Walton Hall

Walton Hall is a country house, now a hotel, dating from circa 1768 (as noted by Pevsner). It is constructed of ashlar with a stone slate roof. The house is three stories high with a basement. Designed in a classical style, it is a double-pile building with a symmetrical facade of eight bays. A plinth runs along the base, and the facade is divided by giant channelled pilaster strips, the centre four of which are capped by a shallow pediment. A central doorway, positioned between the fourth and fifth bays, has elaborate double doors, an architrave, and a carved lintel depicting an otter with a trout – the Waterton family crest. An early 19th-century, three-bay, Tuscan-style single-story porch is situated in front of the two central bays. Windows are sash windows with raised surrounds, eared to both the ground- and first-floor levels. A cornice and blocking course top the facade. The tympanum of the pediment displays a carved achievement of arms with the motto “BETTER KYNDE FREMB THAN FREMB KYEN” – also belonging to the Waterton family. A hipped roof has a single ridge stack between the fifth and sixth bays.

The rear of the building is U-shaped, with projecting two-bay wings. It features six bays, with a central gabled porch positioned between tall, round-headed stair windows. A modern extension obscures the left wing. The right wing has a Tuscan porch and doorway with an architrave to the left of a Venetian window, with plain sash windows above. There are two stacks to the ridge, two to the left wing, and one to the right wing. The left-hand return has five bays; the two bays closest to the front have windows matching the front facade, while the remaining bays have plain raised surrounds. The right-hand return includes a single-story outshut slightly set back and featuring a quoin pilaster strip. The basement, positioned at lake level, has three segmental-arched boat entrances, now converted into windows, and nine bays of sash windows. A hipped roof tops the wing.

Inside, the oak-panelled entrance hall is likely repurposed from an earlier house on the site and features an elaborate Jacobean carved oak overmantel. The stairhall contains a 19th-century cantilevered, three-storey open-well staircase with turned balusters. Landings at each floor level retain original doorways with architraves, fluted friezes, dentil cornices, and six-panel doors with raised-and-fielded panels. The stair window has a wooden fluted surround with imposts and rusticated stone voussoirs, the keystone carved with the Waterton crest in relief. The outshut incorporates a five-bay fish-bone king-post roof with hip and windlass, formerly used for lifting goods from the basement. The house is spectacularly situated on an island.

Historically, Walton Hall was the 19th-century home of the explorer Charles Waterton, who created what is believed to be Britain's earliest bird sanctuary on the island.