Cartmel · three Michelin stars
Staying at L’Enclume —
a local guide
From the people who drive these roads every day
Cartmel · three Michelin stars
From the people who drive these roads every day
Michelin
Three starsand a Green Star
Cartmel Priory
A few minuteson foot
Holker Hall
A short drivea tour destination of ours
Private full day
£915per group, collected
Nearest pickups
40 minnorth
Small groups
7guests at most
A private full day from L’Enclume
A full-day private tour, collected where you are staying, for your party alone — or a bespoke tour planned around your stay. Tell us you are staying at L’Enclume and we confirm the pickup and times.
Book a private full day Plan a bespoke tourPrivate full day £915 per group · bespoke from £459
L'Enclume's rooms are scattered through Cartmel rather than gathered in one building, which means a stay here is a stay in the village itself. The restaurant holds three Michelin stars — the first in the North of England to do so — along with a Michelin Green Star for sustainability, and it occupies a former blacksmith's shop whose building goes back to the thirteenth century. This guide covers the daylight hours.
L'Enclume holds three Michelin Stars and a Michelin Green Star. How to plan a day around a table here, and see the Michelin Collection for the full picture across the county.
Simon Rogan opened L'Enclume in 2002 in a village most people had never heard of, and took a first Michelin star in 2005, a second in 2013 and a third in 2022 — the first restaurant in the North of England to hold three. The Green Star alongside is arguably the more interesting one: it recognises sustainability, and it exists here because of Our Farm, the twelve-acre holding in the Cartmel Valley that supplies the kitchen with produce picked the same morning.
The name means 'the anvil', for the blacksmith's shop the restaurant occupies. The anvil is still in the dining room.
It is really unusual: a village of a few hundred people containing a three-star restaurant, a second Michelin-starred restaurant in Rogan & Co, the Aulis chef's table, a shop, and development kitchens. Room bookings include breakfast at Rogan & Co. If you are here for the food, you can eat extremely well for several days without leaving the village — and Simon Rogan's Henrock at Linthwaite House is up at Bowness if you want a fourth.
Cartmel Priory was founded around 1190 and by rights should have been destroyed with the rest in the 1530s. It survived because part of the building had long served as the parish church, and 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. It takes twenty minutes and it is free, and the fifteenth-century east window alone justifies the walk.
Cartmel Racecourse runs a handful of National Hunt meetings a year through the village fields, and they have the character of a village fete that got out of hand. If your dates coincide, book everything else well ahead. Holker Hall, a short drive off, has award-winning gardens and one of the finest Victorian interiors in the north — and we run tours there.
Our small-group pickups are around forty minutes north. From Cartmel, a private full day collected at your door is generally the easier arrangement.
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 small-group pickups are around forty minutes north.
Our Farm moves onto its autumn harvest through October, and the effect on the tasting menu is one of the more interesting reasons to time a stay for this season — game, roots and the last of the orchard fruit appearing across all four Rogan kitchens in the village at once, each dish carrying the particular earthiness of a Cartmel Valley autumn. Cartmel Racecourse runs some of its best-attended National Hunt fixtures of the year through the autumn and into winter — hooves thundering past, the crowd roaring, the whole village briefly transformed — so check the calendar before booking if you want the quieter version instead.
The priory, meanwhile, is arguably at its best now: the great east window catching low, honeyed autumn light and scattering it across eight hundred years of stone, and the churchyard trees turning slowly overhead, leaves drifting down onto ancient graves. Step inside on a cold afternoon and the contrast is immediate — the chill outside giving way to something older and stiller, centuries of quiet held in the walls.
For what's open, what's turning and the tours that suit the season, see our guide to the Lake District in autumn.
From Cartmel, a day planned around your stay saves the drive north entirely, and it means nobody has to think about driving home after dinner.
No departure time, and the route shaped around your party. Well-behaved dogs are welcome aboard by 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.
Three, plus a Michelin Green Star for sustainability. The stars came in 2005, 2013 and 2022, making it the first restaurant in the North of England to hold three.
Scattered around Cartmel rather than in one building, all within walking distance of the restaurant. Bookings include breakfast at Rogan & Co.
A great deal for its size — Rogan & Co is also Michelin-starred, Aulis is the chef's table, and the village pubs are good.
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 you are staying at L’Enclume 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 the rooms 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: L'Enclume; Cartmel Priory; Holker Hall & Gardens.
Lake District Tours is an independent local tour company based in Kendal. This guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by L'Enclume.
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.
