A Lake District Edwardian property in the Borrowdale valley is on the market with an asking price inviting offers of more than £2.5m.
The Leathes Head occupies a 2.7-acres site with spectacular views to the surrounding fells and to Derwentwater.
The Leathes Head is less than five miles from Keswick, with Grange just a short walk away.
It currently operates as an award-winning, 11-bedroom country house hotel, which was included in the 2021 Michelin Guide and is a previous winner of Cumbria Tourism’s Small Hotel of the Year.
Planning consent exists to allow subdivision of the main front part of the building to form a five-bedroom house subject to use as a principal residence together with three rear adjoining self-contained holiday letting properties which collectively provide a total of nine bedrooms.
Highlights inside the property include impressive period features. Outside there are 2.7 acres of gardens and woodland, which are a haven for wildlife, including bees, butterflies and moths, tawny owls, woodpeckers, a whole range of garden birds and red squirrels.
The Leathes Head was built in 1909 as a private house for the daughter of a wealthy Liverpool-based ship builder.
It was named after Leathes Water, one of two ‘lakes’ submerged when Thirlmere was created around 1894. The Leathes family lived in the Thirlmere valley.
The first owner, ship-builder’s daughter Edith Fellon, lived there until 1938 at which time she granted adjacent land to the National Trust. When she died two years later, she left substantial donations to many charities and various sea-related institutions.
The layout of the original house is very similar to the layout today. Aside from the dining room, lounge, kitchen and scullery, it included an unusual special room – ‘the knives and boots room’ on approximately the site of the present-day hotel office.
The Leathes Head was lived in by Edith, her cousin Sarah Bromley, a maid and a cook.
In later years the property was extended. The property is on the market with Hackney & Leigh.
