The epic country house in 'the most beautiful spot on Earth' is for sale for the third time in 200 years

In 1829, the Revd Walter Stephenson Halliday inherited a fortune. His father, Simon Halliday, had been a naval surgeon during the Napoleonic Wars, going on to a fabulously successful career in banking, building up huge wealth. And when he died, Halliday resigned from the Church and decided to put his father’s wealth to good use.

Halliday embarked on a search for a country estate and eventually settled at Countisbury, North Devon, where he gradually bought the entire parish — some 7,000 acres in all — and became lord of the manor. Two centuries later the house that he built, which is unarguably one of the most beautiful homes in Britain in its combination of architecture and setting, is up for sale: James Toogood of Savills quotes a guide price of £6.5 million.

Halliday was in the happy position of being able to choose his landscape and fit his house into it, and he was seemingly happy to take his time getting things just right, spending huge amounts of time and money before the house itself was even started.

The first step was building stables at Home Farm to house working horses, and having a track cut through to the shore, where a landing stage was built for building materials to come in by sea.

Meanwhile, it reputedly took the best part of a year to create the serpentine three-mile drive that leads down to the site of the house, beyond which the lawn falls steeply to the sea. Only then could work begin on the house itself.

Glenthonre stands on a grassy clearing said to be the only piece of flat land between Porlock and Lynmouth, with the sea and a wonderfully sheltered cove far below and the hills and moorland of Exmoor behind. Built of the pinkish local stone and roofed with Cornish slate, its architecture is classically Georgian in places and Neo-Gothic in others, with some 17th-century elements in between.

The core of the house was built between 1829 and 1831 and, in 1839, new kitchens, service quarters and a large conservatory were added. In 1846, the front of the house was extended by adding a library wing with a new master bedroom and dressing room above.

During the 1850s, Home Farm, another solid stone-built house, was built in a sheltered corner of the estate.

Glenthorne's arrival on to the market has pepped up the West Country market, and though the house no longer comes with an entire parish, it's still a remarkable home.

This Grade II-listed landmark remains as imposing, dramatic and romantic today as it was in the 19th century, set in 77 wooded acres on a spectacular coastal site overlooking the Bristol Channel towards Lynmouth, Porlock Bay and Wales.

The house boasts impressive accommodation on three floors, including six main reception rooms, a library, a gun room, a kitchen and a breakfast room, a master-bedroom suite, 11 further bedrooms and four further bathrooms.

There are two further houses on the plot: the aforementioned Home Farm, which has been completely refurbished to a wonderful standard; and Gardener's Cottage, which hasn't been touched for years and needs everything doing. There are also several outbuildings, including stables, stores and a barn that's used as a gym.

Halliday died childless in 1872, leaving Glenthorne to his nephew, William, who added the billiard room and laid down a croquet lawn at the side of the house. The estate then passed through various members of the Halliday clan until, in September 1983, a snippet in Country Life announced the sale, ‘for the first time in its history, of Glenthorne, with 18 acres of gardens, woods and paddock, access to the foreshore and views across the Bristol Channel to Wales’. Offers in the region of £250,000 were sought.

A year later, Glenthorne, by then in a semi-ruinous state, was acquired by the writer, explorer, financier and philanthropist, the late Sir Christopher Ondaatje, who died in July 2026. 'Despite its romantic, Daphne du Maurier appearance, the house was an absolute wreck,' he told Country Life a few years ago, 'with rain pouring through the roof, right down to the ground floor.’

Sir Christropher drafted in a team of 35 craftsmen and builders to renovate the entire 12,450 square foot house in a military-style operation that took only seven months to complete.

Home Farm, though originally built by Halliday, had been split off from the main property, but was acquired by Sir Christopher some years later. Writing in Country Life, Sir Christopher reflected on his lifelong love affair with Exmoor and the enduring fascination of his ‘mystical Gothic manor house.

'It is the most beautiful spot on Earth,' Sir Christopher told Country Life in 2018. 'Woods climb giant hills behind us, separated occasionally by narrow streams, hidden by ferns and rhododendrons, which cascade over mossy rocks down to the stony beach.'

Beautiful words about a house that clearly inspires them: it was in the library at Glenthorne that Michael Ondaatje, Sir Christopher's younger brother, wrote much of The English Patient.

In 2019, Sir Christopher, then aged 86, who already owned houses in London, the Bahamas and Canada, sold Glenthorne to its present owner, who, according to the agents, ‘has enhanced many of the building’s original features, as well as incorporating modern conveniences required of today’s country houses’.

Those changes haven't done anything to harm the charm of the place: Glenthorne retains the magic of its beautiful gardens, deep combes, ancient woodland, magnificent views and complete privacy, with its nearest neighbour some seven miles away.

Glenthorne is for sale through Savills — see more details.