Irton, Holmrook, CA19 1UZ

There Probably Isn't A Swimming Pool In West Cumbria With Better Views Than This. Your family’s new Lake District lifestyle starts here. And your private outdoor pool comes with a five-bedroom Victorian home, a welcoming AGA kitchen and a quiet four acre corner of the National Park all to yourself.

Picture a sunny August afternoon at Mill Place. You're by the pool, Irton Pike is right there in front of you, and the kids have more garden, orchard and paddock to explore than they'll know what to do with. That's not a holiday - that's a Tuesday.

Mill Place sits in the quiet hamlet of Irton in the western Lake District, with Wastwater and the fells within easy reach and the kind of countryside on your doorstep that most people drive for hours to visit for a weekend getaway. 

The house started life as two Victorian workers' cottages, and that origin gives it something a purpose-built family home rarely has - real character and genuine flexibility. 

The stone mullion windows, original fireplaces and parquet flooring have all been kept, and the result is a home that feels rooted and real.

At the heart of it is the kitchen - a proper, sociable AGA kitchen with solid oak units, granite worktops, a central island and space for a big dining table. French doors open straight out to the garden, so summer eating and cooking happen together without any fuss. 

There's also a large walk-in pantry, a utility room and a boot room - the kind of practical groundwork that makes a busy family house actually work day to day.

On the ground floor you'll also find a formal lounge with an open fireplace, a cosy snug with a wood burning stove, a separate dining room with its own open fire, and a study. 

One section of the ground floor - with its own external access, a reception room, a shower room and a further sitting room - could work well as a self-contained annexe for a dependent relative or even a holiday let, subject to the usual permissions.

Upstairs, five double bedrooms are arranged across two staircases - a natural consequence of the building's history, and one that actually works well for a larger family. 

The main bedroom is a proper suite, spanning the full width of the house with a dressing area and its own ensuite bathroom, and the views from those stone mullion windows across open countryside are the first thing you'll see every morning. Two further bathrooms serve the remaining bedrooms - one’s a Jack & Jill that could be treated as a 2nd ensuite.

The layout does still carry a trace of its two-cottage origins - the flow between some rooms is a little unconventional. But the flexibility that creates is genuinely useful, particularly if you want that annexe option to work independently.

Outside, the cobbled courtyard gives you parking for up to ten vehicles and leads to a range of outbuildings - a barn, former stables, a two-storey store and a wood store - with real potential for equestrian use or creative conversion (STPP). 

The formal gardens flow up through planted borders to the swimming pool, positioned at the top to make the most of those fell views. Beyond that, a paddock of just under four acres extends out, with a stocked orchard, a greenhouse and around half an acre of mature woodland rounding things off.

The market town of Egremont is only 20 minutes in the car for everyday essentials, and the harbour town of Whitehaven - with its wider range of shops, schools and services - is about 30 minutes away.

A substantial, versatile Victorian home with this much space, this much land and that pool, in this corner of the Lake District - it's a rare combination.

Get in touch to arrange a viewing - I suspect this one will attract serious interest.