A Country Castle of Grand Designs

Those who watch the fabulous show Grand Designs may have seen an episode back in 2007 where a Country Castle called “Hellfield Peel” was featured in 90 minute special broadcast and a follow up two years later.

The property was bought by the determined owners in 2004 for £165,000 with plans to turn it into a fabulous seven-bedroomed home, however the project turned out to be so huge that it went well over budget and on for far long than anticipated.

The couple, Francis & Karen Shaw, had originally set a budget of £350,000 for the work but this escalated to a huge £850,000 over the two year project and the decision was taken to turn the house in to Bed & Breakfast to recoup their excessive costs.

Now, in 2022, the country castle is on the market for a cool £1.75m (correct at the time of writing) through agents, Knight Frank.

The Brochure for Hellifield Peel Castle…

Steeped in history stretching back centuries, there has been a settlement at Hellifield Peel since the early 8th Century – a large oak Hall House dating from circa 720AD was discovered during the archaeological dig prior to the restoration works commencing.

The Peel Tower itself dates from 1305 and was built by one of the last Templar Knights, Sir John Harcourt. For most of its life the property was owned by the Hamerton family, during which time it was Georgianised. After being requisitioned as a prisoner of war camp, it was bought by furniture maker Harry Lund in the 1940s. He took the wood he wanted and then staged a dilapidation sale, when the property was stripped of everything from its roof to its panelling.

The Peel lay in ruins for over 50 years until the Shaw family bought it in 2004 and commenced its restoration, which became national news. It was featured on Channel 4’s Grand Designs show in 2007 and 2009 and remains one of Kevin McClouds favourite projects.

The sale of Hellifield Peel Castle offers an extremely rare opportunity to acquire an historic scheduled ancient monument with a fascinating history, constructed entirely of stone under a slate roof. It is one of only a few scheduled ancient monuments in private ownership and occupation in Yorkshire.

wonderful interior of this country castle

Purchased by the Shaw family in 2004, after it had stood in ruins for over 50 years, the property has been the subject of a painstaking restoration project – the end result is a quite phenomenal achievement.

wonderful bedrooms in this country castle

It has been reconstructed into a fantastic family house with grand reception rooms and bedrooms, modern amenities and sweeping views over tranquil North Yorkshire countryside.

views from the terrace at the top of the peel tower

The gardens and grounds create a particular feature of this exceptional home and have been carefully designed to take full advantage of the wonderful setting. Accessed via a long sweeping tree lined driveway creating an immediate sense of arrival as you approach – a gravelled drive with a large turning circle in front of the hall provides extensive parking, in addition to a newly constructed detached double garage with utility room/gardeners w.c.

The gardens and grounds lie to three sides, bounded by a ha-ha, and are predominantly lawned with some maturing yew hedging. To the west there is a large terrace providing an excellent area for summer entertaining. The views from the gardens are quite outstanding, the surrounding parkland countryside provides a beautiful vista towards Pendle Hill in the distance.

As well as being a much cherished family home, it has at times also been run as a highly successful bed & breakfast business, providing five luxury boutique bedrooms as well as a self contained contemporary attic apartment which occupies the entire third floor. The apartment has a south facing roof terrace from where stunning parkland views are enjoyed towards Pendle Hill.

Hellifield Peel Castle occupies a spectacular parkland setting on the southern fringe of this small Dales village, between the popular market towns of Skipton and Settle, on the southern edge of the beautiful Yorkshire Dales National Park. Hellifield village offers a varied range of everyday facilities including a selection of shops, two public houses, a doctor’s surgery, church and a village primary school. The larger neighbouring towns of Skipton and Settle are both within easy access and offer a more extensive range of facilities.

For access to the listing on Rightmove of this wonderful country castle CLICK HERE

Plenty of more properties being featured in the rest of the blog, CLICK HERE or on the images below…