Somerset does its hot tub stays on farmland rather than in holiday parks, and the result is quieter and plainer than the phrase suggests. Most of the eleven below are converted barns with a tub in the garden: a cedar clad barn and a red brick one side by side on a 550 acre farm near North Petherton, a conversion beside a 17th century farmhouse on a dairy farm at Hillcommon, and a stone barn in an orchard outside Wedmore. The rest are bigger houses for families and groups, from a seven bedroom farmhouse at Trull to a five bedroom house on the edge of the moor at Meare.
For a dog, the useful thing is the ground around them. We picked every property from our map of stays, and each one clears three tests: the listing describes an enclosed garden, it confirms a hot tub, and it says in writing how many dogs may come. That number runs from one at Kibbear Farmhouse and Fox Whelp to five at Knapp Lane Barn, which sleeps only two people. Four of the eleven are built for a couple, three of those are adults only, and between them the list covers the Mendips, the Somerset Levels, the Quantocks and the Blackdown Hills, so the walking you get depends heavily on which one you pick.
The Barn - Elms Farm, Biddisham
The Barn at Elms Farm turns the usual layout upside down. All four bedrooms are on the ground floor, three with their own shower room and one with French doors onto the garden, while the living space is a single open room upstairs with a balcony facing the ridge of Crook Peak. It sleeps eight, carries five stars, and takes three dogs, a generous allowance for eight people. The large enclosed garden holds an undercover hot tub, a patio, a charcoal barbecue and a table tennis table, and a games room downstairs has a pool table.
The arrangement suits dogs at night and less so in the evening. Letting three of them out at dawn involves no stairs at all, but the sofas are a floor up, so a dog that wants company after dinner has to climb to find it, or somebody has to sit in the snug by the garden doors instead. Walking is close: the Crook Peak route begins 1.7 miles away, a proper climb onto open access ground at the western end of the Mendips, and the Strawberry Line gives flat miles on an old railway a little further north.
- Sleeps: 8 across 4 bedrooms, all on the ground floor
- Dogs welcome: 3
- Hot tub: Yes, undercover, in the corner of the garden
- Enclosed garden: Yes, large, with patio, BBQ and table tennis
- Nearest walk: Crook Peak, 1.7 miles
- Best for: A group of eight with three dogs who want a ridge walk from the door
Summer Lodge, Nether Stowey
Of everything here, Summer Lodge comes nearest to a lodge in the usual sense: a single storey building for two in the Quantocks above Nether Stowey, five star graded, with the enclosed garden wrapped right round it. There are no stairs and barely a threshold inside, which counts for a great deal with an elderly dog. One open room covers the kitchen, a breakfast bar and the lounge, and the bedroom has a super king and floor to ceiling windows over the fields. The hot tub stands under a wooden pagoda beside the patio and barbecue.
It is adults only, by the owners' rule, and the fire in the lounge is electric, so anybody set on woodsmoke should look at the farm barns further down this list. The fields outside the bedroom glass hold sheep, which a dog will notice long before you do, so leads matter beyond the fence. What the lodge gives in return is the hills almost at the gate: Staple Plain is 0.7 miles off, where the heather ridge of the Quantocks begins, and the rocky shore at Stolford Beach is 4.3 miles away.
- Sleeps: 2 in 1 bedroom
- Dogs welcome: 2
- Hot tub: Yes, covered by a wooden pagoda
- Enclosed garden: Yes, level lawn and patio all round
- Nearest walk: Staple Plain, 0.7 miles
- Best for: A couple with an older dog and a taste for open heather
Wagtails, Langford Budville
Of the eleven, Wagtails is the one designed with dogs in mind from the outset. Four are allowed, a hot shower outside rinses muddy legs, a freezer is kept for raw food, and the utility room comes stocked with towels, poo bags, treats and toys alongside the washer and dryer. A stairgate is supplied and there is a dog welcome pack. The cottage sleeps five in two bedrooms outside Langford Budville in the vale of Taunton Deane, and the large lawned garden is well fenced, with a patio, a coal barbecue and a hot tub with its own seating.
There are practical limits. The king bedroom is up a steep staircase, and the garden has three steps between its levels, so a dog with stiff hips will need a hand in places. The nearest walk we list, Culmstock Beacon and Black Down Common from Hemyock, is six miles away, though that undersells the doorstep, since the cottage adjoins a 200 acre nature reserve and the owners leave a walking guide and a list of pubs that take dogs.
- Sleeps: 5 across 2 bedrooms
- Dogs welcome: 4
- Hot tub: Yes, with its own seating
- Enclosed garden: Yes, large and well fenced, on two levels
- Nearest walk: Culmstock Beacon and Black Down Common from Hemyock, 6.0 miles
- Best for: A family travelling with three or four dogs who want everything provided
Kibbear Farmhouse, Trull
Kibbear Farmhouse is the largest house here by a distance, sleeping fourteen across seven bedrooms on a working farm at Trull, a mile or two outside Taunton with the Blackdown Hills behind. It has two wings, two staircases and six bathrooms, a country kitchen with an AGA, three wood burners, and a games area with a full size snooker table and an antique skittle alley. The large lawn is fenced right round and holds a private hot tub, a barbecue and a children's play area with a swing and climbing frame. A heated indoor pool is shared with other properties on the site.
The allowance is the catch: one dog for fourteen people, so this only works for a party in which a single household brings an animal. The farmhouse has grown over centuries and there are steps between most rooms, which is character for people and a nuisance for a dog that is unsteady. Walking needs the car too, with the Cothelstone Hill Circular on the Quantocks 6.9 miles off, though the Blackdown lanes start behind the village.
- Sleeps: 14 across 7 bedrooms
- Dogs welcome: 1
- Hot tub: Yes, private, in the garden; indoor pool shared
- Enclosed garden: Yes, large lawn with BBQ and play area
- Nearest walk: Cothelstone Hill Circular, 6.9 miles
- Best for: A big family reunion with one dog among the lot of them
Shepherds Linhay, North Petherton
Shepherds Linhay is a cedar clad barn for two on a 550 acre working farm near North Petherton, with sliding doors the width of the room opening onto decking that looks over the Somerset Levels. Inside it is one room: a dining table made from an oak that fell on the farm, a wood burner at the far end, and a bedroom with a built out window seat and its own shower room. Underfloor heating runs throughout. Outside, beyond a covered seating area, the enclosed garden has a table, a barbecue and a wood fired hot tub.
Children are not taken, though, and a wood fired tub needs lighting and tending, so it is slower to come up to heat than an electric one. The farm around the fence is genuinely working, and the fenced ground is what lets two dogs be outside without supervision. Our closest listed route is the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal, 2.4 miles away, with level towpath in both directions, and the Quantocks rise behind the farm for something steeper.
- Sleeps: 2 in 1 bedroom
- Dogs welcome: 2
- Hot tub: Yes, wood fired, in the enclosed garden
- Enclosed garden: Yes, with decking and covered seating
- Nearest walk: Bridgwater and Taunton Canal, 2.4 miles
- Best for: A couple who want a view across the Levels and a fire to light
Shepherds Croft, North Petherton
Shepherds Croft stands on the same farm as Shepherds Linhay and is its red brick counterpart, also converted for two people and two dogs. Its front door folds right back, so on a warm day the snug and the garden become a single space. Inside, a wood burner warms the snug with the first logs supplied, the kitchen and a wooden table follow, and the king bedroom is at the back. Underfloor heating runs beneath it all, and the bathroom has a large walk in shower that earns its keep after farm tracks.
Like its neighbour it is adults only, and the bedroom sits two steps up from the living space, a small thing that some older dogs will refuse after dark. Because the two barns share a farm, the setting is quiet but not solitary, and the enclosed garden with its eco wood fired tub, patio furniture and barbecue is the private part. The Bridgwater and Taunton Canal is 2.4 miles off here too, and Great Wood and Beacon Hill on the Quantocks lie west.
- Sleeps: 2 in 1 bedroom
- Dogs welcome: 2
- Hot tub: Yes, eco wood fired
- Enclosed garden: Yes, with patio furniture and BBQ
- Nearest walk: Bridgwater and Taunton Canal, 2.4 miles
- Best for: Two friends or a couple booking alongside the Linhay next door
Blagroves Farm View, Hillcommon
Blagroves Farm View sleeps six in three bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, beside a 17th century farmhouse on a 300 acre dairy farm at Hillcommon, west of Taunton. Three dogs are allowed, which is generous for the size. The living space is a single open room under old beams with exposed brick and bi-fold doors onto a private enclosed courtyard, where the hot tub, outdoor furniture and a charcoal barbecue are kept, and a lawn runs alongside for the dogs to stretch out on.
A dairy farm is a working place, with a herd coming in for milking, so dogs with a strong interest in cattle need watching near the hedges. The enclosed part is a courtyard rather than a big garden, with the lawn beside it. For the hills you drive: the Lydeard Hill and Wills Neck Ridge Walk is 5.4 miles away, onto the open ridge of the Quantocks. The ground floor double has its own patio door, the room to take with a dog that dislikes stairs, and the neighbouring cottage can be booked too for a party of ten.
- Sleeps: 6 across 3 bedrooms, all en suite
- Dogs welcome: 3
- Hot tub: Yes, in the enclosed courtyard
- Enclosed garden: Yes, a private courtyard with a lawn beside it
- Nearest walk: Lydeard Hill and Wills Neck Ridge Walk, 5.4 miles
- Best for: A family of six with three dogs who like farm life going on around them
Orchard Farm Wedmore - Fox Whelp
Fox Whelp is a stone barn for four near Wedmore, and its best feature for a dog is not the garden at all but the orchard beside it, mature apple trees running down to a stream, which guests are welcome to walk in. Both bedrooms and the shower room are on the ground floor, the double with a door straight into the garden. The lounge has a wood burner with logs ready, and doors from it and from the bedroom open onto a private terrace, with the hot tub in the enclosed garden beyond. There is electric vehicle charging on site.
The allowance stops at a single dog, and the barn is one of a complex of properties, so the orchard and the on site farm shop are shared spaces rather than private ones. Shops are two miles away in Wedmore. The walking is flat in every direction across the Levels, and the Cheddar Reservoir circuit is 2.6 miles off, while Ham Wall to the east is where the starlings come in to roost before dark.
- Sleeps: 4 across 2 bedrooms, all on the ground floor
- Dogs welcome: 1
- Hot tub: Yes, in the enclosed garden
- Enclosed garden: Yes, with a terrace, plus a shared orchard
- Nearest walk: Cheddar Reservoir, 2.6 miles
- Best for: A family of four with one dog and no wish for stairs
Knapp Lane Barn - North Curry
Knapp Lane Barn welcomes five dogs and sleeps two people, an allowance nothing else in this guide approaches. It is a single storey conversion on a nine acre smallholding at North Curry, glazed floor to ceiling across the front, with a wood burner beside the lounge windows, a king bedroom and a bathroom with both a bath and a separate shower. Patio doors lead from the lounge into an enclosed garden that is entirely the barn's own, with the hot tub set out there facing open country.
The obvious limit is that it suits only two people, so a pack of five comes with a couple and nobody else. The nearest walk we list, Burrow Mump and the River Parrett Circular, is 4.1 miles away, though the lanes leave from the door with no road to cross first, which matters when five leads are involved. Below the village, Curry Moor floods most winters and fills with birds, so the droves are wet underfoot for part of the year. The owners' tennis court can be used by arrangement.
- Sleeps: 2 in 1 bedroom
- Dogs welcome: 5
- Hot tub: Yes, in the private garden
- Enclosed garden: Yes, reached through patio doors from the lounge
- Nearest walk: Burrow Mump and the River Parrett Circular, 4.1 miles
- Best for: Breeders, trialling people or anyone who travels with a pack
Purchases Barn, Combe St Nicholas
Purchases Barn is the newest building on this list, put up in 2021 and set into a hillside on a farm at Combe St Nicholas, near Chard. It sleeps eight in four bedrooms, and the entrance is through a utility room with a WC and washing machine, so wet dogs and boots are sorted before anyone reaches the rest of the house. The kitchen and dining room sit under a vaulted beamed ceiling with an island and an electric AGA, the lounge has a wood burner, and bi-folds from both open onto a patio across the front. The hot tub stands at the side of the barn.
Two dogs are allowed for eight people. The bedrooms are up a short flight, arranged in pairs that each share a bathroom, which works for two households but means nobody has an en suite. The lawn slopes downhill and is enclosed by fence and hedge the whole way round. Walking is by car for anything we list, the Pilsdon Pen Circular Walk being 10.2 miles away, though Chard Reservoir with its level path is a few miles off, and Charmouth Beach is 13.1 miles south.
- Sleeps: 8 across 4 bedrooms
- Dogs welcome: 2
- Hot tub: Yes, at the side of the barn
- Enclosed garden: Yes, a sloping lawn fenced and hedged all round
- Nearest walk: Pilsdon Pen Circular Walk, 10.2 miles
- Best for: Three generations with two dogs and a car for the coast
Birch View, Meare
Birch View sleeps ten in five bedrooms at Meare, a village along the old shore of a lake on the peat moor between Glastonbury and Wedmore. The kitchen and dining room have a range cooker, a table for ten and a wood burner, with patio doors onto a large enclosed lawn where a six person hot tub, a barbecue and dining furniture stand on the patio. Two bedrooms and a shower room are downstairs, and upstairs the main bedroom has an en suite and a balcony.
The owners set out their rules plainly: dogs stay downstairs, off the beds and furniture, and blankets are asked for over the carpets. Two dogs are allowed for ten people. The moor is on the doorstep, with Westhay Moor 1.2 miles away and Shapwick Heath under a mile, a reserve of reed bed and wet woodland that dogs walk through on a lead. Glastonbury and its abbey ruins are three miles east, and the medieval fish house at Meare is close by.
- Sleeps: 10 across 5 bedrooms
- Dogs welcome: 2, downstairs only
- Hot tub: Yes, six person, on the patio
- Enclosed garden: Yes, large and lawned
- Nearest walk: Westhay Moor, 1.2 miles
- Best for: A party of ten who want reed beds and birdlife on foot
Practical Advice for Booking a Somerset Hot Tub Cottage with Dogs
Eleven properties with the same three boxes ticked can still differ a great deal once you arrive. Worth checking before you book:
- Read the dog number against the bed number. Kibbear Farmhouse sleeps fourteen and takes one dog. Knapp Lane Barn sleeps two and takes five. Wagtails is the middle ground, with four dogs for five people.
- Adults only means adults only. Summer Lodge, Shepherds Linhay and Shepherds Croft do not take children.
- Wood fired tubs take time. Both barns near North Petherton heat their tubs with wood, so light them after lunch rather than after dinner.
- Stairs and steps. Elms Farm and Fox Whelp put every bedroom on the ground floor, and Summer Lodge and Knapp Lane Barn are single storey. Wagtails has a steep staircase and Kibbear Farmhouse steps between most rooms.
- House rules on furniture. Birch View keeps dogs downstairs and off the sofas and beds.
- Farms and reserves mean leads. Blagroves is a dairy farm, the North Petherton barns sit on a working farm, and dogs go through Shapwick Heath on a lead.
- Keep dogs out of the tub. Chlorinated or treated water is hard on their skin and eyes, and claws can scratch the shell.
Map of Dog Friendly Hot Tub Cottages in Somerset
Plotted together, these cottages form a loose ring around Taunton, with a pair on the Levels near Wedmore and Meare, one under the Mendips at Biddisham, and one south towards the Devon border at Combe St Nicholas. Use the Wildpack map to see which door is nearest the Quantocks, the moors or the Bristol Channel coast.
11 stays on this pageMap these stays, and thousands more
The Wildpack Map plots every dog friendly walk, beach, stay and attraction we have listed across the UK. Open it to see what else is within reach in Somerset, filter by what your dog needs, and get directions to the car park.
What's Nearby?
Other guides worth reading alongside a Somerset hot tub stay:
- Dog friendly walks in Somerset: Hills, moors and levels across the county, for the days out of the tub.
- Dog friendly beaches in Somerset: The sand and shingle of the Bristol Channel shore, a short drive from most of these cottages.
- Dog friendly walks in Exmoor National Park: A longer drive west from Wagtails or Blagroves for bigger moorland.
- Dog friendly hot tub cottages in Devon: The neighbouring county's list, just over the border from Wagtails and Purchases Barn.
- Dog friendly cottages with hot tubs across the UK: The national selection, for comparing Somerset against elsewhere.
For every stay in the county, tub or not, browse all dog friendly stays in Somerset.
Final Thoughts
Somerset suits dog owners who value flat, open walking and a farm setting more than a village high street. Very few of these properties are in a town, and most sit on working farmland with the Levels, the Quantocks or the Blackdowns within a short drive. The couples' barns are where the county is strongest: four places for two people, all with fenced gardens, three of them with a wood burner.
A couple with an older dog should start with Summer Lodge, for the level floors and the heather ridge nearby. Anyone who wants a fire to light and a tub to stoke will choose between the two North Petherton barns. Families with several dogs have Wagtails, which is kitted out for them, and larger groups can pick between Elms Farm for three dogs and a hill walk, or Birch View for the moor. If you travel with five dogs, though, the choice is already made: Knapp Lane Barn at North Curry.
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