Ees Wyke is a Georgian country house on the edge of Near Sawrey looking out over Esthwaite Water, and it has a genuine place in the Beatrix Potter story: the Potter family took it for a summer holiday in the 1890s, when it was known as Lakefield. She was in her twenties, not yet an author, and it was during stays in this village that she came to know the place well enough to buy into it a decade later. You are a few minutes' walk from Hill Top.
Quick Facts
The usual telling of the Beatrix Potter story jumps from London childhood to buying Hill Top in 1905, which skips the part that matters. The Potters holidayed in the Lake District repeatedly through the 1880s and 90s, and they took this house — then called Lakefield — for a summer in the middle of that. She spent those weeks walking, sketching, studying fungi and getting to know a small farming village well enough that when Hill Top came up for sale years later she knew exactly what she was buying.
It is a short lane between the two houses. Walking it is the most direct way to understand how a Londoner ended up a Lakeland farmer.
Hill Top is small, and entry is timed and limited, which is exactly why it works — you are in her rooms rather than in a crowd. Book ahead; it sells out through the season. Then walk the village with the illustrations in mind: the gate from Tom Kitten, the lane from Ginger and Pickles, and the Tower Bank Arms next door, which appears in Jemima Puddle-Duck almost exactly as it stands.
The lake in front of the house is small, shallow and private, with no road along most of it. It is among the most nutrient-rich waters in the district and consequently full of life — herons, otters if you are patient, and some of the best coarse fishing in Cumbria. Wordsworth skated on it as a schoolboy at Hawkshead and wrote about it later. Almost nobody stops.
You are on the quiet side of Windermere, which is lovely and slightly awkward — the roads are narrow and the ferry queues in August. Our tours carry seven guests at most; private days collect at the door and save the crossing entirely.
The grand sweep: ten lakes, the high passes between them, and an Ullswater Steamers cruise exclusive to this tour. If a celebration stay deserves one great day out, this is it.
See dates & bookCollected at the door, your party only, the day shaped to you — literary landscapes, hidden valleys, or simply the most beautiful roads we know. Well-behaved dogs are welcome aboard in our vehicle crates.
Enquire about a private dayDove Cottage at Grasmere — entry included as standard — and the valleys that made the poems, with Dora's Field carpeted gold in daffodil season. The right literary day for this most Georgian of addresses.
See dates & bookAcross the lake to Hill Top and Near Sawrey, with our illustration-matching walk through the village lanes — back for a long lakeside lunch.
See dates & bookThe afternoon version crosses the lake by boat rather than by road — worth choosing if you'd like the crossing itself to be part of the day.
See dates & bookA slow hall morning, then eight lakes and their valleys at a seven-seat pace — the most civilised way to spend a Lakeland afternoon.
See dates & bookThe same eight lakes as the afternoon tour, run the opposite way round in the morning — ideal if you'd rather keep your afternoon free for the lawns.
See dates & bookA full literary day east to Haworth — the Parsonage, the cobbled village, and the moors that gave Wuthering Heights its weather, newly magnetic with the recent film. Oxenholme pickup available.
See dates & bookInto the Dales for Grassington's "Darrowby", the Wensleydale Creamery, Kilnsey Crag and Bolton Abbey — filming locations brought to life around you with live scene technology.
See dates & bookFrom this side of the water a private day removes both irritations — the ferry queue and the narrow roads. We collect at the door and shape the route around your party. Well-behaved dogs are welcome aboard, travelling safely in our vehicle crates.
Not sure which route suits your plans, or want a day built entirely from scratch — a family reunion, a wedding anniversary, scattering ashes somewhere that mattered? Tell us what you have in mind and we'll design a day around it — see our guide to celebrating a special occasion for ideas, or get in touch directly.
The Potter family took the house — then called Lakefield — for a summer holiday in the 1890s, before she bought Hill Top. It was during stays in this village that she came to know Near Sawrey well.
A short walk up the lane — Ees Wyke is on the edge of the same small village.
Ambleside library, Windermere station and Bowness Pier 1 are our three, all reached more quickly via the Far Sawrey car ferry. On private tours we can usually collect you at the house.
Yes — it saves the long way round via Newby Bridge, though it queues in August. Cross early or late.
We are an independent local tour operator. This guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by Ees Wyke Country House.