About Us

Susi, Paul, Amber and Barney, along with our black Labrador, Ella and Thick, Chilli and Sauce the cats, moved into Lower Coombe Royal in autumn 2005...

Having sailed around the world with the British Steel Challenge in 1992, worked in some large consultancy firms, weathered a couple of redundancies and one or other of us working away from home, we decided to set our sails, take on another challenge and re-group in one place as a family again!

When we found Lower Coombe Royal, it was an old, unloved country house in need of care and attention, yet still capable of being brought to life again. We chose to make Lower Coombe Royal into five-star sustainable luxury holiday accommodation, knowing what we liked when staying away for a week or three (rarely finding it!) and hoping to offer this to other like-minded people. Our plan allowed us to take a step sideways from the hectic lives that we had been living, to concentrate more on spending time as a family and building a business together.

Our commitment to leading our lives in as eco-friendly a way as possible led to our decision to renovate and run Lower Coombe Royal in the same way. We continue to live sustainably and to manage our business in a way that treats the planet and its resources with respect, wherever possible making a positive contribution to its wellbeing by conserving the local ecosystem and encouraging biodiversity. We also support the local economy by employing local crafts and trades people (including builders for the renovation work) and our staff are all drawn from the local community as well.

For this reason, we provide organic and/or locally produced food for our guest hampers, as well as organic fruit from our own gardens. We work with and use local suppliers. Luckily for us - and our guests - Devon has a wealth of local producers of fresh and often organic produce. We use only non-harmful cleaning products in the cottages and the toiletries provided are all natural, made from organic ingredients. We are also committed to recycling and to composting as much as we can for use within the gardens. We hope that this will be important to you as well and that you will appreciate and support most of the things that we are doing when you come and visit us.

Having lived in the Royal House for four years after completing the restoration, we decided it was time to offer this to our guests as well. So we are now living in another house in Devon with our children and pets. Susi and Paul still own and run the business, while Richard Giles, our Estate Manager, looks after the smooth day-to-day running of Lower Coombe Royal, assisted by our housekeeper, Charlotte Dalrymple-Hay and her team. Susi is often to be found at Lower Coombe Royal and is always pleased to meet and talk to guests. She is always keen to receive feedback and suggestions for any improvements!

We hope that you find Lower Coombe Royal is a home away from home where you can relax and enjoy the wonderful natural environment of the eight acres of gardens and woods. We are in the South Hams Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and our own private valley is full of trees - so come and breathe in some really fresh air, indicated by the lichen growing on the trees! Now that we have created somewhere we love, we are keen to share it with our holiday guests.

Have a great holiday!

Best wishes, Susi & Paul Titchener