Wray Castle

The house was built in 1840 for a retired Liverpudlian surgeon, James Dawson, who built it along with the neighbouring Wray Church using his wife's fortune. After Dawson's death in 1875, the estate was inherited by his fifteen-year-old nephew, Edward Preston Rawnsley. In 1877 Edward's cousin, Hardwicke Rawnsley, took up the appointment of vicar of Wray Church. To protect the countryside from damaging development, Hardwicke Rawnsley, building on an idea propounded by John Ruskin, conceived of a National Trust that could buy and preserve places of natural beauty and historic interest for the nation.

In 2011 the National Trust proposed to lease the property, which had been denuded of its furnishings, for use as a hotel. However, they decided to open it to the public during the visitor season that year. High visitor numbers meant that the property, which in its empty state was particularly child-friendly, had clear potential to be developed as a visitor attraction. In 2014 the Trust applied for retrospective planning permission to change the use of the listed building to a visitor attraction. Between March and October, Windermere Lake Cruises operates a passenger boat service on Windermere from Ambleside and the Brockhole National Park Visitor Centre to Wray Castle.