Clift Hill, Longtown

Your splendid homely venue with…… Views; Space; up to 3 hot tubs, sauna and chef (extra charges); family, friends, pet and child friendly; outside 10A charging point. Bed spaces for 19 plus 2 double sofa beds. ( Double and single on ground floor plus WC)

First of all, I recognise that planning a gathering involves lots of work, including research, and is not without stress. To that end, you might want to ask questions when you’ve finished reading….I can help you with caterers for dinner, murder mystery, mountain biking, hiking routes, or other activities!

Catering/meal preparation in the kitchen is an important consideration. Cooking for 16+ is very different from cooking for 7 at home. With advice from the optional chefs who come to the house, we have a high temperature commercial oven and a large warming cupboard. This enables you to cook multiple dishes over a period of time and keep them at serving temperature. There are also 3 induction hobs, 2 larder fridges, 1 chest freezer. The old aga is still in place and in use.

You might enjoy having a pasta making evening using the Kitchen Aid or just lighting a fire and watching the outdoor stars. Strengthening your core on the slackline or smiling with small kids using the zip wire also happens here.

We are getting greener: all LED lights, 100% renewable electricity provider, no rubbish to landfill.

Multi generational friends, hens and family reunions work well. The majority of adult guests should be over 25. Children very welcome.

Extras price recap Chef from c.£50 full service 3 courses to £15 buffet Hot tubs/Sauna for 2 nights £260 each discounts for multiple tubs, £445, £630 Murder Mystery from £350 Alpaca visits £150 Cocktail making £35pp demos +4 drinks

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Welcome to a lovely family house. It is different to most holiday lets in that you will see and benefit from the fact it is homely. As such, you will quickly feel relaxed and make it yours!

The space is generous enough for you to be able to social distance within the property if needed. And the baths are big enough for 3 to share!

With majestic views over the Solway Plain, this grand building provides a captivating base from which to explore the Lake District, Hadrian’s Wall and Southern Scotland

It is a generously proportioned Edwardian mansion, designed for the last days of servants and built during the first years of the Great War. Long-defunct bell pushes can be found in most rooms, including some bathrooms; a reminder of a bygone era. Relive a time when enormous bath tubs and dressing for dinner were de rigeur.

The house is the perfect place to celebrate a birthday with children and grandchildren who’ll be delighted to see hares in the garden in the mornings and startled deer in the overgrown orchard…my children say the house is perfect for hide and seek.

Younger folk may enjoy the junior zip wire and proper table football in the cloakroom or the possibility of a hot tub after a barbecue at the fire-pit on the terrace. Others may roll up the rugs and put the Sony XV800 on max and dance!..no neighbour worries.

HOUSE & GARDENS

During my work on the house, I have learnt how much the Edwardians loved fresh air. There is an elaborate venting system that resembles in parts one of those pneumatic tube transport devices. Nowadays I try to keep the air from coming into the house but the eleven fireplaces and forty-four doors often conspire against me.

However, the illusion of being outside when indoors extends beyond the air vents. In the handsome dining room, William Morris wallpaper meets wisteria creeping in at the windows, creating an impression of a real and an imagined garden intertwining.

The enormous family portrait on the dining room wall was painted by John Walton (my father) in 1957. Sharp eyes will notice that he is in the picture, holding a paintbrush. The wonderful fireplace and decor make this a room that can be as formal as you wish, or the perfect size for long board games or late-night poker sessions.

In the ground floor cloakroom there is a magnificent thunder box lavatory and large double sinks. Pride in plumbing is a leitmotif of this mini mansion.

From the master bedroom with its interesting en-suite bathroom, there is a view on all sides over miles of wide, open landscape, with both the North Pennines and Lake District omnipresent. Today you can enjoy these views just as the original owner, Mr Chance once did. Nothing but nothing has changed!

The house once had its own grounds, river, farm, greenhouse, stables and garaging for a multitude of vehicles. The river is approached by deeply sunken steps that are almost tunnels through the undergrowth and after a short hop past the cows you may find the eels and sea trout that my children loved. The cliffs here are particularly dramatic and totally unexpected, formed from an outcrop of very fine-grained, orange-red “Kirklinton” sandstone. Kingfishers live here and, if you are lucky, you might catch a flash of blue as you wade to the mini island at low flow.

The house swallows children – you will get just occasional sightings. An old school bell lets you to summon them to supper.

Houses like this are familiar to anyone who has ever watched a period drama and being here, in the spacious, elegant rooms, the Edwardian period comes alive. The original teak sink for washing your crystal is still there as are so many other features. If you can work out why there are sliding locks on the outside of so many doors or why there are arches in the interconnecting bedroom, please let me know!

LOCAL HISTORY 1915 context – the year of the house was also the same year the British ran out of Artillery Shells and a huge factory was built around the corner at Gretna for women manufacturing Cordite – Known as the Devil’s Porridge.

The area is also rich in other recent and ancient history, lack of redevelopment means that there is much to see and imagine.

This mansion stands apart, literally and metaphorically, from the other buildings in this area – the house appears on the horizon long before you reach it. All around are the so-called “Debatable Lands” – neither Scottish nor English for many centuries, families simply picked a side. You were either with the Grahams or the Armstrongs, battling for cattle, land and loyalty.

PRACTICALITIES A great landmark, easily sleeping 16+ people in 7 bedrooms (largest one has 3 adult bunks) and there is a sofa bed in snug and sitting room.

The grounds contain secret paths, fruit bushes and orchard. There is a fun area adjacent to the driveway with child zipline and a slackwire. The views are of the unspoilt Cumbria countryside loved by Wainwright, and the Rivers Esk, Eden and Lyne are nearby.

The local linear settlement of Longtown is unrepentantly stuck in a time warp and not at all twee. You will find the basics here. The hardware shop – John Graham – has those bygone parts you need and is worth a visit.

There are pubs in Longtown but the best food is just along the river at the Hidden River cafe – a lovely 20 minute bike ride away. Or try the Sally in Irthington.

MORE ON THE HOUSE HISTORY From auction records at Sotheby’s it is evident that Mr Chance liked his art and no doubt appreciated Ruskin. We have returned most of the house to an appearance that he, William Morris or Burne-Jones might have appreciated if alive in 1915: still lots of oak and proud metal work together with a smattering of stained glass. Many of the artworks on the walls today are by family members, from portraits through to abstracts.

Today, the house is slowly regaining the glowing vitality it enjoyed in the lifetime of its enigmatic original owner. It offers a unique chance to step into the world where servants were on the way out and central heating was on the way in.

The original floorplan is retained and the numerous doors and two staircases often make you feel as if you’re participating in a West End farce. Visitors often find themselves congregating in the large kitchen with its oven, sofa, and old bell system for the servants still visible. Or playing the piano and singing!

I recommend booking the Sunday if you’re thinking of weekend stay, from just an extra £250 ..please ask. Even if you can’t all stay the night it gives you a chance for a hearty walk and lunch by the fire and still time for a quiet, if long, drive or train journey.

Let me order local produce for you at cost: Hallsford for meat, Eva’s organics for fruit and veg, with 2 weeks notice ideally. The main supermarkets also deliver.

Environmental considerations LED lights throughout, electricity monitors, some recycled paper products, refilled washing products. Electric supply 100% renewables. Further suggestions always welcome ——–

Due to valuable nature of possessions in house, I require photo ID from lead booker and recommend that they insure against damage done by any of their guests.

Meal prices are from c.£50 for 3 courses with waiters, less for a buffet. I give you 2 chef recommendations who know the house well.

6 seater quality hard hot tub hire 260 pounds for 2 night weekend. (445/630 for 2/3 tubs) Sauna 260. Supplied by professional Scottish Borders company.

Dogs can come into kitchen with its sofa and downstairs bedroom, but no further. Garden is pretty secure.

I am a super relaxed, accommodating host, but you know best whether the property meets your intended purpose

THE AREA For walkers, Hadrian’s Wall, a world UNESCO site, crosses 10 minutes from the house and of course, we are a short drive from the Lake District National Park and also the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. An abundance of maps is available.

Nearby is the Great Border city of Carlisle, an ancient settlement with Roman discoveries still emerging. The cathedral alone is worth making the journey for, with stunning misericords and a magical ceiling depicting the heavens in midnight blue silk studded with gold stars.

In the nearby countryside there are some enigmatic stone circles – including Castlerigg, dating from 3000 BC, which has bracing views of Helvellyn in the background – and Long Meg and Her Daughters, a Bronze Age stone circle near Penrith.

For rail enthusiasts, remnants of the days of railway glory are all around, with the old Waverley Line route still available for unofficial exploration just up the road at Kirkandrews-on-Esk, where incidentally is the most beautiful, quite long and scary suspension bridge (max. 5 people).

With maps you can cross and recross the river Lyne at all the historic fording points – we have found old cart wheels. Great little local walk through private woodlands leading to Hidden River Cafe (amazing full meals), ask for details

The building was conceived in 1913 and finished in 1915, designed by the Chance family, who were wealthy merchants involved in the local textile mills