Four-storey Lancashire mansion up for auction: 66-foot waterfall included

Water features are a lovely addition to any home. Who would say no to the therapeutic trickle of water from a tasteful fountain or the soothing presence of koi carp in a pond, after all? But for those unimpressed by a poxy statue spitting water or a load of fish in their garden, a certain home boasting its own waterfall and cave system may just be of interest.
Weathercote HouseWeathercote House
Weathercote House

A mid-18th century Grade II-listed property, Weathercote House is up for auction with North West auctioneers Richard Turner & Son, offering a spelunker with pockets as deep as the caverns he or she enjoys exploring the unique opportunity to own the famous Weathercote Cave, floridly described as "the rottenest — deadliest— loveliest — horriblest place I ever saw in my life," by Victorian critic, John Ruskin.

As well as the cave - also written about rather more warmly by William Wordsworth, who called it "a fine object" - the Ingleton property comes with the rock formation's natural brother: a waterfall.

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Tumbling 66 feet from start to end, the waterfall's mouth is overhung by a legendary boulder called Mohammed's Coffin, with the underground stream winding its way some 1,300 metres down the valley - a subterranean connection established in 1770, when a bonnet lost by a woman in Weathercote Cave was later retrieved almost a mile away.

Back to the man-made features, the house is a vast nine-bedroom detached property boasting a mind-bending 23 rooms and - as if that wasn't already enough space - an adjacent four-bedroom cottage dating back to 1783, as well as a double garage, stables set in four-and-a-half acres of paddocks, gardens, and verdant woodland.

Up for auction as one lot on November 7th in The Royal Oak Saleroom, the property is nestled away in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales National Park and in the designated Ingleborough Site of Special Scientific Interest, presenting buyers with a beautifully British rabbit's warren of character and history in every porch and pantry; every cellar and games room.

Still boasting a wide array of its original features the home's reception hall is tiled with ornate mosaic tiles and features a leaded glass inner door panel with 1870 date inscription as well as mounded arched ceiling panels and pillars, a centre light, and the classic old door chime. Further into the home's belly is the main living room, resplendent with mullioned windows and an open fireplace made of fossilised dent granite.

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Upstairs via the ornate oak balustrade staircase, the master bedroom features dual-aspect mullioned windows with an open marble fireplace and a classic ceiling rose, as well as a walk-in wardrobe and an annex wash room. That being said, with a 66-foot waterfall in your garden, any shower is going to look puny in comparison.

If baths are you thing, however, you're in luck. The family bathroom comes with a classic old cast iron enamelled bath on ball and claw feet, while the other main upstairs bedroom also boasts an en suite bathroom with its own cast-iron bath and pedestal wash hand basin, tiled dado, and feature round window. Crank the hot taps, get your bath bombs out, and relax as you stare up at the ceiling's ancient exposed beams.

Archaically described as the "servant's quarters", the home also has a third floor, accessed via an oak staircase and offering two more bedrooms, as well as access to the home's extremely lofty attic made up of two separate rooms each big enough to house a regulation-size snooker table with space for any ambitious cue shots for any budding Ronnie O'Sullivans.