Welcome

It is an extraordinary privilege to live in the most unspoiled surviving early fourteenth century house in all England, and to be able to welcome you to it.

 

Although we have tried to make it interesting by notices and explanations here and there, most of all it is our private home. That is why you will occasionally encounter family muddle, dogs and sometimes grandchildren racing about. It is supposed to be the most continuously inhabited house in the country, but we’re not sure if that is true.

 

It is a place with an extraordinary history, beginning with its entry in Domesday Book (1086) and continuing to the present day, sometimes peacefully, sometimes in considerable strife. It is now being gradually restored to something of the status and dignity for which it was built.

 

It has had its fair share of unhappiness over the centuries and yet it has an extraordinary atmosphere: peaceful and benign. Visitors often remark on that. We hope, when you visit, that you take away some of that peace with you.

 

Markenfield opens its doors to the public for a limited time each year – to visit and explore, or for a guided tour, a wedding, christening, anniversary lunch or other event. With its moat, battlements, beautiful private chapel and position deep in the Yorkshire countryside, it has been called “Surely one of the most romantic houses left in England”.