A Slow Stay
HYLL occupies a Victorian country house on the hillside above Windermere, in fifteen acres of garden and woodland that face directly down the length of the lake. The position is the property's first inheritance; what has been done with it — a careful, modern restoration that treats the house and the view with equal weight — is the second.
Fifteen rooms across the main house and a small cluster of garden suites, a tasting-menu restaurant of long-standing reputation, and the kind of grounds that reward an unhurried morning. Walks begin at the door — up onto the fells or down to the lake at Waterhead.
The interiors are quieter than the typical Lakeland register: pale plasters, dark stained oak, heavy washed linen, the occasional sharper note in a piece of contemporary Scandinavian or Japanese ceramic. The sitting rooms keep their original fireplaces and bay windows; the bedrooms have been reworked to make the most of the views west and south down the lake.
The fell rooms in the older part of the house are quieter and look up into the woods; the lake suites face down across the water and catch the light through the afternoon. Beds dressed in heavy washed linen, baths set where the windows are largest, the kind of attention to small things (kettle and proper tea, books that have been chosen) that you only get in a small house.
The restaurant is a long tasting menu, run by a small kitchen brigade with a clear personal voice. Produce is principally Cumbrian — Herdwick lamb, fell-pasture beef, lake trout, foraged from the surrounding woodland in season — treated with restraint. Wine pairing is encouraged and well done. Breakfast the next morning is the same standard.
Fifteen acres of garden and woodland walk straight up onto the open fell behind the house, with one of the better short ascents in the southern Lakes from the back gate. Down the hill, ten minutes on foot, Waterhead has the steamers that work the length of the lake. The garden itself rewards an unhurried hour with the head gardener.
The southern Lakes — Ambleside, Grasmere, the Langdales — are within twenty minutes by car. Coniston and the Old Man are half an hour west. Beatrix Potter country, Hill Top and the Hawkshead area, is closer still. The drive in from the M6 is about half an hour. The trains stop at Windermere, ten minutes by car from the door.
Indicative rates — vary by season and availability. Breakfast typically included. Confirm directly with the hotel for current pricing.
Reserve at HYLL
