Holnicote (pronounced "Hunnicutt") in the parish of Selworthy, West Somerset, England, is a historic estate consisting of 12,420 acres (5,026 hectares) of land, much situated within the Exmoor National Park. There have been several houses on the estate over the last 500 years. In 1705 a new mansion was built which was burned down in 1779. It was rebuilt as a hunting lodge and survived until another fire in 1851 and replaced ten years later. It became one of the centres for the Devon and Somerset Staghounds. The main building was damaged by another fire in 1941. The house and surrounding estate were given to the National Trust in 1944 by Sir Richard Thomas Dyke Acland, 15th Baronet. The house is now operated as an hotel. The surrounding land which includes Dunkery and Selworthy Beacons, and the villages and hamlets of Selworthy, Allerford, Bossington, Horner and Luccombe as well as the Dunkery and Horner Woods National Nature Reserve contains more than of footpaths and bridleways. In the 13th and 14th centuries the estate was held by the de Holne family. During the 17th century the Staynings were lords of the manor and in the 18th descendants of FitzMartin by then known as the Martyn family had taken over. William Martin sold Holnicote to William Blackford and it descended through his family and then passed to the Dyke family. Sir Thomas Acland married into the family and added the surname to become Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 7th Baronet and it remained in his family until the donation in 1944. History Early Alternative derivations of the name Holnicote, which was spelled variously as Honecote, Hunecote or Hunecota, have been suggested. It may relate to holegn, the Anglo-Saxon word for holly. Eilert Ekwall supports the claim that places which start Holne come from the Old English holegn meaning holly, while Stephen Robinson, in his book on local place names prefers an explanation "The Honey Cottage" from the Old English honeg and cot. In the 19th century, the Rector of Selworthy, the Rev. F. Hancock, who was said to have extensively studied the place-names of his parish, preferred the old English personal name Hùn for the first element. There are several references in the Domesday Book to Honecote, Hunnecota or Hunecota in the hundred of Carhampton. One records land held by one William of the tenant-in-chief, Roger de Corcelle; prior to the Norman Conquest,