Eat and drink · Gastropub
The Drunken Duck Inn
Barngates, Ambleside
A Lakes institution on the hillside at Barngates, with a lively bar, good food, rooms and wide views towards the Langdale Pikes.
Nearby
Rothay Manor
Modern British, Ambleside, dogs welcome££££
Elegant Regency-era hotel dining with a seasonal menu that lets the best Cumbrian produce speak for itself.
The Samling
Country House Hotel, Windermere££££
A boutique country house hotel perched on a hillside above Windermere with panoramic lake views. Just 12 rooms means the service is impossibly personal, and the restaurant sources much of its produce from the 67-acre grounds.
Langdale Chase
Lakeside Hotel, Windermere, dogs welcome££££
A Victorian lakeside mansion on the shore of Windermere, welcoming guests since 1891 and given a careful restoration, with AA Rosette dining, a lakeside boathouse and watersports on Windermere.
Walks nearby
Easy · 3.0 km · 38 m up
Tarn Hows circular walk
About 30 minutes
An easy loop on a good path around Tarn Hows, the wooded tarn between Coniston and Hawkshead with the Langdale and Coniston fells behind.
Hard · 19.5 km · 1018 m up
The Fairfield Horseshoe from Ambleside
About 5 hours 30 minutes
One of the great Lakeland rounds: from Ambleside up Nab Scar and over eight tops around the Rydal valley, with Fairfield's summit at the head.
Moderate · 10.2 km · 413 m up
Loughrigg Fell from Ambleside
About 2 hours 30 minutes
Ambleside's own fell: over the knobbly top of Loughrigg, along Loughrigg Terrace above Grasmere, past Rydal Cave and home by the River Rothay.