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 genuinely distinctive places to stay in the whole area.
Quick Facts
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 honest 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 scheduled tours depart Windermere station, Bowness Pier 1 and Ambleside library — around forty minutes north. Oxenholme, for our full-day tours, is a similar run. Private days collect at your accommodation, which from this far south is generally the easier arrangement.
The grand sweep: ten lakes, the high passes between them, and an Ullswater Steamers cruise exclusive to this tour. If a celebration stay deserves one great day out, this is it.
See dates & bookCollected at the door, your party only, the day shaped to you — literary landscapes, hidden valleys, or simply the most beautiful roads we know. Well-behaved dogs are welcome aboard in our vehicle crates.
Enquire about a private dayDove Cottage at Grasmere — entry included as standard — and the valleys that made the poems, with Dora's Field carpeted gold in daffodil season. The right literary day for this most Georgian of addresses.
See dates & bookAcross the lake to Hill Top and Near Sawrey, with our illustration-matching walk through the village lanes — back for a long lakeside lunch.
See dates & bookThe afternoon version crosses the lake by boat rather than by road — worth choosing if you'd like the crossing itself to be part of the day.
See dates & bookA slow hall morning, then eight lakes and their valleys at a seven-seat pace — the most civilised way to spend a Lakeland afternoon.
See dates & bookThe same eight lakes as the afternoon tour, run the opposite way round in the morning — ideal if you'd rather keep your afternoon free for the lawns.
See dates & bookA full literary day east to Haworth — the Parsonage, the cobbled village, and the moors that gave Wuthering Heights its weather, newly magnetic with the recent film. Oxenholme pickup available.
See dates & bookInto the Dales for Grassington's "Darrowby", the Wensleydale Creamery, Kilnsey Crag and Bolton Abbey — filming locations brought to life around you with live scene technology.
See dates & bookFrom Cartmel a private day saves the drive north entirely — we collect at your accommodation and shape the route around your party. Well-behaved dogs are welcome aboard, 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.
Windermere station, Bowness Pier 1 and Ambleside library, around forty minutes north. On private tours we can usually collect you at your accommodation.
We are an independent local tour operator. This guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by any hotel, inn or cottage owner in Cartmel.