Lake Glenville

Glenville is a different conversation entirely from Highlands or Cashiers, because the draw is the lake, not a town center. Lake Glenville sits at roughly 3,494 feet in elevation, among the highest-elevation lakes in the eastern United States, with about 1,470 acres of surface area and 26 miles of shoreline for boating, swimming, and long-range mountain views with water in the foreground. Some addresses on this side of the lake carry a Cullowhee, not Glenville, mailing address, which surprises buyers who assume the address always matches the town.

Trillium Links & Lake Club and Mountaintop Golf and Lake Club both give you golf and marina access in the same membership, which is hard to find anywhere else on the Plateau. Homes here range from cove lots to open-water, and the amount of usable shoreline and dock potential varies more than buyers expect from one property to the next.

It's roughly 15 to 30 minutes to Cashiers depending on which part of the lake you're on, so you're trading a bit of proximity for the water. If your family actually wants to be on the lake, not just near mountains, this is where I usually start the search.