Cross the threshold of any extraordinary property and you will sense the impression left on it by those who have called it home. This International Women’s Day, we are looking beyond the architecture to the architects of experience. Some of our most treasured Unique Homestays stories are those of the visionary women, from curators to conservationists, forging purposeful paths through the landscapes and homes they inhabit. Here, we celebrate them.
Sarah, Coswarth
Every great story has a protagonist who sees what others don't. For Unique Homestays, that story began twenty-five years ago with Sarah. Before "luxury travel" entered our lexicon, our company founder Sarah Stanley was busy sketching logos in a Cornish cottage; her vision for the business established from years travelling overseas.
Her personal home Coswarth, a Grade II-listed countryside manor she acquired in 2020, sees a full-circle return to her roots. Growing up on a North Cornwall farm, Sarah’s childhood was underpinned by hospitality – loaves in the oven and a door that never closed. "I wanted to have that same feel," Sarah explains. "A house big enough for extended families, with a warmth that draws people in." At Coswarth, rooms drenched in herbaceous greens and warming peaches are filled with reclaimed mementoes of a life well-travelled; a convivial country kitchen sitting at its heart. There’s a legacy here being handed to the next generation – to her daughter Morgane and niece Kahdine, who carry the torch of unearthing exceptional properties. "It's what we do best," Sarah says.
Joanne, Elberta Barn
After 23 years curating exhibitions for museums and galleries worldwide, Joanne found a new, organic canvas in Elberta Barn, a double RIBA award- winning agricultural barn conversion in a verdant pocket by the Suffolk border. "I didn't know the word aesthetics when I was eighteen," she reflects, "but I realise now that it has been a key concern throughout my whole life. The way things look; the spatial relationships between objects." That lifetime of studying composition translated directly into the renovation of the barn, where the original rafters are retained and modern furniture marks the distinction between old and new. Alongside a minimalist, Judd-inspired interior, the gardens become a living work of art. To step into the landscape around Elberta Barn is, as Joanne describes, "like walking into a painting by John Constable."
Frieda, Castle Trematonia
Frieda is co-founder of House of Hackney, the B Corp interiors brand whose decade-long love affair with the natural world has deepened into something more reciprocal. "We are not separate from Nature, but part of her," she says. This philosophy breathes through the palmed enclaves of Castle Trematonia, a medieval estate in Cornwall's Tamar Valley under the custodianship of Frieda and her husband Javvy. The Castle's nine acres of ancient woodland, orchards and subtropical gardens are stewarded biodynamically, treated as a living ecosystem where Mother Nature reigns. The interiors are drenched in animal prints and botanical motifs; serving as a reminder of the wild world we must honour. For Frieda, it is a sanctuary of mutual flourishing, where the beauty borrowed from nature is returned through active protection and care.
Anna, Redmere Hall
Anna runs Kindred, a community and events space in Hammersmith built around the belief that gathering people together changes something between them for good. The brief for Redmere Hall in Wiltshire – “forging human connection in a world that seems intent on driving us apart”– was rooted in this same conviction. "My business is all about building community through great hospitality, events and beautiful spaces," Anna says. These former stables near Warminster, dating back to 1838, sleep 22 on one level; designed to be as wheelchair accessible and family-friendly as possible, with a sun-touched Moroccan-style inner courtyard at their heart, a swimming pool (heated April-September) and a tennis court. Imagined with Anna Burles of creative design house Run For The Hills, the interiors speak to the building's former life. "The house feels at its best when it's full of people," Anna shares "which is why it was created."
Eliza, Charlotte's Folly and Hansa
"We're doing lots of things here; regenerative farming, woodland creation, biodiversity projects, restoration of listed buildings and much, much more," says Viscountess Eliza of her approach to managing the 12,000-acre Bradford Estates that have been stewarded by the family for millennia. Eliza and her husband Alexander are overseeing a shift within these grounds, centring both climate and community: the planting of 195,000 trees administered by the Forestry Commission and the recent opening, in Autumn 2025, of The Bradford Walk, granting public access to hundreds of acres of landscape reserved for very few up until now. Charlotte’s Folly, and its sibling property, Hansa, sprout from this landscape as a whimsical testament to her holistic approach to custodianship. A medium of expression for a story where magic and longevity are inseparable by design.
Ruth, The Ark
Wildlife advocacy has been a lifelong calling for Ruth, CEO of Elephant Family – an international charity that works to protect Asian elephants. "The house is a sort of modern-day ark," she says of her Grade A eco-home in the Somerset hills. Ruth was the driving force behind The Great Elephant Migration, which saw a herd of 100 life-sized elephants traverse America to amplify indigenous knowledge; two of which now greet guests as they arrive. "The idea of a sustainable home built with renewable energy sources was incredibly important," she says of the Passivhaus principles at its foundation. This ecological commitment is reflected in the artworks that line its walls – among them a carbon footprint painting by Brian Eno of EarthPercent and ClientEarth. An embodiment of her values, The Ark is an architectural "ode to the natural world."
Jo, Mirana
For Jo, a background as a professional horticulturalist meant that Mirana near the Helford was never going to be a simple barn conversion, but an exercise in permaculture. "We were looking to find a space in nature, protected from the coastal winds," Jo notes of the Cornish valley she has called home for sixteen years. "When James and I first came across the farm we were inspired by the diversity of of the landscape. Within three acres there was paddock, woodland, orchard, stream and pond; the rural idyll." At Mirana, a 200 year-old barn that now serves as a luxury holiday let in a private corner of the grounds, Jo's vision finds its most grounded expression at the natural swimming pond; a restoration project that deepened an almost-lost body of water into something that sustains both the human spirit and the biodiversity of the valley around it.
Feeling inspired? Read more about our property owners, find out how to become a Unique Homestays homeowner, or peruse our full collection of unique private rental homes
