Home Comforts: Four Atmospheric Holiday Homes in the UK for an Autumn Break

As autumn rolls around, there's a difficult truth that has to be come to terms with: the year's travel is over for most of us. There's always skiing in the New Year and maybe a spot of winter sun if we're really lucky, but they're both a couple of months off. And it feels like a lifetime away.

But it doesn't have to be like that. You can get your travel fix closer to home - or at home, in fact. Because when you start looking around at the UK, there are plenty of quick autumn breaks that are crying out to be made - and that don't involve taking much more precious holiday time off! With this in mind, here's a quick roundup of four atmospheric holiday homes in the UK for an autumn break...

The Cotswolds

The Old Surgery at Tetbury provides everything you could possibly want for in a stylish Cotswolds retreat: a handsome Elizabethan townhouse, there are rolltop baths and original features galore but all with a contemporary twist. The surrounding area, meanwhile, is tailor-made for long walks - all the better for really enjoying the 'season of mists and mellow fruitfulness'!

The Highlands

From an old surgery to an old school... The Highland Club - or the Old School at Talisker - is, without a doubt, one of the most atmospheric holiday homes in the UK for an autumn break. For starters, there's the premises (a converted Benedictine monastery) to take into account; then there's the fact that its selection of luxury apartments give you privileged access to Loch Ness, on whose shores it sits, and the rest of the Highlands that extend around it.

Cornwall

Cornwall's certainly not short of atmospheric UK holiday homes, but Trewince Barn is really up there with the best places in the region for a remote autumn break. A roomy three-bedroom barn conversion, its setting is simply stunning: inland, in the heart of the Pearth Valley countryside, yet still only a stone's throw from the wild coasts of North Cornwall and the beaches of Watergate Bay, Mawgan Porth and Newquay.

Norfolk

Norfolk's appeal for an autumn break is not dissimilar to Cornwall's with walks through some of Britain's most beautiful countryside and along gorgeous stretches of coastline ending up in warm country pubs. And Shamrock Cottage offers plenty of both. The cottage itself, meanwhile, is a traditional farm worker's cottage of low ceilings and wooden beams.