Hermit's Cell the Root House

Hermit's Cell, also known as The Root House, is a park building or rustic folly that was used as a hermitage, built around 1750 by Thomas Wright of Durham. It is constructed of wood with a thatched roof featuring overhanging eaves. The structure is supported by four large knotty tree trunks at the corners, and the walls are filled with branches, roots, and sawn timber. This small, single-storey building has a square shape with bowed sides and includes two-light pointed Gothick windows. Both the front and rear have pediments made from tree trunks, with oval windows in the tympanum created from hollow sections of the trunks. The entrance is located at the east end, where a rustic plank door is framed by the irregular inverted fork of a tree. At the rear (west), a similar inverted fork provides shelter for a rustic seat that features an ogee back adorned with an inscription made of nailheads, which reads: "HERE LOUNGERS LOITER - HERE THE WEARY REST." Inside, there are segmental arched niches with pilasters on the sides and rear, lined with bark and moss. The ceiling is ribbed and panelled, constructed of timber and covered with bark, moss, and burr elm.