The Landmark experience

The Landmark Trust is a charity that rescues important buildings that would otherwise be lost. Our small team take on historic places in danger and carefully and sensitively restore them. Then we make them available for self-catering holidays so they can be enjoyed by everyone and protected forever.

With 200 buildings across Britain and several in Italy, there is a fantastic selection of beautiful and remarkable properties from which to choose.

History to live in

Landmarks are manmade fossils, brought back to life by a charity with its eyes on the future. If it wasn't for Landmark's work, such structures would have crumbled to dust.

Without Landmark, holes would be left in Britain's architectural tapestry with no way to patch them back in. Given new life as weekend or week-long boltholes, they now host birthday celebrations, anniversaries, and time spent reconnecting with loved ones and oneself.

Guests come to recharge and to breathe a little deeper in a place that feels both familiar - and yet also invigorating; a burst of inspiration in a world dominated by big brands and the conventional.

Read a first-hand account of the Landmark experience from writer Gabriella Bennett

What can you expect staying in a historic building?

To stay in one of our buildings is, our visitors tell us, to step away from the drone of modern life. Our Logbooks reveal some of the ways people spend their time: walking, cooking, playing cards, laying fires, painting, reading, watching the stars, writing, entertaining and simply thinking. Most of all they speak of the special atmosphere of a Landmark Trust building and of the preciousness of the time spent there with friends and family.

All of our buildings have comfortable furniture, a well-equipped kitchen, modern bathrooms and good quality bath and bed linen. All beds are made up ready for your arrival with sheets and blankets and several buildings have duvets. Most Landmarks have at least one open fire or stove.  They are quite different from the mainstream - none of our buildings have televisions, radios, telephones or Wi-Fi.

Discover more

Furnishing the details

Visitors often comment that Landmark Trust buildings don’t feel like holiday accommodation. This is partly because they are, by and large, historic buildings of real importance and interest, but also because of the way in which they are arranged and furnished. The furniture used in Landmark’s buildings is generally a mixture of carefully chosen – but rarely valuable – old pieces and new items we have either selected as appropriate, or created ourselves. The sofas and chairs and large and comfortable, and the beds all have high-quality modern mattresses specially made for Landmark.

"I try to make them into somewhere where you can be comfortable and at ease’ says John Evetts, Landmark's Furnishing Manager for nearly 40 years, "but it shouldn’t feel ‘designer’ done; I don’t want people to feel they have to tiptoe around it, or that the decoration jars with the age of the building." 

Meet the man who furnishes all of our Landmarks

About