Swiss Cottage

Endsleigh, near Tavistock, Devon

Overview

A wonderfully eccentric chalet designed by Jeffrey Wyatville in a setting that compares with Switzerland. This Landmark at Endsleigh is one of the best surviving examples of the Picturesque.

  • Dogs AllowedDogs Allowed
  • CotCot
  • Open SpaceOpen Space
  • Parking AvailableParking Available
  • BathBath
  • MicrowaveMicrowave

Beds 1 Double, 1 Bunk

Sleeps
2 +2
4 nights
£1540 equivalent to £96.25 per person, per night

A breathtakingly beautiful natural setting on the Tamar

It's hard to anticipate the scene that awaits as you descend the steep path through the woods to the cottage. This breathtakingly beautiful stretch of the River Tamar was chosen by Georgina, Duchess of Bedford, as the setting for a new retreat, Endsleigh House, where she and the 6th Duke played at a bucolic existence. In 1810-12 Humphry Repton brought its surroundings to perfection and they remain a complete example of that most imaginative and English taste in garden design, the Picturesque.

The 19th-century love of the Alps lives on

This natural landscape was further embellished with buildings by Jeffrey Wyatville, two of which we have made into Landmarks, both looking out over very different stretches of water. In 1977 we acquired Swiss Cottage, an early and wonderfully well-made example of the 19th-century passion for the Alps, designed in about 1815 by Wyatville, complete with an Alpine garden, Swiss furniture and crockery. We repaired it and reversed some later alterations. In 2007 a chance find in an auction room enabled us to reinstate the original corner cupboard in the main room. Opening on to a verandah, this room was used by the Duke and Duchess for picnics and shooting lunches and there, perched high above the steep drop to the river in a clearing in the woods, you have the heady feeling of perhaps surveying another country. If you do feel like leaving the Endsleigh estate during your stay, Bodmin Moor, Dartmoor and Cotehele are close by.

See all our Landmarks at Endsleigh

Drone video

Floor Plan

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Map & local info

Swiss Cottage, set in the beautiful Endsleigh ornamental gardens designed by Humphry Repton, offers sweeping views across the gardens towards the River Tamar. Take a leisurely walk around this picturesque setting to admire the dramatic views it offers along the Tamar Valley and out towards Bodmin Moor. Wander through the stunning woodlands at Lydford Gorge, the deepest gorge in the South West, with its spectacular 30m waterfall.

Discover the wide range of goods offered by traders, artists and crafts people in the historic Pannier Market, set in the heart of the nearby, market town of Tavistock. The annual Michaelmas Fair, the Goose Fair held in October in Tavistock, is one of the best known fairs in the West Country.

Visit the award-winning museum attraction at Morwellham Quay, just 4 miles west of Tavistock, with its historic port, village, copper mine and railway. Explore the historic treasures, gardens and estate of Buckland Abbey, a former home of Sir Francis Drake.

Take a look at our Pinterest map for more ideas of things to do and see during your stay at Swiss Cottage. Discover local walks for dogs with our friends at Walkiees.co.uk, the dog walks community.

Please Note: The Landmark Trust does not take any responsibility and makes no warranties, representations or undertakings about the content of any website accessed by hypertext link. Links should not be taken as an endorsement of any kind. The Landmark Trust has no control over the availability of the linked pages.

See all our Landmarks at Endsleigh

Clear directions
Essential info
What you need to know about this building
  • Yes. You are welcome to bring up to two dogs. A charge of £20 per stay is made for each dog.

    Please contact booking enquiries if you have an assistance dog, for which there is no charge. Pheasants are reared in the surrounding area and shooting takes place on the land around the cottage during the season (September to March), it is unlikely that they will be close by.  Please keep your dog on a lead to avoid disturbing game birds.
  • Via an estate track from the main road.
  • Gunnislake – 7 miles. 
  • There is one parking space adjacent to the property.
  • There are electric night storage heaters and electric radiators.
  • To check up-to-date mobile network coverage in the area, visit signalchecker.co.uk.* Due to the location and structure of many of our buildings, signal strength may differ to those indicated.
    * Links to other sites are provided for information purposes only.  We do not endorse any such websites and we are not responsible for the information, material, products or services contained on or accessible through those websites.  Your access and use of such websites remains solely at your own risk.  For further information, visit our website terms of use.
  • The majority of properties do not offer WiFi but many now have mobile coverage. Facilities in some properties rely on WiFi to function and we are currently piloting guest use of WiFi at a few of our buildings. We are going to extend the pilot across more properties and review customer feedback in 2025.
  • The majority of properties do not offer WiFi but many now have mobile coverage. Facilities in some properties rely on WiFi to function and we are currently piloting guest use of WiFi at a few of our buildings. We are going to extend the pilot across more properties and review customer feedback in 2025.
  • The kitchen is fully equipped with all plates, cutlery, fridge etc. There is also an electric cooker and a microwave.
  • There is one bathroom with a bath.
  • There are steep stairs.
  • Yes, the double bedroom has a slopping ceiling.
  • The garden is very steep and there are areas of open water on the estate. The estate is privately owned and there are footpaths which run close to Swiss Cottage. Pheasants are reared in the surrounding area and shooting takes place on the land around the cottage during the season (September to March), it is unlikely that they will be close by.  Please keep your dog on a lead to avoid disturbing game birds.
Booking and Payment
  • If the weather is bad, please contact our booking office who will be able to tell you whether the Landmark is accessible. If the housekeeper can safely get to the building to prepare it then we consider that it is open and available for guests. However if we cannot undertake a changeover then we will do our utmost to transfer your stay to another Landmark, depending on what we have available. It may not be of a similar size or in the same part of the country as your original booking. If the building is accessible but the customer cannot travel due to poor weather in his/her local area then please be aware that Landmark will not provide a refund. However the customer may be able to claim on his/her own travel insurance. We recommend that all guests take out travel insurance when they first secure a booking.
  • We accept Maestro (if issued in the UK), Visa, MasterCard, direct transfer and sterling cheques drawn on a UK bank. Cheques should be made payable to the Landmark Trust except for Lundy stays and boat/helicopter tickets which should be payable to The Lundy Company Ltd. All payments must be in sterling.
  • The key arrangements will be included in the Further Infomation document which will be sent to you prior to your stay.
  • If your stay starts more than two months from the date you make the booking, you are required to pay a deposit of one third of the cost of your stay (or £100 per booking, if greater) at the time of booking. Camping on Lundy and The Bunk House at Llwyn Celyn must be paid for in full at the time of booking.
  • If you wish to cancel or change your booking, please contact our Booking Office on 01628 825925
  • At the moment we only accept payment in sterling.
  • Our housekeeper will leave the key in a suitable place, the details of which will be sent to you prior to your stay.
  • It depends. Some of our most popular Landmarks are booked up a long time in advance, but many can be booked at short notice. We will always have Landmarks free for the coming weekend so it’s always worth checking our availability list.
  • No, Landmarks are available to be booked for anyone.
  • No, all the information you need can be found on our website, although we’d like you to buy one anyway as it will be a pleasure to own!
Staying at a Landmark
  • Some of our Landmarks are suitable for people with disabilities or limited mobility. However, many Landmarks have steep or narrow staircases, uneven floors and thresholds, changes of level, low ceilings or beams, as well as indistinct colours on steps and in corridors. We recommend that you call Booking Enquiries on 01628 825925 if you would like to find out the suitability of a particular Landmark for anyone with a specific disability.  Further information on access when visiting Lundy can also be found here.
  • Yes, Landmarks are only available as self-catering accommodation. We do not offer bed and breakfast.
  • Landmark does not provide catering, but we can recommend Greycoat Lumleys who can arrange for expert and well-trained staff to cater for one evening or for your entire holiday. Their cooks and chefs are able to work with you to meet your specific requirements
  • You may bring up to two dogs to properties where dogs are allowed (please see specific property details for exemptions however dogs are not permitted on Lundy except assistance dogs). They must be kept off the furniture and under proper control. A charge of £20 per stay is made for each dog. Please contact booking enquiries if a registered assistance dog is supporting one of the guests, for which there is no charge.
  • Apart from two dogs (see above) no other pets are permitted.
  • Arrival is from 4pm and departure is by 10am.
  • We do not carry insurance for breakages. However we appreciate that accidents do sometimes happen. If you have a breakage during your stay, please let the housekeeper know and if appropriate we reserve the right to invoice you accordingly.
  • Yes, most of our Landmarks are perfect for children, with gardens to play in and secret places to discover. Our furniture is surprisingly robust and we positively encourage families to stay. However, some of our buildings may not be suitable for small children; for example, some of them have steep or uneven spiral staircases. We recommend that you call the Booking Enquiries team if you would like to find out the suitability of any of our Landmarks for young children.
  • Unfortunately, most of our Landmarks are not licensed for weddings. However, you may get married on Lundy.
  • All our larger Landmarks are perfect for gatherings of family or friends. You may invite an additional two guests to visit you during your stay, however they must not stay overnight. This is very important because our fire regulations specifically note the maximum number of people in any one building. In addition our properties are prepared, furnished and equipped for the number of people specified and greater numbers cause damage and excessive wear and tear to vulnerable buildings. Should this condition be ignored we shall make a retrospective charge per person per day (whether or not they stay overnight) for each guest over the permitted limit, the charge being pro-rated on the total cost of your booking.
  • We deliberately do not provide televisions and find that most people appreciate this.
  • One of the challenges of restoring unloved buildings is gaining access to them. We frequently have to negotiate rights with our neighbours and share tracks with them. In many cases tracks do not belong to us and we have no right to maintain them. Wherever possible we work with our neighbours to provide you with a good quality surface, but where this is a problem then you will be warned at the time of booking.
  • Yes, we have standard electricity sockets for UK appliances. If you are coming from outside the UK, you will need to bring your own adaptor plug(s). If you are visiting one of our European properties we have standard European electricity sockets. If you are visiting from the UK, you will need to bring your own adapter plug (s).
  • Landmark’s electrical systems have not been designed to provide continuous power from one socket over several hours.  If an ordinary socket is used to charge an electric vehicle, there is significant risk of an electrical fire and consequent danger to life.  Therefore, we are unable to allow electric vehicle charging from most of our Landmarks at present.

    We are working to provide Type 2 Electric Vehicle charge points at our properties where there is private parking.  Where this is available, please request this facility when booking the property to ensure the outlet is enabled on your arrival.  There is a small charge to cover the cost of electricity provided.  Please book this facility in advance.
  • No, we do not allow smoking in any Landmark.
Facilities
  • Sometimes our kitchens and bathrooms have to be imaginatively fitted into the available space in buildings where before there were none, but they are all planned and equipped to a high and modern standard.
  • Yes, Landmarks are fully equipped with sheets and towels. All the beds are fully made up for your arrival. Except for the Llwyn Celyn Bunkhouse.
  • Yes, our kitchens are well equipped with cookers and fridges. There are freezers and dishwashers (in larger buildings) and, where space allows, microwaves as well as a wide and standard range of utensils. A full equipment list is available at time of booking.
  • Logs are provided at many of our Landmarks for an additional cost.
  • Mobile coverage varies. Some Landmarks have an excellent signal, but others have none at all. You can find those with 4G and 5G signal on our Landmarks with mobile signal page and each building has a link to signal checker in the Essential Information so you can check individual service providers' coverage in the area.
  • The majority of properties do not offer WiFi but many now have mobile coverage. Facilities in some properties rely on WiFi to function and we are currently piloting guest use of WiFi at a few of our buildings. We are going to extend the pilot across more properties and review customer feedback in 2025.
  • A welcome tray with tea and sugar awaits your arrival and you will find a pint of milk in the fridge. We also provide toilet rolls and a bar of soap per basin, but no other toiletries. Hairdryers are provided.

Do you have other questions?

Our Booking Enquiries team can help with information about each building.

Booking Enquiries
01628 825925
[email protected]

Opening hours
Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm


History

First services held here in 1860

Endsleigh can rightfully claim to be one of the most completely realised examples of that peculiarly English taste - the Picturesque. Popular between 1790 and 1840, the Picturesque was a style of architecture and landscape design that manipulated planting, buildings and natural features to create the sort of idealised vista a painter might compose on his canvas.

The Picturesque had been born on the Welsh borders on the estates of Sir Uvedale Price and Richard Payne Knight, but it was Lady Georgina Gordon, the young second wife of the 6th Duke of Bedford, who saw that the Tamar valley had equal possibilities. Lady Georgina was the daughter of the Duke of Gordon, a family regarded by contemporaries as wild Scots. She was described by the Duchess of Devonshire (who disapproved of her) as "very pretty, very bewitching, and clever certainly". She loved children and had twelve of her own, nursing them herself which was unusual and regarded as slightly improper in her day.

Lady Georgina chose the site and may well have worked with the other three members of the quartet to whom we owe the creation of Endsleigh. They were her husband, a sensitive and scholarly man with a great interest in trees and botany; Humphry Repton, who around 1800 had encouraged the taste for "natural landscape" in contrast to the more formal perfections of ‘Capability’ Brown; and finally Jeffry Wyatt, or Wyatville as he became, who actually designed the buildings that Repton had proposed. Although the planting at Endsleigh has greatly outgrown his plans for it, the landscape remains very close to Repton’s vision - a work of maturity illustrating the fullest development of his ideas.

Repton visited Endsleigh in 1809 and made recommendations for landscaping and designs for a house. He eventually put these together into one of his famous ‘Red Books’ (so called because of their red morocco leather bindings) with watercolours cunningly fitted with flaps to show the same view "before" and "after". It is now at Woburn Abbey, the principal residence of the Dukes of Bedford.

In the event it was Wyatville’s designs for the main Cottage that were chosen and it was finished in 1815. Endsleigh was never intended as a full time residence. It was in effect a very grand holiday cottage and the Duke and his family would stay here for about two months in the summer, with other visits early each year for the shooting. But it was always meant to be visited by others and it soon appeared in guidebooks of the area.

In the 20th century Endsleigh was visited less often by the Dukes of Bedford, but the whole estate was immaculately maintained and the house and garden kept in readiness for their possible arrival. The estate was finally put up for sale in 1956 and the house and park together with the fishing was purchased by a syndicate of friends and neighbours, founding the Endsleigh Fishing Club Ltd. The main Cottage became a hotel, then still keeping much of the original furnishing and retaining the atmosphere of a privately-run house. In 2004 the Fishing Club found it could no longer afford the estate which was sold with the Cottage to a branch of the Trusthouse Forte Group. The main house became a hotel and most of the furniture was sold.

The Swiss Cottage

Jeffry Wyatville designed the Swiss Cottage around 1815. Originally surrounded by an Alpine garden, it is a particularly good instance of the taste for placing Rustic buildings in such a landscape. The ground and attic floors were designed to be lived in by a labourer and continued to be so until 1962. The Duke of Bedford had separate access to the verandah and the rooms on the main floor, all furnished "a la Suisse with wooden chairs and platters, hornspoons etc."

It was used for picnics and shooting lunches, but like the rest of the grounds it could be visited when not in use by the family. Emma Prior, the daughter of Sir William, a frequent shooting visitor, wrote in her diary on August 8th 1847: 'Lovely views from the windows and delicious walks in all directions. Dark wooded banks and the Tamar winding below. The view from the Swiss Cottage pleased me best. The Dairy was exquisite and quite the best I have ever seen, and the various little cottages about the place are so pretty. We had a lovely day'.

The full history album for Swiss Cottage

Download the children's Explorer pack for Swiss Cottage

Restoration

Empty for 15 years

When the Landmark Trust bought the Cottage in 1977, it had not been lived in for 15 years. The shingled roof was in poor condition and the front of the building was sagging. New oak beams had to be inserted on the front and south side. Several of the posts supporting the verandah and attic had also to be renewed, together with areas of the cladding, left with its bark on. The roof was re-thatched with Austrian reed as it had been originally.

Round the outside the ground was dug away to reveal pebble cobbling in perfect condition. The interior was as little altered as possible; paint was stripped off some of the woodwork, and the doors, floors, windows and stairs were simply waxed. It is now furnished once again in the Swiss style.

Availability & booking

Select a changeover day to start your booking...

What's a changeover day? and Why can't I select other dates?Explain MoreQuestion

A changeover day is a particular day of the week when holidays start and end at our properties. These tend to be on a Friday or a Monday but can sometimes vary. All stays run from one changeover day until another changeover day.