Normally, I dislike not being in the main part of a hotel. My heart takes the express elevator down when I hear the words: “We’ve put you in the stable block/annexe/courtyard rooms.” There is the feeling of being apart from the main action, the poor man at the gate, staring up at the Big House, the bright lights, the glint of crystal, the merry laughter. Guests in the body of the hotel sweep down to dinner; you run along gravel paths just as the heavens open and arrive as the proverbial drowned rat, while a Charles Dance lookalike gives you a withering look.

So the idea of sleeping in a shed in the grounds of a country-house hotel was even less appealing than the stable block. It reminded me of the time my wife pushed the idea of moving my office to a “room” at the bottom of the garden. The word Siberia springs to mind.

However, upmarket cabins are the latest wheeze for hotels that want to extend without building a whole new wing. Enterkine Country House, in Ayrshire, has only six bedrooms and a restaurant that punches well above its weight, so it is no surprise to learn it is the first establishment in the country to open a bothy — the term comes from the Celtic name for a simple mountain shelter — in its adjacent woodlands. It won’t be the last: the company that installed the bothy reckons it has had close to 300 inquiries, with 50 businesses actively seeking planning permission.

Enterkine has christened its bothy the Woodland Lodge. The first thing that struck me when I stepped out of the taxi from Prestwick airport was that it isn’t actually very far into the woodland, considering the hotel has 350 acres of land. But “Edge of Woodland, Right Opposite Main Hotel Entrance Lodge” doesn’t sound quite so good. However, its current exposed and naked state will be ameliorated once the new plantings take and the landscaping around the hut is restored. There are also plans for a second bothy, which will be deeper into the trees.

The exterior of the bothy looks like something you might find in the Enchanted Glade of Storylandworld in a whimsical children’s theme park, all bulbous timber walls and pointy shingle roof. The big surprise comes when you open the door: not a wolf or a granny, but a striking, contemporary room, with dark-wood fittings, a daringly impractical light-taupe carpet, a rococo bed with silk covers, a sitting area and a flat-screen television. The bathroom is equally modern, with, alas, no bath but a shower big enough for two and black slate heated flooring. This is by no stretch of the imagination a garden shed.

It is all very compact compared to the rooms in the main building, so bringing the cat to swing isn’t a good idea, but it is comfortable and it brings a smile to your face. There is the drawback of a tramp across to dine in the hotel, but the food is well worth the short walk, and umbrellas will be provided. Room service will also be offered — pity the hapless staff lugging cloched trays over open ground in a force nine.

As I discovered during the night, the big advantage of being away from the other guests is the peace and quiet. No slamming of doors, no appearance by that phantom furniture-mover who always checks into the room above mine and proceeds to remodel it into the early hours. All I got was birdsong in the morning.

No doubt the novelty of the Tardis-like bothy played a part in my warming to it, because I haven’t seen anywhere quite like it. Yet. The Bothy Lodge Company says that some hotels have applied for planning permission for 25 or 30 of its units. This changes the game somewhat. A forest full of bothies will be like a collision between Center Parcs and Tolkien’s Shire, and the sheer number would diminish that wow factor significantly.

Overall, though, despite a few teething troubles (it is virtually the prototype, after all), the Woodland Lodge works well. And if it works here, it’ll work elsewhere: every hotel with decent-sized grounds could do with a bothy or two. Just don’t overdo it, eh, guys?

Details: the Woodland Lodge costs £195, B&B. Rooms in the main hotel go for £185.

Midweek dinner costs £30 for four courses; a more elaborate weekend menu is £45. Enterkine Country House, Annbank, Ayrshire (01292 520 580, www.enterkine.com) is a 15-minute, £12-£14 cab ride from Glasgow Prestwick, which is served by Ryanair (0871 246 0000, www.ryanair.com), from Bournemouth, Stansted, Dublin, Shannon and Derry. Glasgow is the nearest mainline train terminus; from there, take an Ayr train and alight at Prestwick, also a 15-minute cab ride from the hotel.

Deep in the woods...

IT’S NOT just bothies that are starting to pop up in the grounds of swish hotels. Lodges, treehouses and beach huts are all being added by country houses keen to attract novelty-seeking guests.

nFrogg Manor (01829 782629, www.froggmanorhotel.co.uk), near Chester, is due to open its sumptuous Lady Guinevere suite in May, in a custom-built treehouse. There is a king-size bed, an ensuite bathroom and a veranda with views over the Welsh Mountains. No rope ladder, alas — access is by wooden steps. Prices will start at £250 for two, including champagne, chocolates and breakfast.

- Mistletoe Lodge at Amberley Castle (01798 831992, www.amberleycastle.com; rooms from £155), in Sussex, is a treehouse-cum-dining room (you don’t sleep in it), complete with an enormous swing: set away from the castle, it’s intended for private arboreal amour. It costs £195 for champagne on arrival, a three-course meal, a bottle of wine, coffee and petit fours for two. Access is by rope bridge. Not surprisingly, it’s a popular spot for popping the question.

- Holbeck Ghyll (01539 432375, www.holbeckghyll.com) in Windermere has a stone-built, traditional lakeland house called The Shieling (named after rough, upland shelters similar to bothies) in the grounds, with two double bedrooms and a kitchen (though it’s also fully serviced by the hotel). Prices start at £150pp, including dinner and breakfast. Last year, Holbeck opened the detached Miss Potter Suite, with an enormous terrace containing a sunken tub and offering great lake views; prices start at £215pp, including dinner and breakfast.

- Fritton House (01493 484008, www.frittonhouse.co.uk) on the Somerleyton Estate, Suffolk, has a secluded timber outbuilding it calls Honeymoon Lodge. A 10-minute walk from the hotel, it is the last in a scattering of natural wooden lodges, set away from all the others, down at the edge of a lake. The one-bedroom cabin starts at £323 for a three-night minimum stay, self-catering, and is decked out with flowers and champagne on arrival.

- Going one step further than the competition, the landlocked Grove (01923 807807, www.thegrove.co.uk; rooms from £280) in Hertfordshire is building an artificial beach in its walled garden. Audacious — and to go on that beach, it is installing six beach huts, where guests can lounge, be served drinks from the beach bar, summon an in-house therapist for a quick treatment, or watch big sporting events on a giant television screen. Prices start at £95 for a half day and there is already a waiting list for summer.

- If an artificial beach just won’t do and you want the genuine article, the Driftwood in Cornwall (01872 580644, www.driftwoodhotel.co.uk) has a two-bedroom “beach cabin” situated halfway down its sloping cliff to the sea. Very popular, it starts at £220 per night, B&B.

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