This unfinished, hobbit-inspired home in northern Michigan should have fans of the Shire scrambling to take a closer look. The property, which has just hit the market for an asking price of £5.7 million ($7m), is perched on 0.75 acres overlooking the scenic Torch Lake and is just awaiting some final touches to be turned into a hobbit haven.
The home features a unique and whimsical design, with three bedrooms and three-and-a-half bathrooms across 3,449 square feet of space. In addition to its two different quintessentially circular entrances, the house also boasts a fantasy-inspired curved roofline, a turret-like wing and several spectacular bay windows to take in the gorgeous lakefront.
In addition to its phenomenal potential as an architectural showpiece, the property also boasts spectacular grounds, with a rolling back lawn leading down to a stone patio and firepit, as well as a small private beach on the banks of Torch Lake. In warm weather, the opportunities for outdoor entertaining, water sports and recreation are limitless.
The home’s private beach is ‘pure sand’, according to the listing, with uninhibited views of the full 18-mile span of Torch Lake. The property also includes a sizeable front lawn and the makings of an attached, three-car garage.
With the bones of the property in place, the next buyer will be free to choose surface finishes, colours and all interior design elements. It’s effectively a blank—if hobbit-shaped—slate for some lucky family to cultivate into their Middle-earth dream home. We can't wait to see the finished product.
With all the magic of Middle-earth, these innovative hobbit houses appear to be plucked from the pages of The Lord of the Rings. Whether buried beneath the ground or decorated to resemble Bag End, these fascinating homes are far from fictional. Grab your hooded cloak and let's explore the real-life hobbit holes located around the world. Click or scroll on to read more...
We all know that one does not simply walk into Mordor. However, thanks to Airbnb, one can now walk into Hobbiton, the official Shire home from The Lord of the Rings series, and spend the night! That’s right, for the first time ever, this beloved film set is opening its doors to overnight guests for just a few select dates in March 2023 in celebration of the 10th anniversary of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
According to the Airbnb listing, guests will enjoy sleeping accommodations in The Millhouse, an adorable two-bedroom, hobbit-inspired home complete with a writing nook ideally suited for any budding novelists. Though The Millhouse itself was not used as a film set, its cosy interior has been curated by the trilogy’s Creative Director Brian Massey to give guests the authentic Shire living experience.
Guests will also enjoy exclusive access to a private hobbit hole set up for cosy relaxation and a spot of afternoon tea, and will be able to tour a total of 44 other permanently constructed hobbit holes across the expertly maintained 12-acre film set. The stay will also include a private behind-the-scenes tour of the Hobbiton movie set to explore the makings of the film trilogy.
Nestled into a bank in the middle of a forest, this cosy hobbit hole in McEwen, Tennessee is a high-fantasy lover's dream. Step inside the obligatory round front door and enter the 360-square-foot living space, complete with one bedroom and one bathroom, as well as an outdoor pavilion from which to enjoy the surrounding wildlife, greenery and a firepit.
The home features a fully-equipped kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom with a separate seating area. The snug little home makes the perfect couple's getaway, but could also accommodate a child on the couch. With a country cottage aesthetic and plenty of charming furnishings, the home is every bit as cosy as J.R.R. Tolkien described.
With its domed ceiling and exposed beams, the hole's bedroom is a characterful nook to lay your head at the end of a long day of fantastical adventures. Fancy making a quick escape to Middle-earth? You're in luck, as Wee Nook is available to rent on Airbnb.
Elsewhere in the US, this remarkable earth-sheltered home in River Falls, Wisconsin previously sold for £287,000 ($356k). The property was designed by celebrated architect Mike McGuire, and offers two bedrooms and two bathrooms across 2,236 square feet.
Built into the hillside and with a living roof, the home nevertheless offers plenty of light, with five large skylights and three glass-panelled walls. The primary living space is open and modern, with a white arched ceiling, exposed wooden beams, and a neutral colour palette. However, three wood-burning fireplaces keep the home cosy in the colder months, as do the two new smart tech furnaces, which also render the home highly energy-efficient.
With 3.5 acres of woodlands beyond its doors, the home offers maximum privacy in a truly unique space and provides homeowners the opportunity to return to the rustic charm of the Shire every night, without sacrificing modern comfort or efficiency. The two-bedroom earth home also comes with two bathrooms and two furnaces that provide heating and hot water to complete the hobbit lifestyle.
Over in Washington in the US, you'll find this surreal yet sweet property, inside the Sharingwood Cohousing Community of Snohomish. The petite pad landed on the market in April 2021 and sold for a remarkably high £349,100 ($432.5k), despite its miniature size.
The house features a cosy living room, a small kitchen, one bedroom, and two bathrooms, all squeezed into 921 square feet of space. Yet thanks to its high ceilings, light colour palette, and ample windows, the interior feels nice and inviting. There are built-in seats formed from cob, while the bathroom boasts a stained glass porthole. Organic furniture and handmade decorations can also be found throughout the cosy cabin.
The sustainable retreat boasts curved walls and was formed entirely from sustainable materials, including straw and clay. Surrounded by a wild forest, this pad couldn't feel any more like Bilbo Baggins' Shire house. What's more, the hideaway offers a top-floor loft space, decorated with a balustrade constructed from tree branches. The cosy space boasts a rocking chair and snug bed. After all, it is a hobbit hole, "and that means comfort"!
This incredible hobbit-inspired villa is truly one-of-a-kind. Sandwiched between the Koʻolau mountains and the dreamy sands of Waimānalo Beach, this Hawaiian retreat is distinctive and masterful in equal measure. Built in 2003, the property's craftsmanship is so unique that it was featured on HGTV's Extreme Homes.
This storybook-style home recently sold with Corcoran for just over £2.2 million ($2.7m), which is mainly down to high property prices in Hawaii but you do get some unique features for it. Outside, you'll find a quarter-acre garden with quaint, winding pathways dotted with Koi ponds and footbridges. There's a shaded cabana for watching the world pass by, as well as an outdoor hot tub and private garden decorated with a natural waterfall. Inside, things get even more magical...
The 3,603-square-foot residence features four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a large living room, and a kitchen. Many of the rooms open up directly onto the garden, including some of the bathrooms, while others boast soaring cathedral ceilings, rustic lava rock walls, bamboo accents and Indonesian hardwoods. There's also an apartment on the property, which could serve as guest quarters or a vacation rental. Either way, enchanting abodes don't get much better than this!
Always loved the idea of living in The Shire? Self-builder Bogdan Pekalski designed and created this 484-square-foot hobbit home after years of trial and error, eventually naming it Hobbitowa.
The house has a living room, bathroom, and two bedrooms. Bogdan used roundwood from local willow trees, clay for the interior plaster, lime for the exterior plaster, and cob stones for the infrastructure. The awesome off-grid home also has its very own water well, domestic sewage works, and photovoltaic panels for electricity.
Inside, the house has a large open-plan living room with a cordwood floor and a cosy open fire. Sharing the fireplace chimney is a kitchenette with a traditional wood-burning stove. Can't you just imagine making cocoa in here?
Nestled in the heart of the Rother Valley and just a short walk from Bodium Castle, this earth house sits within the grounds of a picturesque vineyard. Built by local craftsmen from local materials, it's hidden from sight and buried into a bank with views over the valley.
Inside, the fairytale home has 800 square feet of interior space that includes a full kitchen, inside dining, and a living area. With a star-covered ceiling, charming round windows, and wooden furniture, it's the ultimate hobbit retreat.
It may be a hobbit home, but the house still has all the modern mod cons. The two small bedrooms feature TVs and matching wooden furniture, with rustic timber beams and cute wooden cupboards for keeping all of your precious items. Head outside and you'll also find a hot tub and alfresco eating space, which is perfect for the warmer months.
Insulated from the earth that surrounds it, the home has a tiny 288-square-foot floor plan and features rounded barrel ceilings for the ultimate cosy feel. The main living space has a small seating area with a handmade chessboard and a quirky barrel attached to the wall that's filled with drinking water.
The bedroom is framed by a round doorway that was crafted from a cable spool with custom metalwork by a local designer. The room features a handmade chandelier, a fireplace, and views out over the orchards when the door is open.
This tiny green earth-sheltered house, located in Atlantic Beach, Florida, was designed and built by architect William Morgan in 1975 on a sand dune. The home has now been converted into a modern living space and was last on the market for just under £1.4 million ($1.8m) in 2020.
Due to the mass of sand surrounding these incredible Earthships, the inside is kept to a nice temperature all year round. But if it does get a little warm, there’s always a patio that looks out over the ocean.
Located near Tomich, Scotland, adventurous Stuart Grant constructed his own real-life hobbit house. Built in the 1980s, the property has had time to age gracefully and is given its authentic look by its moss-covered exterior with a round door.
A man ahead of his time, The Lord of The Rings film trilogy hadn't even been made when Stuart started this project but by using his neighbour's cast-offs and collected tree stumps, this house became a home.
The interior of the home is just as impressive as the exterior with its low ceilings and cosy furnishings. The living room features details you'd expect to see in Bilbo Baggins' home with mullioned windows, tables carved from tree trunks, and beamed ceilings. It might be one of the world's weirdest homes, but we also think it's pretty charming!
This four-bedroom, chocolate-box cottage—the name of which translates from Welsh into 'little meeting house'—is built on the site of a ruined chapel and was actually constructed in 1972 by renowned architect Christopher Day. With its curved walls and turf roof, it's a real-life hobbit house! While the off-grid home has a couple of solar panels to power low-energy consumption LED light bulbs, there's no central heating or internet. It is a home for those who like to be at one with nature i.e. hobbits.
Downstairs, you'll find the sitting room, which can double up as a study with views across the valley. There's also a living-dining room with three large windows, and an open fireplace to huddle around when the temperature really drops in the winter.
Designed by Simon and Jasmine Dale, this quirky build is a real-life fairytale home in the woods and was built using basic tools: a chainsaw, hammer, and chisel. A tree in the centre was used to prop up the house, which was topped with split logs to create the frame, while the stone and mud from digging were used for the floor, walls, and roof.
The home cost just £3,000 ($3.7k) for the materials but it took four months (and between 1,000 and 1,500 hours of hard labour!) to bring the dream to life. While living in the house, Simon and his family also created a forest garden and worked on ecological woodland management, something they wouldn't have been able to do while paying a mortgage.
The magical Earth House Estate Lättenstrasse on the outskirts of Zurich is like something out of a Tolkien novel. Designed by visionary earth architect Peter Vetsch, there are now over 90 of these houses in Switzerland and further afield.
Set against the picturesque backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains, this hobbit's dream known as 'All the Comforts of Home' is located in the town of Fairfield in Virginia. The authentic home will transport you back to Middle-earth and is shrouded in plants and grass with a shingled entrance and curved porch.
Each corner of the house has been carefully designed to encompass the hobbit theme. The arched porch is dotted with fairy lights and wooden accessories that have been locally carved—it's the perfect place to sit and curl up with a book, night or day.
Stepping inside, the main living space features a framed map of Middle-earth and a cosy fireplace. Through the rounded door frame sits the double bedroom and bathroom.
If you are looking for something a little more modern, head to Nottinghamshire Pods to get an eco-friendly addition to your back garden. The durable and versatile hobbit homes are covered by a 125-year guarantee and come with a real grass roof as standard.
Inside, the backyard home shelters come with underfloor heating and bricked wall surrounds, which keep in the heat. In this model, the solid wood flooring and stylish spotlights make the perfect cosy space.
With four models to choose from, the dwellings can also be wired to the mains for electricity and water, making it a fantastic option for a quirky guest home. Are you feeling the need to burrow?
The perfect option if you don't have the resources to build a hobbit home from scratch yourself, these pre-fabricated designs you can build in a flash by Green Magic Homes are ideal. Costing a reported £12,100 ($14.9k), the homes are covered with soil and are designed to become part of the landscape.
Buried into the hillside, this design in Johnson City, Tennessee, has an unusually clean and modern interior. Tailor-made to your needs, the houses are fully insulated with high-efficiency windows and take a maximum of just six days to assemble.
Completely waterproof, the homes are built with modular components and are assembled by approved builders. Easy to customise, each design comes with a fibre-reinforced polymer framing system and fastenings to secure the structure. The high ceilings, tall windows, and expansive living spaces create charming homes that you don't have to be a hobbit to enjoy!
Surrounded by rolling hills and mountain views, this whimsical home sits in the town of Bridesville in British Columbia. Known as Second Breakfast Hideaway, the home is surrounded by 400 acres of pristine countryside in the Okanagan Highlands, which is ideal for hiking and skiing in the winter months.
This magical home could be straight out of the movies with its grass-covered roof, giant round door, and cute lanterns hanging either side of the curved porch. Inside, an abundance of carved wood, cosy candles and an open fireplace, plus ornate decorative elements inspired by Tolkien's world, create an enchanting atmosphere.
The décor is spot on for a Middle-earth household, with an antler chandelier, and leather and iron touches lending a Gothic feel to this fantastical dwelling. If you're tempted to try it, the Second Breakfast Hideaway sleeps two in a comfortable double bedroom, and there's a compact kitchen that has everything you need to prepare a simple meal.
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