 |
|
Special amenities offered by the inn, include champagne cruises on the lake, guided hikes, in-room massages, and private dance lessons.
|
By Carol Timblin
(August 2008) Any lover of literature will relish a stay at Innisfree Inn on The Lake, a romantic mountain inn in Glenville, North Carolina. Located minutes from the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests, the inn’s name is taken from "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" by William Butler Yeats.
Romance resonates through the magnificent Victorian bed and breakfast. Guest rooms and suites in the Inn and the Garden House, a separate building from the main inn, are named for famous English writers - Lord Tennyson, Elizabeth Barrett, Emily Bronte and Charles Dickens.
 The 10 individually decorated and furnished rooms are decorated with a variety of luxurious antiques. Guests may find themselves in the Canterbury room surrounded by yellows and blues and an exotic Chinese headboard or the Lord Tennyson’s Suite that is flamboyantly masculine with dark burgundy floral wallpaper, chandeliers and a Rococo king bed.
The suites feature two-sided fireplaces, garden tubs for two, and picture windows that overlook Lake Glenville and the mountains. All rooms include satellite television and telephones. (Rental cottages are also available.)
Host Henry Hoche welcomes guests with an afternoon reception and assists with dinner reservations.
Upon returning in the evening, guests are invited to enjoy Irish coffee or hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps in front of the Count Rumford fireplace, located in the Parlor. Suite guests will find a bottle of Sherry waiting for them by the fireplace, upon their return from dinner.
 Guests who stay in the main house are treated to an elegant candlelight breakfast in the Tower Dining Room that sits at the base of the octagonal two-story tower. Those guests that stay in the Garden House have breakfast brought to their bedside.
The Tower Dining Room is fashioned with gold-fringed blue velvet drapes, raspberry painted walls, golf leafing on the wainscoting and a spectacular chandelier that hangs from the sky-painted ceiling.
A large wrap-around veranda with wooden rocking chairs overlooks Lake Glenville and the Blue Ridge Mountains, along with terraced gardens, flowerbeds and a Koi fish pond. Guests often gather on the veranda before dinner for wine and cheese and after dinner for Irish coffee or a chilled mocha.
 The parlor, with a huge wood burning fireplace and a 20-foot high cathedral ceiling, exudes warmth in winter and is a delightful setting for visiting.
A public observatory, located on the third floor, has a spectacular view of Lake Glenville and surrounding forests.
Special amenities offered by the inn, include champagne cruises on the lake, guided hikes, in-room massages, and private dance lessons.
Other activities located nearby are golfing, horseback riding, fishing and boat rentals, whitewater rafting, hiking and waterfall discovery.
Rental cottages are available. While children are not allowed in the inn or the garden house, children are allowed in the rental cottages. Rental cottages are a short walking distances to the dock and the lake. (Updated August 2008)
|
