Brimstone is the quiet, grown-up corner of the Langdale Estate — sixteen suites with log fires, a Host rather than a reception desk, and complimentary access to the spa that shares its name. It sits in the woods at Elterwater, four miles west of Ambleside, at the entrance to what a good many walkers would call the finest valley in England. This guide covers the valley, the estate's unexpected industrial past, and the days out beyond it.
Quick Facts
The estate around you spent most of the nineteenth century making blasting powder for the Lakeland quarries and mines. The buildings were deliberately spread out and screened behind trees — a sensible precaution, given the product — and that is precisely why the grounds feel so wooded and scattered today rather than laid out like a resort. The millstones, the water-wheel and the odd cannon in the grounds are working relics, not ornaments. It is one of the few genuinely industrial landscapes in the Lakes that has been allowed to soften rather than be cleared.
The Langdale Pikes stand at the head of the valley — Harrison Stickle, Pike o' Stickle and the rest — and the road runs up past the Old Dungeon Ghyll to the dale head. You need not climb anything: the drive or the seasonal Langdale Rambler bus up and back is one of the great short outings in the national park. Elter Water is a twenty-minute stroll, and the level path on to Skelwith Force is easy enough for almost anyone.
Worth stating plainly because it catches people out at booking: no pets of any kind are permitted anywhere on the Langdale Estate. If you are travelling with a dog and have not yet booked, several places in our other area guides welcome them — and well-behaved dogs are welcome on our private tours.
Langdale is magnificent and slightly cut off, which is rather the point of it. When you want the wider national park — the ten lakes, the literary villages, a day over in Yorkshire — our tours do the driving. Ambleside library is your nearest pickup; private days collect at the hotel.
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 & bookThe estate's screening trees, planted originally for safety rather than looks, turn out to be spectacular in October — the same woodland that once hid a working gunpowder mill now blazes gold and rust around the old millstones and water-wheel, damp leaves underfoot, the smell of the valley turning cold and earthy as the light drops. Up the valley, the Langdale Pikes take on a harder, clearer outline once the summer haze finally lifts, their bare rock catching every shift in the weather, and the drive out to the Old Dungeon Ghyll is one of the best short autumn outings in the national park — bracken on the fellsides turning deep, burnt orange against grey stone, the whole valley looking like it's been lit from a fire somewhere just out of sight.
It is also, usefully, the season when Brimstone's spa earns its keep hardest — a warm pool and a wood-fired sauna are a very different, and very welcome, proposition once the valley gets properly cold and the sun drops behind the Pikes by mid-afternoon. Few things beat coming in from a bracing autumn walk to that particular kind of warmth.
From Langdale a private day makes particular sense: you are a fair way from the scheduled pickups, and a private tour collects at the hotel and shapes the route around your party instead. Please note the estate does not accept dogs, so this assumes a dog-free stay.
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.
Car-free: the seasonal Langdale Rambler links Ambleside and the valley, but service is limited — most guests drive in and then leave the car for tour days.
Parking in the valley: the National Trust car parks at Old Dungeon Ghyll and Stickle Ghyll fill very early in season. Before nine, or not at all.
Timing: book tour days with the room — seven seats, summer dates two to three weeks out.
Ages: our tours suit adults and older children, about seven and up.
On the Langdale Estate at Elterwater, in the mouth of Great Langdale, about four miles west of Ambleside.
No. The Langdale Estate does not permit pets of any kind anywhere on the estate, including Brimstone. If you are travelling with a dog, several other places in our accommodation guides are genuinely dog-friendly.
Ambleside library, about four miles east — Windermere station and Bowness Pier 1 are the other two. On private tours we can usually collect you at the hotel.
Guests have complimentary access to Brimstone Spa, along with the Langdale Estate's leisure facilities, and the Stove restaurant and Wainwrights' Inn are both on or beside the estate.
We are an independent local tour operator. This guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by Brimstone or the Langdale Estate.