Travel · Lifestyle · Silverlake
A Lakeside Summer Spent Mostly on the Water
An award-winning private estate in Dorset, where a family summer is spent on the water and in the wild.
Silverlake is an award-winning private lakeside estate in the heart of Dorset, a collection of contemporary holiday homes unfolding across distinct waterfront and woodland villages. Built around a strong ecological ethos, it is a place designed for families to reconnect with the outdoors, and summer, with its long light and warm days, is when it comes fully alive.
Straight to the Water
The estate’s Activity Hub offers equipment hire and local guidance, so families can head straight to the freshwater lakes for kayaking, canoeing, paddleboarding and fishing. It is the kind of easy, screen-free adventure that fills a day without anyone noticing the time.
And Plenty to Do on Land
Away from the water, walking and cycling trails, mountain biking, a zip wire and tennis courts give every generation a way to explore and stay active. The estate’s woodland and open meadows do the rest, with native ponies grazing and, on the right evening, a starling murmuration overhead.
A Wilderness Spa, Arriving in August
This August, Silverlake launches the new Firefly Spa and Restaurant, a large-scale outdoor wellness destination set within the estate’s natural landscape. Built around the idea of wilderness wellness, it centres on a 25-metre heated outdoor pool, a sauna, a cold plunge and designated wild swimming areas, alongside treatment rooms and a relaxation yurt, a rarely seen feature in UK spa design.
From Morning Sessions to Twilight Swims
Experiences will run from morning sessions through to twilight swims and stargazing, encouraging guests to move between water, heat and open air in a way that feels entirely shaped by the surrounding landscape. The relaxation yurt is the quiet heart of it, a place to slow down between the pool and the trees.
Time to Be Looked After
Beyond the water and the heat, the spa’s treatment rooms bring a more classic kind of restoration into the wild setting. It is wellness that suits the whole family, active and outdoorsy for some, quiet and restorative for others.
A Table in the Landscape
The Firefly Restaurant completes the new destination, a place to gather after a day on the water or in the trees. Like the rest of Silverlake, it is designed to feel of its setting, unhurried, natural, and made for long summer evenings.
Homes Built for the Outdoors
The estate’s contemporary holiday homes unite cutting-edge design with a strong ecological ethos, providing a thriving sanctuary rather than a resort. They are available to stay in through Habitat Escapes, and, for those who fall for the place, through a co-ownership model that turns a holiday into a home.
A Place to Come Back To
What makes Silverlake unusual is how quickly it stops feeling like a holiday let and starts feeling like somewhere that belongs to you, the same lake, the same trails, the same light, season after season.
The Homes
Design Meets Nature
Architecturally striking and quietly sustainable, the homes are set to make the landscape the star, with the lakes and woodland just beyond the glass.
The Essentials
How to Go
Three-night stays through Habitat Escapes start from 4,666 AED in July, rising to 6,903 AED in August. Firefly Spa founding memberships start from 5,964 AED per year for local residents, with each individual membership including one complimentary child place for under-eighteens.
The Case for the Simple Things
For Boujeez, luxury for a family is not always marble and service. Sometimes it is a lake at the end of the garden, a sauna in the open air, and a summer slow enough to notice a murmuration turning over the water. Silverlake understands that the best memories are made outdoors, together, and it simply gives a family the space to make them.
Plan a stay through Habitat Escapes.