We learn about one of Yorkshire’s leading coastal hotels
What can a guest expect to enjoy at Wrea Head Hall?
Widely regarded as Scarborough’s premier hotel, Wrea Head Hall is an elegant country house, surrounded by extensive landscaped grounds in the village of Scalby on the edge of the North York Moors National Park. The hotel offers 21 fully refurbished bedrooms in the original Gothic mansion, ranging from standard to luxury suites, all with en suite bathrooms including Italian marble tiling and sanitary ware by Burlington of London.
Our 1881 restaurant provides contemporary British cuisine in classic surroundings complemented by a professional and motivated team.
The Hall is ideally located just 10 minutes from the beach and Scarborough’s Heritage Coast, and is a 25-minute drive from Whitby, Filey and the stunning North York Moors. It has consistently held the number one spot on Trip Advisor. We aim to provide excellent service and food within relaxed and elegant surroundings.
What makes the hotel stand out from the crowd?
Unusually for a country house hotel, all rooms are set within the original mansion, and we have no modern annexes. We are close to Scarborough, but set within tranquil parkland at the end of a third of a mile drive which wends its way through fields and woodland before sweeping up to reveal the hotel.
Wrea Head Hall is small enough to pride itself on a high level of customer care but large enough to offer a professional service from a highly motivated and established team.
The hotel has just completed a sympathetic and extensive six-year renovation programme which included replacing lead gutters and downpipes, the addition of new boilers and central heating, total re-plumbing and rewiring, refurbishing 21 bedrooms and bathrooms, all to a high specification, with high-end sanitary ware and ‘monsoon showers’. We have also redecorated the main hall with its magnificent bossed plasterwork ceiling and mullioned windows and carpeted the oak staircase and halls with a bespoke Wilton carpet.
Tell us about your team
The hotel is privately owned and is lead by Kevin Crow our hotel manager. His long established team includes head chef Andrew Riley who oversees a team of four chefs. We have committed and long-serving members of staff who have many years of experience in the hospitality industry between them.
We pride ourselves on offering our guests a peaceful stay and have a policy of exclusive use for wedding parties, avoiding any disruption to other visiting guests. We are an adult only hotel, welcoming well-behaved children over eight.
Tell us an interesting fact about Wrea Head Hall
Wrea Head Hall is named after a small hill behind the mansion known as Wrea Head Rigg. Initially built in 1881 as a family home, Wrea Head is actually a clever Victorian Arts & Crafts creation with ‘contemporary’ Victorian cavity walls hidden within a Gothic shell, complete with romantic bell tower, stained glass windows and gargoyles. In the 1940s the estate was bequeathed to North Yorkshire County Council at which time it was used as an adult educational college before sympathetic conversion 100 years after its conversion into a hotel in 1981.
What does the future hold for Wrea Head Hall?
We are hoping to build on the solid foundation that the hotel already offers by adding a purpose built function room, sensitively constructed in the same stone and style as Wrea Head Hall which will allow us to cater for bespoke weddings and small functions.
We also intend to add another 10 bedrooms and eventually to incorporate a swimming pool for our hotel guests.
In the grounds, we are currently renovating the original Victorian walled kitchen garden and glasshouse and will be planting a knot garden. The spring fed pond which has become silted up and disused will be reinstated.
In the woodlands we are restoring the woodland walks, replanting beech and oak trees, renovating the summer house and will re-grass the overgrown tennis court, to provide a new ‘hidden garden’.
