The grounds extend from the "terrace road", which runs across the top of Applethwaite, uphill into a narrowing and increasingly wooded valley of oak, beech and birch trees eventually opening out onto the slopes of Skiddaw. The grounds are accessed by a series of footpaths and steps and are provided with a number of garden seats.
At the bottom there is a grassy meadow which leads up to the house. On the eastern flank there is a barbecue terrace. On the other side of the meadow runs Applethwaite Beck in a narrow ghyll, which is crossed by a footbridge between azaleas and acers. Lower down, the beck enters a spinney with a side stream which has plantings of asiastic primulas and other bog plants. The drive runs up the west side of the property below a springtime slope full of daffodils and bluebells topped by mature oaks. This bank has a path and a seat at a viewpoint looking across the fells to Derwentwater and Borrowdale.
Closer to the house and beyond it the garden includes herbaceous beds, a heather bank, rhododendrons and other flowering shrubs and beck side plantings of astilbes and hydrangeas. The top of the meadow provides space for ball games (fishing nets provided for ball retrieval!).
At the top of the drive there is a parking area and a garage.
The house has two side doors leading out onto a small lawn beyond which is the beck. (Care is needed with crawlers and toddlers. There are materials allowing guests to erect a temporary chicken wire fence)
Opposite the house there is a waterfall created by an artificial watercourse and another footbridge across the beck. A side stream forms another waterfall into the beck above the house. There is a small bog garden with plantings of primulas.
Beyond the house there is a large yew which may be the one planted by the poet William Wordsworth in 1806. There is another lawn, a shrub terrace and garden seat.
Further into the wood there are two more waterfalls and paths, one of which leads through a gate out of the grounds onto the fell side and one of Wainwright's less well known (and barely discernible) routes to the summit of Skiddaw. There is also a pleasant circular walk across the fell side, which eventually drops down to the terrace road to the west of the property.
© The Ghyll 2020
Site by M. Knight