Staying in · Cartmel
Staying in Cartmel —
A Local Guide
From the people who drive these roads every day
Staying in · Cartmel
From the people who drive these roads every day
The priory
12th centurysurvived the Dissolution
Racing
In the villagefields
Nearest pickup
40 minnorth
Private full day
£915per group, collected
Holker Hall
A short driveand the Winter Garden
Small groups
7guests at most
A private full day from Cartmel
A full-day private tour, collected where you are staying, for your party alone — or a bespoke tour planned around your stay. Tell us where you are staying and we confirm the pickup and times.
Book a private full day Plan a bespoke tourPrivate full day £915 per group · bespoke from £459
Cartmel is a village of a few hundred people with a twelfth-century priory the size of a small cathedral, a National Hunt racecourse in the middle of it, and a food reputation that reaches a great deal further than Cumbria. It sits just outside the national park south of Newby Bridge, and it is one of the really distinctive places to stay in the whole area.
Cartmel Priory was founded around 1190, and by rights it should have gone the way of Furness and Shap when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries. It survived because part of the building had long served as the parish church — so when the commissioners came, the villagers argued, successfully, that they could not lose their church. The monastic buildings went; the great church stayed, and it is still in use today.
Go in. It is startlingly large for the village around it, the fifteenth-century east window is superb, and the misericords under the choir stalls are worth asking about.
Cartmel Racecourse holds a handful of National Hunt meetings a year, and they are unlike racing anywhere else: the course runs through the village fields, the crowd is enormous relative to the population, and the whole thing has the character of a village fete that got out of hand. If your stay coincides with a meeting, go — and book everything else well ahead, because the village fills completely.
Cartmel is famous for it, and the village shop here turned it into a national product sold everywhere. Whether it was invented here is another matter — the credit for that generally goes to Sharrow Bay on Ullswater, which was doing it decades earlier. The fair position is that Sharrow Bay is usually credited with the invention and Cartmel with making it famous. Both are worth eating.
A short drive away, Holker Hall has been in the Cavendish family for generations and has award-winning gardens, a very fine Victorian interior, and one of the largest lime trees in Britain. We run tours there, and from a Cartmel base it is an obvious half-day.
Our nearest small-group pickup is around forty minutes north; a private full day starts from where you are staying. A private full day starts from where you are staying.
From here, any of the full-day tours can run privately, collected where you are staying, and the morning and afternoon tours pair into one full day; or we plan a bespoke tour around your stay. If you have a car, our nearest small-group pickup is around forty minutes north.
From Cartmel a day of your own saves the drive north entirely — we plan the day around where you are staying and shape the route around your party. Well-behaved dogs are welcome aboard by prior arrangement, travelling safely in our vehicle crates.
Not sure which route suits your plans, or want a day built entirely from scratch — a family reunion, a wedding anniversary, scattering ashes somewhere that mattered? Tell us what you have in mind and we'll design a day around it — see our guide to celebrating a special occasion for ideas, or get in touch directly.
It was founded as an Augustinian priory around 1190. It survived the Dissolution because part of the building served as the parish church, so the village successfully argued it could not be taken away.
It made it famous, and the village shop turned it into a national product. The invention is generally credited to Sharrow Bay on Ullswater, which was serving it earlier.
The village fills completely. If your stay coincides with a meeting, book restaurants and anything else well in advance — and go to the racing, because it is unlike anywhere else.
Our private tours collect in Kendal, Windermere, Bowness, Ambleside, Grasmere and Oxenholme, and Cartmel sits outside that. From here a private tour runs as a full day, from £915 for the group, collected where you are staying; or we plan a bespoke tour around your stay. Tell us where you are staying, and we confirm the pickup and times before anything is booked. For a small-group seat, our nearest pickup is around forty minutes north.
Our private tours collect in Kendal, Windermere, Bowness, Ambleside, Grasmere and Oxenholme, and Cartmel sits outside that, so from here a private tour runs as a full day, collected where you are staying, or we plan a bespoke tour around your stay.
A private full day is £915 for the group, your own guide and vehicle, with nobody aboard you did not bring. Tell us where you are staying and we confirm the pickup and times before anything is booked.
Arriving by train? We can collect your party at the station, go straight out on tour, and bring you to your accommodation at the end of the day.
Book a private full dayTailor-made for each booking, half day from £459 or full day from £942 per group: the places and the people you most want to see.
Plan a bespoke tourSources: Cartmel Priory; Cartmel Racecourse; Holker Hall & Gardens.
Lake District Tours is an independent local tour company based in Kendal. This guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of the places it mentions.
This page was checked by Gillian in .
Photographs are of the area rather than the hotel itself. Tour photographs are credited on each tour page.
