Highfield House

Highfield House is a modern bed and breakfast in Parracombe, a small village on the northern edge of Exmoor National Park in North Devon. The owners live in the main house and the guest rooms sit in an attached building with their own separate entrance, which gives a dog owner something close to a self-contained arrival: your own front door, a porch and a bit of outdoor space, and no shared corridors to negotiate with a dog on a lead.

Dogs are part of the setup here rather than merely tolerated. The owners keep a large, friendly dog of their own, and visiting dogs are reported to get on with it happily; guests are told about it before arrival and it is kept indoors while you settle in, which is a thoughtful touch whether your dog is sociable or not. The charge is £5 a night for one dog. The rooms are consistently described as spotless, spacious and comfortable, with a good bathroom, reliable wifi and long views over the moor, and breakfast is fresh and largely local.

The setting is much of the appeal and also the main thing to plan around. Parracombe is quiet and pretty, with Exmoor walking in every direction, the coast at Lynton and Lynmouth about ten minutes away and Woollacombe's beach roughly twenty-five minutes by car. It is genuinely remote, though: the village sits between steep hills with a narrow through road, so this is a driving base rather than a walk-to-the-pub one, and the village pub does not serve food every night.

Two smaller caveats. Breakfast is good but the choice is limited, and the shared kitchenette has no oven or hob, so cooking an evening meal is not really an option - plan on driving out to eat or bringing something that needs no cooking. Some guests have also found the heating cooler than they would like, which is worth raising with the owners, who are quick to respond.

Highfield House suits a couple or solo traveller with one well-behaved dog who want a comfortable, welcoming Exmoor base with breakfast laid on, a private entrance and the North Devon coast within easy reach, and who are happy to drive out for evening meals and days on the beach.