ROOKHOW
LAKE DISTRICT group accommodation & woodland
ABOUT ROOKHOW
Rookhow is a registered Quaker charity. As well as being a meeting place for Quakers over the last 300 years, its Bunkbarn (converted from the original stables) provides simple and affordable accommodation for groups. You don't have to be a Quaker to stay here: it's for everyone!
The charity's objects are to further the religious and charitable purposes of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain. For us this means continuing to maintain and restore Rookhow as a place for Quakers to meet and worship, as well as opening it as a wonderful venue for the public benefit.
Rookhow is managed by a group of trustees, mainly Quakers, and employs a part-time Development Manager, a Cleaner and a Finance Officer.
history
Rookhow is a Grade II* listed site, historically significant as an early Quaker Meeting House, with 1725 spice cupboard, 'plank and muntin' wooden paneling, stone floors, huge doorways and a key the size of a trowel! It was built for Quakers from surrounding local meetings to gather for business and worship. Quakerism was still in its infancy, but numbers were growing and they needed somewhere larger to meet together.
Land was purchased and Rookhow and its accommodation was built with a Meeting Room large enough to hold 150 people. Quakers would arrive to Rookhow on horseback or in gigs, the gig barn now being used as an outdoor covered seating area.
"beyond beautiful"
"I love Rookhow. There are no phones and there's a big wood, yummy food and nice people. There is tarpaulin where you can make dens. I love the big meeting house. I just like its bigness." (L, aged 10)
"Its simple provision reminds us how little we need of material and technological embellishments to our lives. And how a deep, connection with our natural world can be more deeply achieved with much, much less." (Bunkbarn guest)
