Devonshire Hotels (N Yorks)

“Welcome to Devonshire Hotels & Restaurants—a stylish selection of hotels, restaurants, holiday cottages, and a spa in the splendour of the English countryside.” The Devonshire Hotel Group – consisting of The Devonshire Arms Hotel & Spa, The Cavendish Hotel, The Devonshire Fell at Burnsall, The Devonshire Arms at Beeley, The Devonshire Arms at Pilsley,  and The Cavendish Pavillion – is “owned by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, and located on the Bolton Abbey Estate in North Yorkshire and the Chatsworth Estate in Derbyshire” places that are claimed to “bring you closer to the land” (a nonsense phrase that means what, exactly?) where guests can “experience mile after mile of unspoilt tranquility.” Really? Anyone with any interest at all in the goings-on of the shooting industry and/or raptor persecution will know of the Devonshires (generations of whom have spent days blasting birds out of the air), of Bolton Abbey (with its 30,000 acres of grouse moor) and of Chatsworth (family seat of the Devonshires). The Devonshire Fell at Burnsall is typical of the mixed messaging of the ‘Devonshire brand’ – on the one hand “nestled on a hillside overlooking the beautiful Yorkshire Dales, The Devonshire Fell has all the romance and drama of a classic Brontë sisters novel” on the other “North Yorkshire is one of the UK’s foremost destinations for shoots and both The Devonshire Arms Hotel & Spa and The Devonshire Fell are nestled within some of the best moorland the county has to offer, brimming with Grouse and Pheasant.” As an aside, ‘nestle’ seems to be a go to descriptor for shooting websites – conjuring up images of ‘small-scale’ and ‘cosiness’ while hiding the underlying, profit-driven, industrial scale of killing wildlife…