Eight rooms in a small Victorian-style inn on the western shore of Lake Glenville, each one named for a nineteenth-century author, ten minutes north of Cashiers village and a long way from any chain.
"Eight rooms, each one a literary conceit, a long porch that looks at Lake Glenville and the Blue Ridge beyond it. The kind of inn that is small enough to remember your coffee order on day two and old enough to know why that matters."
Innisfree sits on a tucked lot at the end of a short residential lane on the western shore of Lake Glenville, the largest lake east of the Mississippi above 3,500 feet. The address is technically Glenville rather than Cashiers proper, but the village center is a ten-minute drive on Highway 107 and most guests treat the two as a single destination. The inn occupies a Victorian-style main house, a separate lakeside cottage cluster, and a small carriage building, with the whole grouping arranged around lawns that fall to the water. The aesthetic is reading-room rather than country-cute: dark wood, leather wingbacks, decanters, the smell of old paper and woodsmoke.
The eight accommodations are each named for a writer (Tennyson, Thoreau, Austen, Hawthorne, Dickens, Browning, Whitman, Wordsworth) and decorated to gesture at that writer's milieu rather than to recreate it. Rooms open to furnished balconies or patios; several include working fireplaces, claw-foot tubs, and four-poster beds. The standard category is generous by inn standards at roughly 320 square feet; the largest cottage stretches to 700 square feet with a private lake-facing deck. Linens are heavy cotton, the breakfast is plated and silent if you wish, and the front desk is staffed by the owners more often than not.
There is no restaurant on property and that is the point. Breakfast runs every morning in the conservatory, an afternoon tea (or sherry, depending on the season) is laid in the library, and dinner is a matter of driving ten minutes back to Cashiers village for The Orchard, Slab Town Pizza, or the High Hampton dining room. What the inn does instead is rowboats, canoes, and a private dock with a small swimming float; guests who want a quiet midweek do not leave the property at all. The garden runs to perennials and roses in summer; the maples turn fluorescent in October and book the inn out a year in advance.
Service across the property is small-inn precise rather than hotel-grand. The owners know which room you booked, they recognize you on arrival, and the daily turn-down includes a hand-written note about the weather and the next day's breakfast. WiFi is throughout and reliable for a property of this size; cell reception varies depending on which side of the ridge you are on. The inn does not accept guests under sixteen, which is the single most important reservation note for prospective bookers and the reason Innisfree reads as the quiet alternative to its larger, family-oriented neighbours.
For a quiet anniversary in the Southern Highlands, Innisfree is the address. Book the Tennyson or the lake-facing cottage for a milestone year; the no-children policy means the inn at full occupancy is still hushed; the rowboat sequence at sunset is the obvious gesture; and the High Hampton dining room is ten minutes away for the dinner you do not want to cook yourself. The kind of stay that does not need a program.
Innisfree is exceptional for a solo week. The reading-room aesthetic, the library of first editions, the rowboat, and the afternoon tea make a small daily rhythm that holds the week together without any structured program. Most repeat solo guests book the Austen, the inn's smallest single, for five to seven nights and spend the days writing, walking the Bear Pen trail, and drinking coffee on the porch.
For couples who want the Southern Highlands without the resort-honeymoon staging, Innisfree is the right call. The lakeside cottage gives complete privacy with its own deck and outdoor shower; in-room breakfast is delivered on request; the inn arranges a champagne dinner cruise on Lake Glenville with the local marina that has become a small honeymoon tradition.
108 Innisfree Drive
Glenville, NC 28736
United States
Ten minutes north of Cashiers village on NC-107; one hour from Asheville Regional Airport
Eight rooms and cottages
Standard rooms from $214/night
Lake-facing rooms from $295/night
Lakeside cottage from $395/night
Two-night minimum on weekends
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 11:00 AM
Adults only (16+); breakfast included
Private lake frontage with dock and swimming float
Rowboats and canoes complimentary
Plated breakfast and afternoon tea
Library with first editions and decanters
Working fireplaces in several rooms
Complimentary WiFi throughout
From $214/night. Books out a year ahead for October leaf weeks; three to four months for summer weekends; mid-week shoulder availability in May and November is the inn's quietest, best-value window.
Compare Room Rates →The 1933 Adirondack-style mountain resort on 1,400 acres, fully restored by Sandy Beall, the village benchmark.
The 1915 Swiss-style mansion on Lake Toxaway, thirty rooms and a private cruise boat, twenty minutes from Cashiers.
A small boutique hotel and brewery on NC-107 in the village center, the closest in-town address.
A ranked shortlist, a special offer worth booking, and the overpriced stay to skip. Straight from the editors.