Derwent Island and House

View of Derwent Island on Derwentwater and Keswick, seen from Catbells, Lake District — Derwent Island on Derwentwater and Keswick, seen from Catbells | © National Trust Images / Simon Fraser

Derwent Island and House is an exciting element of the Borrowdale landscape. From housing a German mining colony to being the site of Pocklington's Keswick Regatta, this island has a storied past. Find out all you need to know about the history of the island and the many owners of the house here.

Derwent House and Island are currently closed to visitors

Due to staff shortages, we will be unable to run open days at Derwent Island this year. We hope to once again be able to welcome visitors soon.

About Derwent Island and House

Derwent Island is one of the Lake’s most fascinating treasures. The 18th-century house on this little wooded island makes this the only inhabited island in the Lake District.

The island is not currently open to visitors, however you can still capture beautiful glimpses of the picturesque villa when boating on the lake.

The Rich History of Derwent Island & House

During the medieval period the island formed part of the Borrowdale estate owned by the monks of Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire. Though no physical traces remain from this era, historical records reveal its significance.

Over time, the island was known by various names. In the early medieval period, it was called Hestholm, meaning “Horse Island.” Later, it became known as Vicar’s Island, having been allotted to the Abbot’s vicar at Crosthwaite.
In the centuries after the monastic ownership, the island passed to the Kings estate and then to the German miners of the company of Mines Royal. Early in 1564, the first group of miners arrived in Keswick to set up their headquarters. In the early days, the 200- strong group German miners received a frosty welcome from the local inhabitants of Keswick.

In the little town, with its one muddy street and a few squalid yards, the arrival of foreigners earning good money doing a skilled job must have been a bitter pill to swallow. Thus, discord between the immigrant workmen and their local counterparts began. In 1565, one of the miners, Leonard Stoulz, was beaten to death in Keswick by a mob of 20 villagers. However, in 1569, the Company of Mines Royal acquired the island which provided the miners with somewhere safe to live and form a community. At 250 yards long and 170 wide, the island soon became a German colony, with its own bakery, pigsty, windmill, brewery and orchard.
Joseph Pocklington is perhaps the most noted owner of Derwent Island – from 1778. He was one of the first men of wealth to settle in the Lake District for its scenic beauty, and yet brought with him an unbounded passion for putting up conspicuous buildings and altering the landscape to his own design. For example, he built a Palladian Villa on the island as well as the Gothic chapel-boathouse, a druids circle and a small fort.

Family and guests would travel to Pocklington’s Island from the Keswick foreshore, leaving their horses and carriages at the mainland stables—still standing today. From there, they would cross the water by boat, arriving at the island’s eastern jetty. Remnants of these original jetties can still be seen both on the mainland and opposite on the island, offering a tangible link to its past.

While family and guests arrived at Derwent Island via the eastern jetty, the servants had a very different route. Rowing across from Portinscale, they would land at a separate jetty on the far side of the island—now reduced to a heap of stones. This discreet arrival point ensured they remained out of sight and mind, despite making the journey almost daily to serve the household.
In 1844, the island was purchased by Henry Marshall, the fourth son of John Marshall—founder of the flax spinning industry in Leeds, Yorkshire. Henry, along with his son John, undertook significant developments on the island, adding the striking west and east wings and the distinctive tower above the front entrance. Their contributions also included fine Victorian furnishings and decorative details, many of which still define the character of the house today.

The Marshall family held a prominent position in the Lake District, with Henry’s three brothers residing in similarly distinguished homes near Coniston, Patterdale, and Keswick, further cementing their influence in the region.
The Founders of The National Trust, Octavia Hill, Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley and Sir Robert Hunter were frequent visitors to the island and the Marshall brothers (Charles and Denis) were active committee members of the then new organisation founded to preserve places of Historic interest and natural beauty.

In 1951, John Marshall’s younger brother Denis gave the Island to The National Trust to conserve for public benefit. Like many National Trust properties in the Lake District, The Island has been a tenanted property since 1953 and the tenants help to care for and conserve the island.

View of Derwent House from Derwent Island on Derwent Water under a clear blue sky, Lake District — Derwent House on Derwent Water | © National Trust Images / John Millar

Pocklington, the 'Alien Improver'

Wordsworth's ridicule

By 1781, ‘Pocklington's Island’, as he called it was crowned with a Palladian villa of five bays surmounted by a gigantic pediment. It was built by Samuel and Thomas Ladyman of Keswick, to Pocklington’s own design. Many were enraged by the starkness of this intrusion in the natural landscape. Wordsworth ridiculed it as being ‘like an astronomer's observatory, or a warren-house reared upon an eminence for the detection of depredators…’.

The Regatta

Derwent Water Regatta has never been a quiet affair. The first one held in 1781 by Joseph Pocklington included a sweepstake for swimming horses and an attack on Derwent Island in a mock battle. Pocklington’s regattas were all about people pitching in to create a dramatic, and slightly chaotic, spectacle.

For example, in 1789, a wooden ‘battery’ - a castellated facade for the porter’s lodge or ‘blockhouse’ was built on the island which he renamed Fort Joseph. The fortifications were used in the mock battles hosted at the Regatta. Local men armed with muskets would be organised to make a sham naval attack on the island from a fleet of rowing boats, amid the thunderous uproar of Pocklington’s six cannon, and eventually land near the blockhouse to plunder its store of roast beef and beer.

Artistic Views of Pocklington's Island

This gallery presents paintings capturing Derwent Island and its house during the late 18th century, when the estate was owned by Joseph Pocklington.

A painting of Pocklington's Island from the shore, showing several buildings on the wooded island. — Painting of Derwent Island house during Pocklington's ownership | © © National Trust / Robert Thrift

A View from the East of Pocklington's Island (after Joseph Pocklington) by Samuel Middiman

This picturesque engraving captures Pocklington’s Island on Derwentwater, viewed from the east. The original drawing was made on-site in 1786 by Joseph Pocklington. Presented in an ebonised gilt frame, the piece is inscribed: “A view from the East of Pocklington's Island in Derwent Water, near Keswick in Cumberland. Drawn upon the spot by Joseph Pocklington Esq of Carlton House near Newark, Nottinghamshire, 1786.”

Flower Border on South Side of Derwent Island House

This delicate watercolour captures the vibrant flower border on the south side of Derwent Island House, set against the serene backdrop of the Borrowdale landscape. The watercolour highlights the architecture of the Villa, built by Pocklington and ridiculed by Wordsworth as 'an astronomer's observatory', however this painting seems to highlight the charm and tranquillity of the island.

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