It was acquired by the Lakeland Trust 10 years ago, and has been open to the public since 2001. As well as admiring the quite beautifully restored internal decoration, visitors also get to see craft exhibitions as they are housed in the upstairs rooms. It is located south of Bowness, on the hillside affording wide views of Windermere and the Coniston fells beyond. Visitors to the tea room can either sit inside, or on the terrace, enjoying the views.
The house has a large hall, more like a medieval house, but like all the rooms, there is a an inglenook around the the fireplace, for more intimate gatherings. There is a second area of recessed seating with a superb peacock frieze in the opposite corner, and above the fireplace there is a minstrels' gallery.
There are two other downstairs rooms, a dining room, fairly formal with its wood panelling, but facing west, and with views over Windermere is the drawing room. The walls and ceilings are all patterned, but painted white, and the result is very light and restful. There is a recessed seating area around a window, with views over the lake, and as the other rooms, inglenook seating around the fireplace. There is a shelf, at picture rail height around the room, supported by slim columns. It really is a most restful and peaceful room.
Upstairs there is a bedroom with a dressing room, and one smaller bedroom. This room has some pictures of the time the house was used to re-house a school during the war time. The other upstairs rooms house craft exhibitions. At our visit we saw an exhibition of glass made by James Powell & Sons. There were also sculptures by David Nash.
The exhibition changes each few months, so we can look forward to visiting again next year.
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