Stay at Beamsley Hospital, North Yorkshire

A beautiful almshouse in the countryside near Skipton in North Yorkshire, Beamsley Hospital was founded in 1593 by the Countess of Cumberland - Elizabeth I's maid of honour Lady Margaret Russell - to provide accommodation for poor local widows, and remained in operation until as recently as the 1970s. Follow its closure the Trustees passed it to heritage charity the Landmark Trust, who undertook work to allow it to be rented for holiday lets.


Though it is a good many years since your author stayed at the Hospital, it still has a place in his heart, and was a particularly enchanting place to stay, in a thoroughly interesting corner of the country. The centre of the Hospital remains a chapel and family legend tells of everyone searching high and low for your author before eventually finding him happily reading sat on the floor of the pulpit at the chapel, such was the peaceful serenity of the setting.

For more, see http://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/search-and-book/properties/beamsley-hospital-5014

_{^Picture © Humphrey Bolton used under a Creative Commons license^}