Loftus Hall

A house has stood on this site since the fourteenth century; the present building is largely a Victorian rebuild of the 1870s by the Loftus family, on the exposed neck of the Hook peninsula with the sea on both sides. The story that made it famous dates to the eighteenth century: a stranger sheltering from a storm joined a card game, a card was dropped, and the daughter of the house bending to retrieve it saw that he had a cloven hoof, whereupon he went up through the roof in a ball of fire. Anne Tottenham is said to have lost her mind afterwards and been confined. A hole in the ceiling was pointed to for generations. The house served as a convent and a hotel and was reopened for tours in 2012, running ghost tours that were commercially successful. It was sold privately in 2020 and closed to the public in 2021, and it is now viewed from the road only.

What you actually see

• The house - a Victorian rebuild on the exposed neck of the peninsula.
• The setting - sea on both sides, and the Hook lighthouse beyond.
• The story - the eighteenth-century card game and the cloven hoof.
• The closure - sold privately in 2020, no public access since 2021.

When to go

April to October for the drive down the Hook peninsula. The house is viewed from the public road only - there is nothing to book and nothing to enter.

Honest expectations

Closed to visitors. It was sold in 2020 and tours ended - anyone travelling specifically to go inside will be disappointed. The view is from the roadside and takes minutes.

Nearby

Hook Lighthouse is at the peninsula's tip; Tintern Abbey is north.