"It is rare, anywhere in the world, to be able to enter a lived-in, gracious house and experience a bygone lifestyle .. But Markdale is different … the aim of the hosts .. is to give the visitor the experience of a stay in a true country house .. the moment I sat down in the couch in front of their large open fireplace, I was swept back to my childhood.

The conversation was wide-ranging and easy, the lazy walks in the garden with all its European deciduous species were evocative ... Today the wines are orchestrated, the main meal was milk-fed veal in a light sauce of breathtaking subtlety and the sweets would have been the envy of any prestigious Sydney restaurant.

The trouble with Markdale is that everyone who goes there loves it so much that they want to keep it a secret. This is unfair. Such a transcendental experience deserves to be shared."

From "NSW Awards for Excellence in Tourism", Bruce Elder
in the Sydney Morning Herald, June 14, 1997

"In the evening, guests assemble for drinks in a gracious sitting room, filled with antiques, rose-patterned couches, a roaring log fire and baby grand piano. Dinner is served in the formal dining room, at a table which seats 14 comfortably but will stretch to as many as 18 people. .. There is plenty to do on the property from walking in the delightful garden, fishing for trout, soaking in some history, or enjoying the facilities which include a tennis court, pool and mini putting green."

From "The home away from home", Christine Salins in
The Canberra Times, April 24, 1996

"If you’ve ever fancied a country house party but never had the country house to do it in, here’s your dream come true. Markdale is a grand old homestead in beautiful country outside Crookwell, surrounded by hills folding themselves into shadowed gullies. .. And after lights out, the opening and hushed closing of bedroom doors will tell you whether your friends are just like all those scandalous country house guests in English novels."

From "Rambling Retreats", Robin Powell
in Sydney Morning Herald, September 19, 1996

"Markdale, pastoral home of the Ashton family for three generations, is a sheep station with a difference. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, two of Australia’s greatest designers, architect Professor Leslie Wilkinson and garden designer Edna Walling, joined forces to create a haven of such comfort and beauty there are few to equal it in Australia. .. From the moment you enter the tree-canopied driveway, the genius loci, the magic of the place, takes hold. The white house, with its characteristic Wilkinson touches, blue-grey shutters and copper-roofed cupola, overlooks a breathtaking vista of sweeping green lawns, curved drystone walls – a Walling trademark – and magnificent trees, which colour brilliantly in autumn. Beyond is a reflecting lake and sheep-dotted hills. .. Each bedroom has generous windows so that waking is a joy, if one doesn’t mind the carolling of myriad birds in a garden which comes right to the glass."

From "A perennial in full bloom", Joanne Morris in
Vogue LIVING, October/November 1996

"As one-time country editor of the SMH Good Food Guide I have stayed in a lot of country accommodation, but Markdale is my favourite. .. Just get on the Hume Highway, turn right at Goulburn and take the winding, straw-coloured route through to Crookwell, where the hills turn the colour of rose quartz at sunset. .. All the rooms are exquisitely decorated with original, individual pieces of antique furniture, the walls teem with wonderful old books and the sheets are crisp of fine quality, dried in the country air. .. Of course, you don’t have to talk to anyone if you don’t want to. You’ve got {3200 hectares} .. to explore. Just throw on a coat and head across the paddocks to sit on an outcrop of granite, Heathcliff-style, and contemplate why it’s take you so long to get to a place such as Markdale or just how beautiful the Australian countryside can be. .. Markdale is a one-off."

From "Just my cup of tea", Nicole Lehmann
in Sydney Morning Herald, July 19, 1997

"The garden makes Markdale an important part of Australia’s heritage. It is one of only two homestead gardens designed by Edna Walling in New South Wales and is part of a dwindling legacy of the artist’s work. It contains many typical Walling elements, and is considered important by the heritage and horticultural communities."

From "Creative theory at the bottom of the garden", Geoffrey Stackhouse
in Business Review Weekly, June 16, 1997

* The acommodation is now in the original refurbished Stone House and Annexe which have not been reviewed.