The Fells - Historic Estate and Gardens

The Fells served as a summer retreat for three generations of the Hay family. From 1891 until his death in 1905, John Hay, diplomat and distinguished man of letters, summered in a cottage he built on the eastern shore of Lake Sunapee, facing Mt. Sunapee. He called his estate “The Fells” after the Scottish word for rocky upland pastures. His son Clarence Hay designed and built a walled Colonial Revival style garden featuring arbors and trellises, flowering trees and shrubs, and classic statuary. Construction of the rock garden began in 1929. A stream runs through the rock garden and there is a lily pond in the centre. There is also a rose terrace and 100-foot perennial border.