Grace and favour rooms

It's now possible to dine or even stay overnight in some of our best-loved country houses or in splendour on their estates. Rosie Paterson meets the new lords and ladies of holiday let

- Rosie Paterson

IF you’ve never received a coveted invitation to dine or even stay in one of the UK’s grand country houses, there’s now an easy way to get your foot— literally—in the door. In recent years, estates, the majority still privately owned, have been throwing open the doors to their homes to one and all. Even royalty is at it—when The King was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall, he stayed in Restormel Manor near Lostwithiel, part of the Duchy estate and a holiday let available to the public that can accommodate up to 18 people. In Wales, holidaymakers could, until recently, choose between two cottages that adjoined the royal couple’s Welsh home—the Llwynywermod estate in Myddfai, Wales, when His Majesty was not in residence. (Earlier this year, The King announced that he was giving up the lease because he did not have enough time to make proper use of and enjoy the estate.)

In the late 1970s, Deborah Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, made waves when she opened the Chatsworth Farm Shop— one of the first aristocratic ventures of its kind and a prime example of a great family diversifying to help fund their sprawling demesne. The late Duchess’s son and daughter-in-law, the 12th Duke and Duchess, have followed in her footsteps, opening The Hall at Bolton Abbey in North Yorkshire—part of the ducal estate—to exclusive-use hire last year, the first time The Hall has been open to the public in any capacity. The 12-room, 14th-century former gatehouse, reimagined by interior designer Rita Konig, comes with access to 28,000 acres and views of the 12th-century Bolton Priory Church and ruins.