Our first week of trading following the months of closure is now over and we are absolutely delighted at how well it has been.

We are pleased that we have been able to offer our full breakfast menu without any deletions. We are fortunate to have a large dining space so we were able to offer social distancing with a ‘good table space’ between diners. Thank you to all our guests for respecting the measures we had put into place.

At the end of March our bookings for July 2020 looked very healthy taking into consideration Buxton was looking forward to hosting another Buxton Festival.

Then the news of theatres, pubs, restaurants being closed and travel being restricted led to the phone and emails going into melt down as cancellation followed cancellation. A positive July reservation picture suddenly appeared desolate. But over the following months we adopted a policy of offering the most competitive prices and we think it’s paid off.

Unprecedented (have you heard that before?) times call for unprecedented measures.

It has been good to see familiar faces back at the Portland. In addition it’s been refreshing and pleasant to meet so many new people, the Villa supporting family (I’m sure things will be better next season), the caver who was cramming a final weekend away before welcoming a new addition to his family – good luck!, the family looking forward to their Alton Towers weekend and others who were desperate to get away and enjoy the many, many walks in the Peak District.

We thank you all for giving us your custom.