About Lunshaw
A private North Yorkshire estate, thoughtfully restored, and shared with those who stay.
Lunshaw sits within the grounds of a historic shooting estate in the North York Moors National Park. This former farmhouse became the family’s second home a few years ago, lovingly restored and enjoyed by family and friends ever since.
Now, they’re delighted to share it with guests looking for a beautiful, characterful place to stay.
Why restore, not replace.
When the family took it on, it was little more than a shell, stone walls open to the elements, standing in a muddy field. They brought in an architect to reshape the layout, then set about finding someone who could bring the interiors to life. As it turned out, they found her almost by chance.
“When we first saw it, it was a complete shell, down to the stone, sitting in a muddy building site.”
Breathing new life into Lunshaw.
We’d stayed at the Kirkstyle Inn in Northumberland and fallen completely for its warmth, colour and craftsmanship. It led us to Fantoush, the Edinburgh design practice behind it, and to Emily Smoor and her team. We showed her our other touchstone too: London’s Beaverbrook Townhouse, designed by Nicola Harding, whose confident use of colour struck the same note we were after. It turned out to be a good match of styles, and a few months later, Emily and her team were on site at Lunshaw.
We travel a lot and our tastes are eclectic, and we wanted the house to reflect that back at us. Emily spent time getting to know us before anything was chosen, and every material, fabric and finish was selected with real thought behind it.
Because Lunshaw is a second home for entertaining family and friends, we could afford to be bold with it. Each bedroom has its own personality, almost like a boutique hotel, while a quieter thread of green, mid-blue and burgundy runs through the hall, kitchen, back lobby and library, tying the shared spaces together.
Nothing here is off the peg. Somewhere between 100 and 150 suppliers were involved in the finished house, many of them small, independent makers and fabric houses. The wide oak floorboards were commissioned specially from a small sawmill to get exactly the tone we wanted. In the dining room, painted ceiling beams were recreated by hand-pasting wallpaper borders onto timber straps, an effect Emily is particularly proud of. Even the kitchen, fitted with Life Kitchens’ Clarendon units and Quorn Stone flagstones, carries the same considered palette through from the rest of the house.
“The most satisfying thing is creating a backdrop for people’s lives and memories, it’s lovely to be able to do that. Good interior design should support people in their habitats and make them better. If you can create spaces in which people feel free enough to be happy and joyful and loving, that’s a wonderful thing.”
We look forward to welcoming you
Come and be part of the next chapter of the Lunshaw story.