Over a bubbling stream and up a hill along a small tree-lined lane, we turned into an even tinier lane and up another incline, where we were met by a jolly woman wearing pink pyjama bottoms.

She was standing in front of a neat building with french windows and a view across rolling emerald countryside. She introduced herself as Chrissy Hill, who with her husband, Andy, runs the Randy Pike B&B, which opened this year with two rooms.

Chrissy was charming and a chatterbox (we soon learn all about the fox that attacked her ducks, and her new piglets) and a little bit eccentric: “Oh, look at me! You’ve caught me in my pyjamas!”

We were in the Martindale room and Chrissy was soon showing us around a huge space with a four-poster bed and interior design that was a mix of bordello and quirky art studio.

There were pieces of driftwood stylishly propped in corners, two tall armchairs with a black and white floral pattern, plush Roman orgy-style day beds, lampshades with bright pink feathers, wallpaper decorated in a catfish pattern, and a large bathroom (bigger than some rooms in which I’ve stayed of late) with more driftwood, candles and a huge shower.

“Here is the secret larder,” Chrissy said, opening a cupboard to reveal a fridge with two small bottles of Cava, beers, mineral water and fruit juices, all included in the price, as was a bottle of red wine next to a visitors’ book full of warm words.

Despite the pink nightwear, bordello bedlamps, Roman orgy furniture, and the B&B’s name, there was nothing seedy about the Randy Pike. The name already belonged to the building, which is connected to Chrissy and Andy’s house, when the couple moved in a few years ago.

It was splendid and a nice surprise to find a place that turned out to be better than it looked on its website.

In the evening Chrissy drove us in a Range Rover with plush leather seats (all part of the service) to the Randy Pike’s sister restaurant, the Jumble Room, in Grasmere, not far from Wordsworth’s cottage.

There we ate a fine candlelit meal (very good cucumber soup and Hyderabad chicken) in an eclectic, slightly cramped interior: hence, we supposed, the restaurant’s name. Two courses, with the wine, came to a very reasonable £64. Service was prompt and friendly.

Back at the B&B, after a lift from Andy this time, it was completely silent, pitch black and restful. The message on one of the unusual pieces of art on a wall by the door said: “There are things you do because they feel right and they make no sense or money — and it may be the real reason we are here.”

Well, the Randy Pike certainly felt very right and was worth the money (pink pyjamas and all).

Need to know

Randy Pike (015394 36088, randypike.co.uk), Low Wray, Cumbria LA22 0JP. Mystery Guest paid £200 for a B&B double.

Room 9 out of 10
Service 9.5
Food 7
Value 7
Score: 8.13.

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