When the traditional takes a modern twist
The largest privately owned estate in North Yorkshire lies a mile south-west of the market town of Masham in Lower Wensleydale and is surrounded by 20,000 acres of stunning countryside. Mark Cunliffe-Lister, Earl of Swinton, oversees an empire that is a shining example of enterprise, diversification and ingenuity within a modern rural estate. The ancestral seat of Swinton Hall is now a stately 42-bedroom hotel with country club and spa, offering a diverse range of rural activities to guests and members of the public. These include fishing and cookery schools run by Orvis ambassador Marina Gibson and Marc Williams, respectively, and outdoor pursuits to suit all tastes and pockets. And given Swinton’s spectacular rural setting, superb driven game days and a shooting school run by EJ Churchill.
Swinton Estate is divided by the River Ure and her principal tributary, the Burn, and extends through farmland, rough pasture and woodland to heather moorland within the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on the eastern edge of the Pennine
