Country houses for sale

OnTheMarket

A 'compact' estate, nestled near the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, that offers wonderful additional income streams

Country sports require a lot of space, and land — and luckily that's just what Coves House has.

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(Image credit: Merit Estates)

If, by chance, you find yourself in the market for a 'compact estate' that offers numerous income streams, then look no further than Coves House, currently on the market for £1.5 million via Finest Properties and Merit Estates.

(Image credit: Merit Estates)

Any potential new owner of Grade II*-listed, six-bedroom Coves House—by the River Wear near the charming market town of Wolsingham, which is on the edge of the North Pennines—should benefit from a diverse income stream that includes a B&B in the west wing, a two-bedroom cottage available to rent, an event venue and ‘bunkhouse’ to sleep up to 14 people and a sizeable campsite, not to mention various agricultural and equestrian buildings and the farm, which is run from a converted stable block.

(Image credit: Merit Estates)

The estate’s 66½ acres include 45 acres of meadow and permanent pasture, plus plenty of wooded copses and ponds to fuel a small shoot and stalking.

(Image credit: Merit Estates)

Coves House is currently for sale via Finest Properties and Merit Estates for £1.5 million — see more pictures, or enquire with the agent for further details. 

(Image credit: Merit Estates)

Wolsingham: What you need to know

Location: Wolsingham is located in Weardale, County Durham, near the River Wear. It is approximately 15 miles/30 minute drive from Durham, with stations in Wolsingham, Frosterley and Stanhope which are served by the Weardale railway.

Atmosphere: Wolsingham is a small market town and official 'Walkers and Welcome' town too — thanks to its close proximity to the Durham Dales. The town is well equipped with shops, restaurants, cafes, hotels and pubs.

Things to do: The town holds an annual agricultural show which proves popular with locals and attracts visitors from further afield, but the main attraction is the surrounding landscape of the Durham Dales. There are numerous forest walks, plus Tunstall Reservoir walks, which allow you to take in the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. For those looking for more of a buzz, then Newcastle is also situated nearby — and home to some of the best bars in the UK.

Schools: Wolsingham Primary School, Frosterley Primary School and both good primary options, with Wolsingham School for secondary.

Find more property for sale in the area.


Credit: Strutt and Parker

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Annunciata Elwes

Annunciata grew up in the wilds of Lancashire and now lives in Hampshire with a husband, two daughters and an awful pug called Parsley. She’s been floating round the Country Life office for more than a decade, her work winning the Property Magazine of the Year Award in 2022 (Property Press Awards). Before that, she had a two-year stint writing ‘all kinds of fiction’ for The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, worked in internal comms for Country Life’s publisher (which has had many names in recent years but was then called IPC Media), and spent another year researching for a historical biographer, whose then primary focus was Graham Greene and John Henry Newman and whose filing system was a collection of wardrobes and chests of drawers filled with torn scraps of paper. During this time, she regularly gave tours of 17th-century Milton Manor, Oxfordshire, which may or may not have been designed by Inigo Jones, and co-founded a literary, art and music festival, at which Johnny Flynn headlined. When not writing and editing for Country Life, Annunciata is also a director of TIN MAN ART, a contemporary art gallery founded in 2021 by her husband, James Elwes.