Our 67 private acres contain charmingly characteristic Lake District landscapes – all in one place.
The Samling sits cradled in a bowl of Lakeland fellside, looking out over panoramic lake views, south along Windermere and west towards the Coniston Old Man mountain range.
It holds a beautifully varied mix of old deciduous woodland, fellside, traditional hay meadows, vegetable gardens and beehives, and a highly unique ornamental garden featuring ingenious water features and interlocking cascading ponds carved from the hillside’s bedrock. These channel the local springs under and around the hotel and down to the lake.
Wordsworth had a romantic dalliance by our stream, (he enjoyed it so much he wrote a poem about it).
The woodland is a haven to wildlife and plant species, including swathes of English Bluebells, birds, and surprisingly exotic looking moths. The variety of the wildlife has a concentrated interest in the rest of the garden – particularly the vegetable gardens, and sometimes they win, enjoying the best efforts of the gardeners demonstrating an adventurous taste for more exotic micro greens than they find in the woods.
The ornamental gardens and water feature are particularly intriguing. We have a listed Georgian stone Summer House that looks along the length of lake Windermere, but we don’t know the age of the intricately devised water systems – as they run under the buildings common sense dictates they were built as part of the plan.
Our old fashioned hay meadows provided happy grazing for our bees, housed in hives on the edge of the old orchards, where the deer left their young to shelter in the long grass last Summer.
It’s a peaceful haven, the man who picked this spot to build The Samling was a man of unerring discretion and we’re grateful to him.
Thoughtfully carved out of existing, beautifully worn and water-riven bedrock, our beautiful cascading ornamental water gardens run under and around the hotel before dropping down towards the lake. To one side sits a listed Georgian arbour with long lake views over Windermere, here at the heart of the Lake District. Woven about with paths and bridges these pools are terraced into the slope and provide a haven for wildlife that visit from our woods – intent on getting into the kitchen gardens that border two sides, with picturesque Beatrix Potter style disregard for gardeners and chefs. The perennial herbaceous borders...
Cradled in the bowl of our fellside the kitchen gardens sit just below the ornamental gardens, supplemented by the woodland and Lake District fellside that provide ample food for the honeybees, and the extra bonus of wild garlic in Spring plus blackberries and hazelnuts in Autumn. Old orchards line the drive and shelter the beehives, but our newer orchard planted with local strains of apple, damsons and walnuts provides most of the kitchen needs. The wildlife is as enthusiastic about reaping the harvests as we are – in suitably Beatrix Potter tradition. We make a special concession for any Red...
Climbing up the fellside behind us to Jenkins Crag, our self contained private piece of Lakeland provides perfect meandering routes with big lake views. Winding upwards through native woodland – carpeted with wildflowers throughout Spring – to emerge onto fern covered fellside, near old barns where Barn Owls roost. You don’t have to leave our grounds to savour the real Lake District. We’re working to bring Red Squirrels back to the haven of our woods, a biodiverse micro climate filled with a huge variety of birds and exotic looking moths, as well as deer who nonchalantly emerge to stroll past...