A PROPOSAL to build two holiday cottages in the style of Hobbit homes has been unveiled.

The owners of Thorndale Trout Farm said the homes would be built as described by JRR Tolkien in The Hobbit – built into a hillside and roofed over with turf.

The homes would be built overlooking a pond at the site in Melsonby, near Richmond, which was once a quarry before becoming a trout hatchery, which closed several years ago.

Blueprints for the properties show they would include a bedroom, bathroom, sitting room and dining kitchen.

The applicant said the homes would be eco-friendly, with photo-voltaic solar panels and rainwater collected for flushing toilets, and only be visible from the site.

The application states as there is relatively high ground on either side of the quarry, "the site lends itself to constructing the cabins with their backs to the high ground and bringing the ground over the buildings, creating the illusion of them being built into a hillside with only the front elevation open to view".

Last year, Carol Hopkinson and her partner Karl Wragg unveiled the first of seven Tolkien-inspired hideaways to be built at Golden Hill Farm on the North York Moors and said it had immediately proved popular with fans of the novels.

The Melsonby application is scheduled to be considered by the authority in the autumn.