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There has been a manor house, perhaps a fortified Pele Tower, on the site since at least the mid 15th century and some tunnel vaulting survives from that period on the ground floor. Gresgarth Hall was ‘Gothicized’ and the park was landscaped in 1805-1810, creating one of the most romantic ensembles of its type in the country.

In 1979, Lady Arabella Lennox-Boyd’s husband was elected Conservative MP for Morcambe and Lonsdale and this is what brought the couple to the north of England.

Lady Arabella began to create a garden around the house in 1983. The house sits on a platform of land which falls away on one side to a man-made lake. The Artle Beck river defines the eastern edge of the garden, with bluebell woods rising beyond. A formal arrangement of steps and terraces leads down from the house to meet the lake on its south-west front. The cool centre of the whole design is a round, close-mown lawn to the west of the house, with paths tracing shapes like butterfly wings that bring you eventually to the fine, walled kitchen garden.

The garden also incorporates a ‘bog-garden’ and formal borders enclosed by walls of yew. A bleached lime avenue divides a series of ‘garden-rooms’ from the parkland beyond. In a shadowy part of the garden stands a ‘metasudens’, (a moss and fern covered tufa column), within a circle of silver birch trees.

Lady Arabella has been designing gardens for 30 years and has won 9 Gold Medals at The Chelsea Flower Show. ‘Gresgarth’ is open to visitors by arrangement and on several ‘open days’ during the summer months.

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