A WEST Devon hotel is celebrating after being named as a finalist in the small hotel of the year category of the prestigious VisitEngland Awards for Excellence 2015.

As a finalist, The Horn of Plenty at Gulworthy, now goes forward to the glittering awards ceremony which is being held on Monday, May 11 at the Sage Gateshead.

VisitEngland is the country's national tourist board. The awards attracted a total of 345 applications. The Horn of Plenty will have to wait until the awards ceremony to find out which award they will receive. All finalists are guaranteed to receive either a gold, silver, bronze or highly commended award.

James Berresford, chief executive of VisitEngland, said: 'It's been another successful year for our excellence awards as we've received hundreds of applications of an extremely high standard. That's why all the finalists should be incredibly proud that they've been shortlisted against such tough competition.

'I'd like to congratulate all the finalists who now represent the top five in their category in England and wish them all the very best of luck on awards night.'

Speaking on behalf of The Horn of Plenty, owner Julie Leivers said: 'We're incredibly proud to be the only Devon hotel, and one of only two hotels in the whole of the South West, to have made it through to the finals of this extremely prestigious award.

'We took over The Horn of Plenty just five years ago as complete novices to the hospitality industry. Everyone told us we were mad to take on such a venture and during our first year we'd definitely have agreed with them! Since then we've learned a lot, we've made huge changes and we continue to invest every penny we make to improve our guests' experience.

'We're still learning, we're still experimenting and we still have huge ambitions for the future.

'A very big thanks to our dedicated and talented staff who have worked so hard to get this far.'