Rudyard Kipling’s Naulakha

Rudyard Kipling’s Naulakha

Dummerston, Vermont

Sleeps 8 (4 bedrooms) · 3 full baths · 3-night minimum · From $610-$825/night, $3,897-$5,375/week

A National Historic Landmark, Naulakha was built for Rudyard Kipling in 1892. The home has been thoughtfully restored to match its historic appearance during Kipling’s time, which means that guests can sit in the very spot where the famed author wrote The Jungle Book, Captains Courageous, and portions of the Just So Stories.

Naulakha sits at the top of a tree-lined driveway, just off a quiet country road that is nevertheless just 10 minutes from the shops, restaurants, brew pubs, and arts venues of Brattleboro, Vermont, winner of the 2023 Strong Towns Strongest Town contest. This fully furnished three-story house is ideal for family reunions and retreats.

Naulakha shares its beautiful grounds with Kipling’s Carriage House (2 bedrooms) and Naulakha Stable (1 studio bedroom). Rent them together to house up to 14 or individually to suit your needs.

All of our properties include WiFi. ChargePoint EV charging stations are available right next door at scenic Scott Farm.

Add a Local Treat Basket for family retreats or working vacations at Naulakha! Real maple syrup, local apple pie, and more.

Our Stay & Play Golf Package is a great option for stays May-September, combining your overnight stay with golf at Brattleboro Country Club (temporarily on hold).

Read more about the building’s restoration on our Restoration Philosophy page.

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Want to learn more about our important work to secure a climate resilient future for the Naulakha estate? Read all about our Naulakha Campaign here.

Check out the gorgeous flyover and walkthrough from the amazing folks at Journeys ad Jaunts.

While Naulakha is available for overnight or small gathering rental year round, each year on the first weekend in June (June 4-6, 2027), we host our Naulakha Estate and Rhododendron Tour + Cocktail Party fundraiser for daytime visits. Visiting Naulakha and its grounds during the breathtaking blooming of our rhododendron tunnel brings joy to so many each Spring!

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People sledding down a snowy hill next to a large green house.

A cozy sitting area with two wooden chairs with blue cushions and a small table between them, situated on a red patterned rug in front of large windows overlooking a scenic landscape with colorful fall foliage and a cloudy sky.

Features

The first floor includes a gas log fireplace, a dining room, an office, a library, a sitting room, and a fully equipped kitchen with a dishwasher, microwave, breakfast nook, and place settings for 12. There is a washer and dryer in the basement.

The second floor features four bedrooms (sleeping up to eight people), including one bedroom with one double bed and three bedrooms with twin beds. The three full baths are fully furnished with high-quality linens and towels.

On the third floor, you will find a game room with a pool table and a private mini-museum with original furniture and artifacts belonging to the Kiplings.

Naulakha’s extensive grounds offer entertainments in every season. Guests will find gardens, a pergola, a rhododendron tunnel, and on-site or nearby sledding, snowshoeing, hiking, and cross-country ski trails. Note that the clay tennis court will be closed for the 2026 season due to ongoing drainage work at the site.

Half a mile down the road is the 571-acre Scott Farm, a socially responsible business (Certified B Corporation) that is also a property of The Landmark Trust USA. During the fall, visitors can sample 140+ varieties of ecologically grown heirloom apples, from Blue Pearmain (one of Thoreau’s favorites) to Esopus Spitzenburg (beloved by Thomas Jefferson). Pick your own apples or visit the Market to pick up a pie, a jar of freshly pressed cider, or Scott Farm’s apples, pears, plums, grapes, and quince. Located on the farm are stunning stone walls constructed by the expert builders at The Stone Trust, a nonprofit organization whose offices are at Scott Farm and whose mission is to preserve and advance the art and craft of dry stone walling. Scott Farm also has two public Chargepoint EV charging stations right at the farm so you can charge your vehicle at the most scenic charging station in Vermont.

Rates:
Rates range from $610-$825/night or $3,897-$5,375/week based on time of year. Please click Book Now to see the rates for the specific dates you’re interested in.
Monthly rates available on request.
All rates are inclusive of taxes and fees.

Last Minute Special: All new reservations made for stays that take place within one week of the time of booking will receive an automatic 10% discount applied during the reservation process.

Pet Policy: In order to provide a safe and allergen free experience to all our guests, this property does not allow pets. Our Amos Brown House and The Sugarhouse properties are dog friendly and allow up to 2 dogs.

Personal Chef Service: We have hand selected a small number of local personal chefs able to create and prepare individualized menus featuring local ingredients for you during your stay. Please indicate your interest in learning more about personal chef services when you book.

For any questions regarding Naulakha's accommodations or configuration, please email info@landmarktrustusa.org or call (802) 254-6868.

Note: Our Naulakha Campaign work is providing a climate secure future for the property and will necessitate work on and off through early 2027. Current 2026 work scheduled includes a new cedar roof for the pergola (at the end of the Rhododendron Tunnel) on November 9-24. The new roof for Naulakha is scheduled for installation in March and April 2027. Any impact on guests is expected to be minimal.

Kipling’s History

Born in Bombay, India, Kipling spent much of his life in England, but he described his years in Vermont with great fondness. A family dispute forced Kipling to abandon Naulakha in 1896. “There are only two places in the world where I want to live,” he wrote, “Bombay and Brattleboro. And I can’t live in either.”

Kipling won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. He was one of England’s most popular writers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 2019, Christopher Benfey published If: The Untold Story of Kipling’s American Years, a new look at the author’s influence and import.

In his autobiography Something of Myself, Kipling wrote of Naulakha, “Ninety feet was the length of it and thirty the width, on a high foundation of solid mortared rocks which gave us an airy and a skunk-proof basement. The rest was wood, shingled, roof and sides, with dull green hand-split shingles, and the windows were lavish and wide.”

The property’s National Historic Landmark nomination includes the following description:

“Reflecting the eclectic background of its original owner and builder, the celebrated British author Rudyard Kipling, Naulakha is an unusual example of the Shingle Style. The house exhibits elements of Indian bungalow in the broad eaves, Kashmir houseboat with an elaborate carved screen, and Mississippi riverboat in the overall shape. Described, indeed, as a ship by Kipling, Naulakha continues to ‘sail’ across a Dummerston, Vermont hillside and command spectacular easterly views over a sloping meadow to the Connecticut River valley and the mountains of New Hampshire.”

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Testimonials from Naulakha Guests

“Everything at Naulakha was absolutely perfect, well-thought-out, comfortable, and exactly what I had hoped it would be. We lacked for nothing. We loved the English furnishings and the carefully curated collection of books. The restoration was sensitively done and made us feel as if we had gone back in time. We would not have been surprised if either the Kiplings or Arthur Conan Doyle had actually walked through the door at some point. Naulakha was perhaps the best place we have ever stayed in our lives.”

“What a fabulous holiday! The house is exquisitely restored–all the details fascinating. The kitchen is so perfectly equipped. The porch was an oasis of peaceful beauty. Last night we had our dessert out there and watched fireworks off in the distance erupting in the sky.”

“After nine visits this is still a paradise for the body, the soul and the mind. Thank you, Landmark Trust USA.”

“It is fascinating to visit the houses of writers and artists, but all you usually get is an hour’s tour with an absolute prohibition ‘not to touch.’ How wonderful then to sit at Mr. Kipling’s desk and soak in his bath.”

“Thank you so very much for a simply perfect setting for a family gathering. Rudyard Kipling has come alive for me. This is the way literature should be taught: by immersion into a writer’s creative space.”

“Naulakha is a treasure, and after five nights, it is easy to see why this was one of the two favorite places in the world Rudyard Kipling wanted to live. The house and grounds are a place of enchantment, and our grandchildren will have memories to last a lifetime.”

“This was absolutely incredible! We would love to come back again. The work done to preserve this place with all of its period details is very much appreciated. The views, the snowshoeing, spending time in Rudyard’s study, just talking–thank you, thank you!”

“In spite of its large size, Naulakha is so very warm and inviting. It was a chance for my family to be in one place, all together, which does not happen often enough. It was such fun to watch my 8-year-old grandson's expression when he arrived. He loved the house! Every turn he made offered something new to see. And so much to explore outside!”

An excerpt from a lovely letter written by one of our regular guests on the poetry that is a stay at Naulakha:

“For eight years we’ve rented Landmark Trust’s Naulakha, the one-time home of Rudyard Kipling in the Vermont mountains near Brattleboro. It feels like a family spot.

The open-air covered porch at Naulakha faces due south and a weathered red caned rocking chair is my perch this morning. It is a humid day. Since dawn, the sun had been enrobed in clouds. The wind pushes against me. I’m not cold, not hot. My ears are tuned to the rustling of leaves in the oak, maple, birch, and pine forest nearby. The landscape, the feel of the day, and the sound of the forest is all I want…

From my Vermont porch, to the southeast, I consider the landscape that Rudyard Kipling knew and loved as he wrote The Jungle Book. A desk is still placed where his was, under the window in his study just behind me. The view he had, and I have, connects us across time.

…the centuries old simplicity of a rocking chair, a porch, and cooling woods nearby works for me today. Naulakha sits like a ship berthed into an east-facing hill. The eastern meadow below the house collects sun and warm air. Good for winter. Behind and above, the wooded mountainside collects cool forest air. Good for summer. The house separates the two climate systems. Bedrooms fronting the meadow are warm. Rooms with frontage on the forest (another bedroom, the kitchen, a study) are cooler. Below, off towards Brattleboro and the Connecticut river valley, fog sinks from the forest hillsides into the river valley, collecting there. Watching this fog burn off is our early morning entertainment. At night the stars are a go-to pleasure.

To the left of the dining room, there is an angled porch with a bench that is right sized for three or four people stargazing under a shared blanket in the midnight cool. Beyond the meadow, New Hampshire mountains rise, black against star-speckled midnight blue on moonless nights…

Now as the day advances towards noon, the air is semitropical. The rain moves off, the sun comes out, and the wind rises. Shimmering jackets of water on nearby oaks and pines are tossed aside; the wet evaporates off the meadow. The heat of midday means it is time for lunch. I leave my reverie and the porch to get on with my day.”