The general manager of Peter de Savary's luxury Devon retreat Bovey Castle has quit after just six weeks in the job.

Philip Newman-Hall started at the hotel on 1 April in a deal worth between £150,000 and £200,000 a year, but left in May.

Speaking from Marrakech, where he is temporarily managing Richard Branson's Kasbah Tamadot hotel, Newman-Hall said: "What Peter wanted to achieve with the property was different to what I did. With hindsight, perhaps I hadn't seen enough before I took the role."

The 65-bedroom resort reopened in April last year after a £27m refurbishment. De Savary said the scale of the project, which he described as a mini-Gleneagles, had proved too much for Newman-Hall, who had decided to "bail out before he got in any deeper".

De Savary has now recruited long-time collaborator William Pound to take over as general manager from 4 July. "He set up the St James Clubs for me and ran Stapleford Park, so I think it'll prove to be a very attractive appointment," he said.