This old coach inn has been one of England's premier fishing hotels for more than half a century, with 20 miles of its own fish-rich water on the Tamar River and five of its tributaries that are home to wild brown trout, sea trout and salmon. With exclusive rights to private beats, gorgeous natural surroundings, excellent cuisine, and top-notch accommodation in an area of Old England where timeless rhythms rule and country customs are honoured, the Arundell Arms is a standout among a vanishing breed of well-heeled sporting hotels.

Go to the Arundell Arms. There are so few places like it left: personally run by a great and charming character, unpretentious, utterly relaxing, with high standards and a point- fishing - to its existence. I could ask no more of any hotel; life seemed to settle down while we were here.

You don't have to fish. The hotel - a 200 year-old coaching inn, inconspicuously situated in an inconspicuous village - makes a perfect base, amid some of England's loveliest countryside, for visiting both Devon and Cornwall. But if you want to learn, here's your chance: the Arundell Arms owns 20 miles of fishing on the Tamar and its tributaries, plus a beautiful 90ft-deep lake, ideal for teaching beginners. The two instructors, Roy and David, have taught thousands of people how to fish. Roy, there since 1961, is soon to retire; the younger David will carry on- and so will the indomitbale Anne.

She remains firmly, yet gently, at the helm. All the bedrooms have recently been furnished: pretty curtains, antiques, elegant new lamps, flat screen TVs, crisp new bathrooms. There's a slate-floored sitting room full of squashy sofas, with a roaring fire whenever the weather demands, and a rambling bar where excellent bar meals are served. Outside in the garden is a very rare 250-year old circular cockpit that does service as the tackle room.

Last, but not least - in fact, most important - there's the food. "The last thing you want, if you've had a bad day's fishing," says Anne, "is to come back to bad food". You won't.

After a string of excellent dinners in the West Country, this was hands-down the freshest and most distinct. Thank heavens for the Arundell Arms, and long may it last.

Country house dining can be fraught with "gruesome pretension, bewildering incompetence, snotty service and larcenous wine mark-ups", says Matthew Norman in the Guardian, but happily not at The Arundell, a fishing hotel whose restaurant could and should be used as a "teaching module for anyone in the business". The hotel is "perched on the River Tamar" in "bucolic" Devon and has a kitchen that relies on high-quality produce cooked with "precision and technical excellence". A starter of pan-fried Cornish scallops with wild garlic was "bursting with flavour", as was the crab ravioli accompanied by some "unbelievably flavoursome" pea shoots. Tournedos of Devon beef was good, but the best main was a duck fillet "cooked pink" and served with squash and a rhubarb compote, which drew "Meg Ryan-esque oohing and aahing" from Norman's wife. The restaurant also displayed a helpful attitude towards children that was "treasonably un-British". Puddings, especially a "gooey" chocolate fondant, were "predictably" terrific.

"The wily teachers of a craft that looks easy."

"In the world of fishing I hear two names over and over again. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard that these two individuals have taught someone to fish. Roy Buckingham and David Pilkington, bailiffs from the Arundell Arms hotel in Lifton, Devon, have in piscatorial sense, spawned thousands of offspring.

On the course I attended, some years ago, David and Roy took a group of seven people who, aside from I, had never fished before and couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. By the end of the that first evening, I remember going up to bed, leaving the rest of the group still discussing the wonders of fishing - over brandies by the fire - with a passion that suggested they had just discovered the meaning of life. To Roy and David it had probably been just another day’s work, but to those people, the world had suddenly become a different place."

‘Forty Years of Fishing’

Mike Weaver celebrates the 40th anniversary of Anne Voss-Bark’s reign at the Arundell Arms, where it is possible to fish a different river every day of the week.

"For nearly four decades the Arundell Arms has been run by one of the best- known personalities in West Country fishing, Anne Voss-Bark. In that time, Anne has built up the reputation of the Arundell Arms for its comfortable and friendly accommodation, good food, fly-fishing courses and varied angling opportunities to the point where it ranks among the top few fishing hotels to be found anywhere.

For many, the Arundell Arms is best known for fishing for salmon on a falling spate or casting over a smooth pool for sea-trout on a warm July night, but for me this is a wild trout fishery, where I can lose myself in miles of remote streams with a fresh challenge around every bend. And if you have never caught a trout, there are few better places to make a start as countless anglers have cast their first fly under the tuition of Roy Buckingham or David Pilkington on one of the courses for which the Arundell Arms is famous.

The trout of these streams aren’t big, anything over eight inches is worth the effort, a ten-incher is a cause for minor celebration, and a 12-incher is well worth a special mention in the hotel fishing records. But the size of the trout matters not a jot. Far more important is the fact that these are truly wild fish, the genuine article."

Favourite European Hotels - Best Fishing Hotel

The Arundell Arms, Lifton, Devon, England.

"This creeper-covered coaching inn, in a small Devon town, has been run by Anne Voss-Bark, an expert fly-fisher for over 35 years. It has twenty miles of trout, seatrout and salmon fishing on the river Tamar and its tributaries, a three-acre stocked lake and full-time fishing instructors. It is not luxurious but the food is excellent and the staff are warm without gushing, children and non-fishers are welcome too."

"Rounding out an evening with coffee and quiet conversation, guests at the Arundell Arms in Lifton, England, savor the genteel comforts of a British institution: the sporting hotel. No rustic fish camp, the Arundell Arms provides what the civilized trouter requires - fine cuisine, comfortable accommodations, and 20 miles of private streams."