Reviews

A great location for a large family holiday. Lots of local things to do, walks, the Lakes and the beautiful Eden Valley, plus a great large garden, ideal for children’s games and ‘exploring’.

We have recently returned from an excellent week at Melmerby Hall. We went for a family celebration and found Melmerby to be a great place to stay. The hall and grounds are amazing and we would have no hesitation in booking Melmerby again.

We spent 4 days at Melmerby Hall in July 2022 to celebrate our Golden Wedding anniversary with our family.
We were a party of 17 and the hall was an ideal location. It is truly palatial with so much space both indoors and in the beautiful grounds.
Although it is steeped in history it has all the advantages of modern facilities. The bedrooms are all en-suite and beautifully furnished.
Everything is provided to make the stay comfortable from the luxurious welcome hamper to the fully equipped kitchen (complete with Aga) and two barbecues.
The grounds are extensive and there are masses of room for children to play safely.
We used Lynn Hilditch to provide us with a wonderful fully catered and served dinner on one evening. The nearby village has a lovely bakery and super pub.
I cannot praise this property highly enough and fully recommend it for a short break or longer in any season.
Many thanks to Christine for making the celebration so memorable.

Such a beautiful setting, In the cutest of villages, perfect for a wedding or just a base to stay whilst exploring the local area

We got married at Melmerby in June 2022 and hired Melmerby Hall and Stag cottage for our wedding weekend. I am a local girl so getting married in my home village was very special and Melmerby Hall was such a central part of our whole wedding. It’s such a personal, private venue with that allows so much scope for a DIY wedding which we wanted and having the whole venue to ourselves for four days allowed us to really host the perfect wedding weekend. We got married in the village church which is connected to the Grounds of Melmerby Hall via a private gate. We then had our drinks reception in the grounds of Melmerby Hall. The setting is just beautiful and the house itself is incredible, beautiful bedrooms and awesome billiards room and the ground floor reception space is fab. All our guests loved staying there and exploring my home village. We also hired Melmerby Village Hall for our wedding breakfast and ceilidh dancing which is just a few feet from Melmerby Hall entrance making it such a perfect place to host a wedding! Jo, Christine and all the team at Rowley Estates are wonderful to work with and really make the whole process very easy!

18 of us stayed at Melmerby Hall for my husband’s 60th birthday in Apri 2022 for 3 nights. The Hall is immaculate in every way, beautiful bedrooms all individually decorated and all ensuite. The downstairs rooms are all beautifully decorated and provided ample space for us all to mix together and there is a games/snooker room on the 2nd floor which proved very popular. The grounds and walks from the door are amazing. The welcome pack was well received and consisted of local and English treats including wine and the Rowley Estate’s own raspberry jam, delicious! The Hall was warm and immaculately clean on our arrival with the formal dining room set out ready for use. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed our stay and I would not hesitate to recommend The Rowley Estate, especially Melmerby Hall to anyone, we will be back as they have so many lovely properties to rent including shepherd’s huts which I am already considering for our 35th anniversary in August. Lastly most of the properties are dog friendly an added bonus as three dogs were able to come with us for what was a very memorable, special weekend. Made all the more special by the attention to every detail from initial booking to the completing of our weekend by all the staff at The Rowley Estate’s. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

From the moment we drove through the archway, we were in another blissful world with our nearest and dearest, to celebrate our marriage at the stunning Melmerby Hall. Christine and Joanna answered all our questions quickly and insightfully right from our first contact with them; recommending the very best suppliers for our needs and supporting us right through to the ceremony. Details like the thoughtful welcome pack were lovely, it really helped to know we didn’t need to buy milk, butter, eggs etc. and the homemade Rowley Estates raspberry jam was delightful! All the bedrooms are individually designed and have en-suite bathrooms – it was a pleasure to show all our guests to their rooms, they felt very spoiled as did we in the stunning master suite – the bathroom was especially impressive. The billiards room went down very well but I’m glad to say the weather was kind to us so the outdoor seating & firepit were a big bonus for us. We’d like to give special praise to Lynn Hilditch; an accomplished chef who uses local ingredients some of which she’s grown herself, Lynn is insightful and knew what we wanted before we did! We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect wedding breakfast, the beef wellington was the star of the show and resulted in complete silence whilst we appreciated every mouthful – it was truly delicious & cooked to perfection. She returned the following night with her pizza oven which she set up alongside our cricket match on the lawn. Delicious pizza in the stunning grounds rounded off our stay perfectly. Our photographer Peter Ostrowski put us all at ease from the moment he arrived. He got the best out of even the most camera shy amongst us. He even gave us a gift and sent a beautiful video of our day within hours of leaving us. Debbie Walker of DLW Hair & Beauty set up camp in the Orangery at 9am on the morning of our wedding and worked her magic. She understood exactly what I wanted and effortlessly transformed me whilst the hustle and bustle of the busy day carried on around us. Alison from Yewbarrow Flower Farm delivered the prettiest, most natural bouquet and displays for us – all grown by her and freshly picked and arranged that morning. We enjoyed breakfast barms which were delivered to the Hall by The Village Bakery. Delicious & best quality bacon, eggs, sausages and twice the size we were expecting. So now we’re home & it feels like a dream; we’re all trying to keep it alive by sharing photos and videos and remembering all the little details. What a wonderful time we all had, thank you to everyone involved.

Just got back from a great weekend at Melmerby Hall and Stag Cottage, this is the second time we have stayed at a Rowley Estates property and I can’t recommend them highly enough. We were originally due to go in October 2020 but had to rearrange due to the mess that is Covid, Rowley Estates were great to deal with and made rearranging a doddle. The property is huge inside and very well equipped, there’s even a snooker table for those that feel the need to show how good the professionals really are. There is plenty of room outside and plenty of seating is provided as well as a couple of BBQs and a fire pit. There is plenty of space in the grounds as well to stretch your legs and work off a few of the calories you’re bound to have indulged in. The village of Melmerby is a delight, the Shepherds Inn in the village is superb for any meals you want and the owner is very helpful in getting larger parties sorted, with a bit of pre organisation our party of 17 were fed and watered with very few issues, he even opened especially for us on the Friday afternoon. The staff there were friendly and sorted us out easily. The village bakery is great for those wanting a naughty snack and also does breakfasts, they fit 17 of us in before we left on the Monday morning and it was good stuff, no skinny bacon or a manky sausage in sight, all good. We got a delivery from Tesco and Sainsbury on the Friday of snacks and beer, it saved anyone having to travel to Penrith for supplies. Another great property from Rowley Estates…well done…PS…also check out Blencowe Hall owned by the same people, a little more isolated but a truly stunning property, we’ve been lucky enough to stay there as well