animal statues standing guard in the grounds (watch out for the gorilla in the woods and the goblin by the hot tub) and each room named after a family matriarch (we stayed in Harriet).
Our bedroom has picturesque views of the hotel’s very own lake, where a small jetty holds wooden lounge chairs and a boat house watched over rowing boats for guests to use in warmer months.
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The Lake House. Credit: The Manc GroupAfternoon tea at The Lake HouseThe lounge at the Lake House. Credit: The Manc Group
The joy of the Lake House really does lie in its communal spaces. Whether it’s playing board games and browsing walls of books in the lounge or chatting over an afternoon tea in the dining room looking over Knipe Tarn, you can’t go far wrong.
You can book the leisure facilities free of charge so you have them to yourselves for an hour, which we do, spending an afternoon hopping from hot tub to indoor swimming pool to sauna, champagne in hand.
Think that all hot tubs are created equal? You couldn’t be more wrong. One of The Gilpin Lake House’s tubs is a huge hydro pool with sensational views all the way down the neighbouring valley. The other is a deep cedarwood hot tub right beside the lake, offering complete tranquillity no matter the weather.
And when you’ve had enough of floating about, the short walk around the lake is just taxing enough to justify another cocktail by the fire in the lounge.
Gilpin Spice
What an absolute gem Gilpin Spice is, serving up one of the best Asian meals I’ve had not just in the Lake District, but ever.
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The hotel’s more casual restaurant is headed up by chef Tom ‘Westy’ Westerland and a fantastic front of house team.
Dishes here span Korea, Thailand, India, Japan, China, Indonesia and more.
Westy’s fried chicken is a highlight (as you’d hope, if he’s decided to put his name to it on the menu), coated in a glaze of sticky gochujang.
There’s fall-apart slow-cooked ox cheek in a powerful rendang sauce; edamame puri that explode with flavour after you pop them whole into your mouth; and Goan-style tiger king prawns swimming in a comforting coconut sauce.
Even if the rest of The Gilpin is out of your price range (though it’s worth saving for), the Gilpin Spice alone is worth the trip up into Cumbria.
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You can find out more about The Gilpin and book your stay here.
The best Manchester-based anime-style memes we’ve seen online as Ghibli craze takes over
Danny Jones
Now, the internet can be used for a lot of silly and pointless things – you might argue us sharing our favourite memes every morning is a prime example of that – but we have to admit, the second we saw a Manchester-inspired Studio Ghibli image on social media, we were hooked.
If you have absolutely no idea what we’re talking about, there is a current craze that has taken over the internet, which has seen recognisable memes and images recreated in the style of the iconic Ghibli anime films, created by legendary animator and filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki.
Once you’ve found one, you tend to start spotting them more and more frequently, and in the case of the chronically online like us, we’ve been inundated with them for weeks now.
People are using AIto create them in various different contexts, but it won’t surprise you to learn that our favourite Ghibli/anime memes are those based around Manchester. For example:
Bloody hell, the internet really is brilliant sometimes, isn't it? 😂 https://t.co/virpFx60u7
As it happens, this was the first and perhaps still the best we’ve seen to date, but it didn’t stop us from falling down an animated rabbit hole looking for others.
To be honest, we didn’t actually have to do much searching ourselves as they’re absolutely all over the algorithm at the minute, and have been for a good month or so.
‘Ghibli memes’ may be an overgeneralisation of what is a rather specific and famed art style, but this ongoing flood of anime-style cartooons is being created by users giving prompts to ChatGPT, the increasingly popular large language model (LLM) and AI tool.
Designed with OpenAI software, the artificial intelligence chatbot can do everything from write extensive study notes and flash cards to fixing blurry images, writing computer code, entire essays and quite literally countless other things.
In this instance, people are just reimagining moments from the zeitgeist and famous memes in this style by feeding the image to ChatGPT, along with an ‘in the style of Studio Ghibli’ prompt.
One for the Blues…And the Reds.All of these images have been designed using ChatGPT. (Credit: Eleventh Minute/centredevils via X)
Pretty cool, right?
You’ll find that footballer Twitter (sorry, X*), in particular, is absolutely full of fan accounts recreating iconic club scenes in the Miyazaki art style, giving their favourite players big ‘Chibi’ eyes (another unique aspect of anime) and so on.
It’s all just a bit of a laugh, after all; even we here at The Manc put ChatGPT to the test back in June 2023 and asked it to design ‘the perfect day out in Manchester’ – to varying degrees of success, we might add.
As ever with machine-learning, the more information you feed it, the better the result and although we know these are original pictures being reimagined, it still goes to show just how impressive and varied AI is becoming.
We’ve also enjoyed some that aren’t necessarily Manc but are quintessential British humour or simply more universal memes.
Exhibits E and F…
Even after all these years, we feel like we still see this in some context at least once a week – and it still makes us laugh.‘What a sad little life, Jane…’Credit: brandsynario (via Instagram)/No Context Brits (via X)
Despite these memes riding a real wave right now, the Ghibli portrait fad is just that; there are plenty of other aesthetics being toyed with, too.
Actually, it already has, as we’ve now started coming across people making action figure versions of themselves and/or famous people, full decked out with accessories inside blister packs and everything.
On the other hand, many people are understandably concerned about what this means for artists and although there is no substitute for genuine human expression, whatever form that may come in, lots of people are railing against it as the possibility of AI-based pop music has been posited.
With that in mind, maybe the best twist we’ve seen is our very own Stanley Chow subverting the trend and doing Ghibli stuff in his equally iconic style. We’ll take these geometric gems over computer-generated imitations any day.
For now, it’s just a bit of fun and we confess we’ve got some light entertainment out of it, but the increasing possibilities being thrown up by AI in terms of art do pose a lot more complex questions.
We’ll finish with one final example because let’s be honest, there’s only really one thing on our minds at the minute – at least until the summer finally rolls around…
Let us know if you’ve seen any other fun examples and what you make of the whole Ghibli meme trend down in the comments.
LF System on headlining Amber’s for ‘The Drop’, dancefloor anthems and more
Thomas Melia
Scottish DJ duo LF System are playing an intimate set in Manchester as part of ‘The Drop’, a special monthly event series for a very important cause.
‘The Drop’, sees the hitmakers joining two more greats, DJ Paulette and Turno, as headliners for this remarkable event all about raising awareness and funds for mental health in the music industry.
The mastermind partnership of Headstock and Skiddle, each event champions a charity which benefits including Music Minds Matter (Turno) and Nordoff & Robbins (DJ Paulette and LF System).
The first monthly set comes from the DJ duo behind one of the biggest UK club staples, ‘Afraid To Feel’, as LF System take over Manchester’s newest clubbing venue, Amber’s – who typically keep their lineups private – for an exclusive ‘Coffee Table Session’.
LF System, Conor Larkman and Sean Finnigan, outside their New York session venue.Credit: Supplied
LF System Interview
This event is in aid of Nordoff & Robbins: how important is this cause to you?
We feel like music should be enjoyed by. Anyone, no matter what. Nordoff & Robbins make that possible.
They help everyone, all ages through music therapy. It’s important to us that [this event] supports them. Everybody deserves a chance to have a go at music, it’s a great cause that allows people to have great opportunities.
You’re going to be playing Amber’s, which is one of Manchester’s newest clubbing venues, how are you feeling?
I’ve heard a lot of good things about it, so I just really want to get in there and experience it for ourselves.
It’s weird coming to Manchester at this time of year as well; we’re always here in winter, usually freezing and raining, so it’ll be quite nice to come down this April.
Amber’s nightclub has some very important rules, including a no-phone policy in order to bring clubbing back to its roots – how do you feel about this?
Oh, we’re all for that!
I think there’s been a bit of a problem recently, so anything that can be done to make clubbing all about the music and as immersive as possible the better. It’s about living in the moment. I think that’s a good thing.
I don’t think we’ve ever actually done anything with a no-phone policy before; somehow, they’ve always snuck them in. Exciting.
LF System’s Conor at a recent event in New York.The Scottish duo LF System, playing an intimate set in New York.Credit: Supplied
What can fans expect from your special set for the monthly music series ‘The Drop’?
It may be a bit different to what we usually do as it’s a coffee table session set-up, but there’ll definitely be good vibes and good music all night.
There’ll be a lot of unreleased stuff that we’ve been making recently, mostly from our new EP that’s coming, and it gives us a chance to play our new songs and see people’s reactions. So far, they’ve been good every time we’ve included them.
How come you’ve opted for a ‘Coffee table session’ rather than a huge rave vibe, especially considering how much your music gets crowds up on their feet?
We’ve never actually done a coffee table session in a club before, so that’ll be our first for us. It’s going to be electric and fresh.
You just get to showcase a lot more music than when what you do when you’re playing a club set, different BPMs.
[Coffee table sessions] still get people up and dancing, but it’s just a different type of night. It’s relaxed, happy dance music, you know what I mean? You don’t have, don’t have to go mad ‘fer it, just a nice chilled one.
As well-respectedDJs, it’s only fair we consult you on Manchester’s clubbing scene, so how would you rate the club culture and atmosphere in our city?
We always have a good time in Manchester and there’s always good crowds. It [Manchester] is just like that.
There’s a good culture to do in this city, so I think it’s a good place to bring this session too, and we’re looking forward to it.
It’s got a really rich history and you can always feel that when you’re there, it’s always a good time in any of [Manchester’s] different venues. Everyone always seems right up for it.
House music is known to improve people’s moods, and ‘The Drop’ is all about music and mental health, so to finish off, what’s your all-time favourite top three mood boosting house tracks?
Sean
‘Music Sounds Better With You’ by Stardust
‘Beautiful People’ by Barbara Tucker
‘In Love With You’ by The Paradise
Conor
‘Why Not?’ by Skate Bård
‘I Think I’ll Do Some Skipping On My Own’ by Sandy B (Opolopo Rework)
‘Night Walkin” by Mermaid S
LF System are bringing their bangers to ‘The Drop’ in Manchester.Spinning the decks just like they will at Amber’s in Manchester later this month at ‘The Drop’.
Daisy Jackson -
4th February 2024 
