The Bear'S Hut 220 Metres North North West Of Killerton House

The Bear's Hut is a summer house located 220 meters north-northwest of Killerton House, built before 1831. It features split timbers beneath a hipped wheat reed thatched roof and is a single-storey structure with a three-bay front. The center bay projects and includes a window or oriel supported by struts, consisting of five lights with 16 leaded panes and margin panes for each light, positioned to the left of the entrance.

At the rear, there is a lancet window set into a massive hewn tree trunk, which serves as the 'east' window for a single-celled 'hermitage' that has three internal divisions. This tiny chapel has two side windows, one with two lights and the other with three lights, all featuring ogee heads. The three-light window retains its original chamfered jambs, mullions, and some glazing bars.

Inside, the 'hermitage' includes a rustic wooden 'chancel arch', 'vaulted arch', 'vaulted apse', and 'sedilia', all covered in deer skins and floored with deers' knuckle-bones. The lancet window contains fragments of high-quality painted glass, including a dated panel that reads: 'Reverendus adm : ac Amplisimus Dominus David Brockmans S.T.B.F. Decanns halselensis et peullis : Capituli inunsterblisiensis Canonicus necnon huius conventus confesarius. Anno 1696'. Other glass fragments depict faces and bits of Latin block script.

The central room features a corner fireplace, is lined and roofed in matting, and is decorated with pine cones, while the floor is inlaid with sections of oak tree trunk. The right-hand room is cobbled, with walls and roof made of wicker work. Access to the hut is via a path of four steps. The Bear's Hut is illustrated in a set of drawings by John Gendall of Exeter from 1831 and is noted as an interesting and eccentric early 19th-century piece of picturesque rustic garden furniture.