If this year has left you with the urge to wander the wilderness, wailing into an oncoming rain storm, we get it. And we can also recommend the ideal place to do it.
Ponden Hall in Yorkshire, England, is currently for sale. It’s an impressive, eight-bedroom, Grade II*-listed country house that dates back to 1541. It’s on the edge of the village of Haworth, where writers the Brontë sisters lived and wrote their masterpieces, and, most importantly, it’s thought to be the inspiration for Wuthering Heights.
Seriously, for literature lovers, as well as anyone with a penchant for Gothic melodrama and moody moorland, there isn’t a better location for angrily contemplating life right now.
There’s actual historical evidence that Emily, Anne and Charlotte frequented Ponden Hall during the 1800s – according to the Brontë association, the family made great use of its library. Historians say the grand Yorkshire home was likely the inspiration for the remote farmhouse of Wuthering Heights, as well as the grander Thrushcross Grange.
If you’re not already packing your billowing blouses, check this out. Ponden Hall is currently a B&B, which points out a particularly ghostly connection from Emily’s classic novel on its website: ‘On the east gable end of the house, a tiny single-paned window is, according to local tradition, the window where Cathy’s ghost, memorably, scratched furiously at the glass, trying to get in. “I muttered, knocking my knuckles through the glass, and stretching an arm out to seize the importunate branch; instead of which, my fingers closed on the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand!”’
So there you have it. Ghosts, historical connections, an excuse to play Kate Bush constantly for the rest of your days. Oh, and it’s actually a pretty amazing house as well. All together now: ‘Heathcliffff.... it’s me, Cathy. I’ve come home.’
Check out the property listing here.
Not keen to follow in Heathcliff’s footsteps? Try this pink Scottish castle instead.