The 15 best pubs in the Lake District
The Lake District is rich with atmospheric pubs and coaching inns, many seemingly unchanged for centuries – and that's their charm. Don't expect sleek looks and fancy sound systems; do expect toasty fires, well-worn chairs, beamed ceilings and a cheery scruffiness. In the remoter villages and dales many have beer gardens with cracking views. Most stock a good range of locally brewed beers, and several hold regular beer festivals. Look out for local gins; The Lakes Distillery, near Bassenthwaite Lake, also produces vodka and whisky.
For further Lake District inspiration, see our guides to the area's best hotels, restaurants, things to do and walks. Use our expert guide to plan the perfect holiday in the Lake District.
Find a pub by area
Coniston and Langdale
Old Dungeon Ghyll
Anyone who has walked or climbed in the Lake District has heard of the Old Dungeon Ghyll - or ODG, as it’s known - one of the area’s classic walkers’ watering holes. Its views are knock-out: Langdale Pikes on one side, Bowfell and Crinkle Crags on the other. The hotel part is rather staid, but you’ll want the low-ceilinged Climbers Bar, a converted cow-barn with white-washed walls, blackened beams and, come winter, a huge fire in the range. Local ales, decent malts, live music in the week - occasionally an open-mic night - it’s a real unreconstructed pub. Quiet it ain’t.
Contact: odg.co.uk
Britannia Inn
The Britannia dominates the tiny village of Elterwater from its position perched above the bowling green. You'll spot it by its whitewashed walls and jaunty blue sailing-ship pub sign. Inside, it's cheerily traditional with low-ceilinged bar, wooden settles, copper-topped tables and red-leather stools. The local, hand-pumped ales usually include Coniston Brewery’s Bluebird Bitter and Britannia Special, the latter produced specially for the pub. If it's warm, take a seat on the flagged terrace looking towards the river - where there’s a pleasant riverside walk to Skelwith Bridge and back – and if sheep wander by, don’t worry, you’ve not had one too many Specials.
Contact: thebritanniainn.com
The Black Bull
In the centre of Coniston village, this 17th-century former coaching inn is everything a dog- and family-friendly traditional Lakeland village hostelry should be: exposed stone walls, beams, slate flooring and log-burning stove, plus a large stone-flagged outside seating area for watching the world go by. The inn’s big draw, however, is the on-site microbrewery (Coniston Brewing Company) producing award-winners such as Bluebird Bitter (in honour of water-speed record-holder Donald Campbell’s boat that raced on Coniston Water), as well as pale ales, stouts and lagers. After a shimmy up the big local fell, Coniston Old Man, you’ll deserve a pint of its namesake ale.
Contact: blackbullconiston.co.uk
Lanty Slee’s
This curious little place, built on the site of a former wayside chapel and overlooking Elterwater Common in Langdale, makes an intriguing alternative to typical Lakeland pubs. More bar than pub, it’s a tiny two-room affair with open-timber ceiling, light-wood flooring and tables, and stools at the bar. Spirits and cocktails are its thing; it’s named after an infamous 19th-century quarryman and smuggler, Lanty Slee, who hid numerous illicit stills throughout the local valleys. The bar produces its own range in his honour, including Langdale Gin, Moss Rigg (a single malt) and Wrynose (a honey and marmalade rum). Asian-style tapas and sharing boards are also offered.
Contact: lantyslee.com
Outlying areas
Wasdale Head Inn
At the head of Wasdale, where the road runs out, for many mountain-lovers this is the heart of the real Lake District; it’s surrounded by some of the Lakes’ most majestic fells including Great Gable and Scafell Pike. Not surprisingly, it’s a hearty, outdoors-adventurers’ sort of pub with flagged floors, open beams, cosy wooden booths and vintage photographs of dare-devil rock-climbers. Serving around six local ales, plus a robust menu, it’s just the spot to share tales of your day’s exploits and plan the next. In the summer, there’s a riverside terrace.
Contact: wasdale.com
Kirkstile Inn
Sitting between quiet Loweswater and slightly busier Crummock Water, on a wiggle of narrow roads, this place gets little passing trade: you have to know it’s there. A typical Lakeland coaching inn, all whitewashed walls and black window mouldings, it's everything you'd expect with beamed ceilings, exposed-stone walls, horse brasses and copper kettles, solid wood tables and red-cushioned settles. Choose one of the six real ales – their own-brew Loweswater Gold a sure-fire winner – and take a seat in one of the cosy bars. There’s also a riverside terrace with, opposite, the slopes of the magnificent Melbreak Fell.
Contact: kirkstile.com
The Old Crown
Britain’s first co-operatively owned pub, sitting opposite the village green in Hesket Newmarket, is simple, unpretentious and cosily cluttered – think assorted bric-a-brac, mountaineering gear, wood-burning stove – with a warm and friendly welcome. And there’s a co-operatively owned brewery in the converted barn at the rear to ensure it never runs out of beer, from the full-bodied stout, Black Sail, and smooth Helvellyn Gold to the fruity Doris’ 90th Birthday Ale. There are a couple of separate dining areas serving simple, filling food. Friday early evening can be noisy, when many of the shareholders gather to put the world to rights.
Contact: theoldcrownpub.co.uk
Keswick and the north
The Pocket
Squeezed in between bigger cafes and giftshops on popular Lake Road – which does, indeed, lead to Derwentwater – this bright little space, with its big and inviting street-facing windows, is well-named. You walk straight off the street into a room crammed with scrubbed-wood tables and chairs beneath open girders, an open-kitchen serving up sourdough pizzas at the far end and a tiny bar with 10 beers (mainly local) on tap, bottled Belgian and German beers, plus Cumbrian gins amongst the spirits. There’s likely to be a live music session underway, too. Not a place for a romantic tryst.
Contact: thepocketkeswick.co.uk
The Bitter End
This aptly named, real-ale pub in truth gets its name from the nearby ‘Bitter Beck’. But it’s a fortuitous name for a solid, traditional-English pub - plenty of dark wood, vintage photographs of Cockermouth and advertising signs – with around six hand-pulled cask ales and a wide range of bottled craft beers, from both the UK and abroad including Belgium, Austria and Russia. There’s also a growing list of craft gins. Food is traditional and filling, and if you come on Sunday, the lunchtime roasts are available into the evening.
Contact: bitterend.co.uk
Windermere and around
The Mortal Man
Although only two miles from busy Windermere, Troutbeck village is mostly off the tourist radar yet enjoys fine views down to the lake with the Mortal Man’s beer garden having the best. Soak up the evening sun here after a day’s walking – you can do the Kentmere round or Wansfell Pike from the pub – or relax in the bar, an old-fashioned affair of beams, red carpet, solid-wood tables and open fires. Locally brewed cask ales are supplemented by changing guest beers, plus there’s a good range of craft ciders. There’s regular folk music or hunker down over a game of chess.
Contact: themortalman.co.uk
Tower Bank Arms
It comes as no surprise that this cottagey looking pub, with its neat green-and-white paintwork, roses around the door, stack of logs and large clock over the porch, featured in one of Beatrix Potter's books: The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck. Indeed, the author’s house is just up the road. Inside it's as tickety-boo as you'd expect with oak beams, slate floor and jolly fire in an old black range. The five regularly changing beers come from within a two- to three-mile radius and there's a small beer garden to one side.
Contact: towerbankarms.co.uk
Hole in t’Wall
Proudly declaring itself the oldest pub in Bowness – and who is to argue, with a pedigree going back to 1612 – this whitewashed inn (formerly New Hall Inn) tucked away from the crowds in ‘Old Bowness’ is resolutely unreconstructed. With stone-flagged floors, black-treacle-coloured oak panelling, wonky low beams, varnished wood tables and sturdy chairs, every space is crammed with bric-a-brac: brass pans, copper kettles, stuffed rabbits and painted plates while tankards and china chamber pots hang from the ceiling. The bar serves Stockport-brewery Robinson’s ales plus keeps a good range of gins and an expanding range of rums. Food is homely – the ale pie and ploughman’s very popular – and there’s a heated outside terrace.
Contact: holeintwall.co.uk
Grasmere and Rydal Water
Tweedies Bar
If it’s summer, you’ll be out in this pub’s beer garden, one of the largest in the Lake District and perfectly pitched for dozing in the afternoon or catching sunsets; it it’s winter, you’ll be cosying up around the log-burning stove in the slate-flagged bar. In the centre of pretty Grasmere, Tweedies Bar has a rugged, cheery feel, and welcomes dogs, children, muddy walkers as well as hardened beer-drinkers – the bar stocks around 15 real and craft ales (predominantly northern and Scottish), ciders and perries. Check out the beer mats plastering the walls, and if you’re hungry, try one of its famous burgers or sharing platters.
Contact: tweediesgrasmere.com/tweedies-bar
Southern Lakeland
The Hare and Hounds
In quiet Levens village, this 16th-century former coaching inn has been injected with new life, and buzz, by its young owners without losing its traditional charm. A series of snugs with slate and polished-wood floors, rough plaster walls and low-beamed ceilings surround the tiny traditional oak bar. The whole is brightened with vintage-y chairs and occasional pea-green walls. Five local cask ales are usually on offer as well as craft beers plus some inventive cocktails. Modern comfort food – hand-made pizzas a speciality – is served in the breezy dining room, created out of a former garage, and there’s an attractive tiered terrace with views to Whitbarrow Scar.
Contact: hareandhoundslevens.co.uk
The Masons Arms
This is a traditional Lakeland pub in every sense: whitewashed former 17th-century farmhouse, low-beamed ceilings, flagged and wooden floors, open fires and a series of small snugs furnished with mis-matched chairs, wooden settles and scrubbed tables. The creamy walls are crammed with mirrors and hunting prints. As a brewery-managed pub (Stockport-based Robinson's), cask ales are the brewery's own plus regularly changing guest beers. There’s a good wine and gin selection, including the local, long-established damson gin. Even on chilly days, people can’t resist its terrace with far-reaching views over the peaceful Winster valley. Newcomers beware: it sits on a devilish hairpin bend.
Contact: masonsarmsstrawberrybank.co.uk
How we choose
Every bar, venue or experience in this curated list has been tried and tested by our destination expert, who has visited to provide you with their insider perspective. We cover a range of budgets and styles, from casual pubs to exquisite cocktail bars – to best suit every type of traveller – and consider the service, drinks, atmosphere and price in our recommendations. We update this list regularly to keep up with the latest openings and provide up to date recommendations.
