Tour Naulakha with Rhododendrons in Bloom

Reserve your tickets now for a self-guided tour of Naulakha, the Dummerston house and gardens of author Rudyard Kipling. The tours are available on Sunday, June 6 from 1 p.m.–4:30 p.m. and Monday, June 7 from 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Tickets are $25, must be purchased in advance, and will support the organization’s nonprofit mission to bring new life to heritage buildings. The property’s beautiful rhododendrons are likely to be in full bloom at the time. The event will be held rain or shine and no dogs are allowed. RSVP online at landmarktrustusa.org/events.

As covid safety measures, the tour will be self-guided with informational handouts, and visitors will be required to wear masks and observe social distancing.

Built for Rudyard Kipling in 1892, Naulakha is a National Historic Landmark. The famed author wrote The Jungle Book, Captains Courageous, and portions of the Just So Stories in this house. Much of Kipling’s original furniture remains, and the entire house has been meticulously restored and maintained in a style that matches the historic period when the house was built. Naulakha sits at the top of a tree-lined hill, with sweeping views of the Connecticut River Valley. On the grounds are a tunnel of rhododendron bushes, gardens, a stone pergola, and a clay tennis court. Visitors can also tour Kipling’s Carriage House, another of The Landmark Trust USA’s historic vacation rentals, where Kipling’s coachman Matthew Howard lived, as well as the Barn Museum—once home to Kipling’s horses Nip and Tuck—that now serves as a mini-museum of his family’s life in Vermont.