Iconic Lakeland country home on market for £3m plus
One of Lake District’s most famous country houses is up for sale for offers above £3m.
The sale of Miller Howe is being undertaken by Julian Troup, head of UK Hotels Agency at property company Colliers International.
Troup sold the landmark property overlooking Lake Windermere on behalf of John Tovey, one of the original celebrity chefs in 1998.
Tovey launched Miller Howe in 1971 with an investment of £53,000 – by 1989 and following several best-seller cookery books and a popular television series, the hotel and restaurant had become renowned internationally and his business had soared in value.
The property was later sold to Charles Garside, former editor of The European newspaper and now assistant editor at The Daily Mail, who managed the business with his brother and sister-in-law before selling it on to the Ainscough family.
The AA three-star hotel on Rayrigg Road, Windermere sits in around four acres of landscaped grounds with 15 en-suite bedrooms, a restaurant with 2 AA rosettes, residents’ bar and conservatory, parking for 30 cars and Miller Howe Cottage, a detached former cottage converted into additional letting accommodation with shoreline lake views.
Planning permission has been granted for two additional en-suite letting bedrooms and to redevelop/extend the conservatory.
Troup said: “Miller Howe is arguably the most high-profile and prestigious country house hotel in the Lake District National Park, offering unrivalled views over Lake Windermere. Its landmark status means we are confident of attracting strong interest from both domestic and international prospective buyers.
“Due in part to the fall in the value of the pound against the euro and the dollar, around 15 per cent of our UK hotel sales in the past 12 months have been to overseas buyers and there’s every indication that this trend will continue and indeed, strengthen.”
Troup added that Miller Howe was the latest of the Lake District’s premier country house properties to be offered for sale following the recent acquisition by Thwaites of Grade II-listed Langdale Chase Hotel, also overlooking Lake Windermere.
