Villa Deia

Villa Deia occupies a terraced hillside above the village that has attracted writers, artists, and musicians since Robert Graves settled here in the 1930s. The house is a traditional Mallorcan possessio - a stone manor dating to the 17th century with walls a metre thick, original wooden shutters, and a covered loggia that overlooks the village rooftops and the Mediterranean 400 metres below. The current owners, an Anglo-Spanish couple, spent four years restoring the property with a mandate to preserve every original feature while installing the modern comforts that a GBP 6,000-per-night guest expects. The ground floor centres on a great room with a vaulted stone ceiling, a working fireplace, and bookshelves stocked with first editions of Graves's Mallorcan works. The kitchen, installed behind the original stone archway, is built around a French La Canche range and a 3-metre island of reclaimed chestnut. A resident chef uses this kitchen daily, sourcing ingredients from the Deia organic cooperative and the Soller fish market 15 minutes down the mountain road. Six bedrooms are arranged across two upper floors. The master suite, in what was originally the manor's chapel, retains the arched window and a painted ceiling that was uncovered during restoration beneath four layers of whitewash. Three further bedrooms on the first floor share a sitting room with mountain views. Two additional bedrooms occupy a renovated watchtower at the corner of the property, accessed by an external stone staircase and ideal for guests who want independence. The garden descends in olive-tree terraces to a 15-metre pool carved into the hillside, with a view corridor cut through the trees to frame the sea. A stone pool house contains changing rooms and a bar. Below the pool, the terraces continue through citrus groves to a boundary wall where a gate opens onto the public path to Cala Deia, a 25-minute walk down to the small pebble cove with two restaurants serving fresh fish. Deia village is a 5-minute walk uphill, with galleries, a small archaeological museum, and the restaurant Ca's Xorc on the road to Valldemossa. Palma is 40 minutes by car through the Tramuntana tunnels.