Ever just fancied the chance to stay somewhere that bit different? Here are some wonderful quirky places where you can rest your head and immerse yourself in some serious history
HolidayCottageCompare.com has just linked up with national building preservation charity, the Vivat Trust, to help make some of the UK’s finest – and quirkiest – restored buildings available to rent as self-catering holiday accommodation.
There are towers, gatehouses, observatories and follies with varied and colourful histories available with four poster beds and roaring log fires offered as standard.
Hadlow Tower, near Tonbridge in Kent
You can be among the first to stay in Hadlow Tower (pictured above), a magnificent grade I listed Gothic Revival folly providing spectacular views across the Kent countryside, which is available to book from September 2014.
Accommodation is over five levels which are served by a lift and two spiral staircases. On the first floor is a spacious kitchen and octagonal dining room with floor to ceiling windows on three sides.
A richly decorated sitting room complete with a wood-burning stove is on the second floor and on the third floor is a twin bedroom as well as a wheelchair accessible double bedroom with a spacious en-suite wet room.
At the top of the tower the double height space has been designed to provide a dramatic master bedroom (pictured) with a sumptuous mezzanine bathroom. The staircase to this bathroom also leads into the stair to the prospect eyrie from where guests can view the surrounding countryside.
Hadlow Tower
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Liberton Tower near Edinburgh
Liberton has been described as ‘the most perfect and unspoilt tower within the precincts’ of Edinburgh.
Built towards the end of the 15th century it has all the features you would expect of a tower house including deep walls, slit windows and a listening hole called a ‘lairds lug’.
Built by the Dalmahoy family; a carved panel on the building shows their crest emblems of an arm and a sword. Accommodation is over three storeys and offers two bedrooms sleeping four comfortably.
Managing Director of HolidayCottageCompare.com, Paula Ross, says: “We are over the moon to be associated with the Vivat Trust and their important work to restore such impressive buildings for future generations.
“How else could you get the opportunity to stay in such a stunning property and support such vital preservation work at the same time?”
Laura Norris, Vivat Trust Director is similarly enthusiastic: “Vivat’s latest completed project, Hadlow Tower, has just been the proud recipient of two awards that recognise our fine restoration work and we are delighted to now share our buildings with a wider audience.”
Liberton Tower
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The Temple – a classic folly near Telford in Shropshire
Approached via a tree-lined carriageway the folly was designed in 1783 by James Wyatt as an architectural ornament, teahouse and vantage point. Today it is romantic one-bedroom haven of tranquillity. The Temple makes an ideal base from which to explore the surrounding area or to simply enjoy the birdsong from the colonnaded balcony.
The Temple is set within Badger Dingle, a 40-acre picturesque landscape of deep sandstone chasms and wooded ravines created out of the natural topography by William Emes (1730-1803), a pupil of ‘Capability’ Brown. Emes dammed the brook which flowed through the Dingle to form three pools separated by cascades.
From the sitting room, a spiral staircase descends to the ground floor kitchen/dining room. The intimate double bedroom furnished with antiques and an 18th century style bed has an en-suite vaulted wet room.
An unmade path leads to the entrance at first floor level. A spiral staircase leads down to the ground floor. Due to the woodland nature of this property the surrounding paths can be wet and uneven.
The Temple
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The Vivat Trust www.vivat-trust.org is a registered charity and an active national building preservation trust. Established in 1981, the trust is dedicated to rescuing derelict historic buildings and sensitively restoring them into short stay self-catering holiday homes.
