Tewitfield · on the Lancaster Canal
Things to do near Longlands —
a local guide
From the people who drive these roads every day
Tewitfield · on the Lancaster Canal
From the people who drive these roads every day
The canal
At the doorTewitfield Locks
Leighton Moss
10 minthe RSPB reedbeds
Nearest pickup
Oxenholmestation, 20 min
Private full day
£915per group, collected
Kendal
20 minnorth
Small groups
7guests at most
A private full day from Longlands
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 Longlands and we confirm the pickup and times.
Book a private full day Plan a bespoke tourPrivate full day £915 per group · bespoke from £459
Longlands sits at Tewitfield, on the Lancashire side of the border a minute from junction 35 of the M6, beside the point where the Lancaster Canal stops — it once ran on to Kendal, and the flight of locks behind the marina is where the motorway cut it in two. It is a family-run inn with eleven rooms in the main building and half a dozen stone cottages alongside, a dog-friendly bar in the old coach house, and a kitchen that has earned its reputation locally. What makes it useful is where it is: the canal towpath from the door, the Arnside and Silverdale coast with its bird reserves ten minutes west, Carnforth's famous station three miles away, and Kendal — the gateway to the Lakes — twenty minutes up the road. This guide is for a base that gives you three counties without moving the car.
The Lancaster Canal was built at the end of the eighteenth century to carry coal north and limestone south, and in 1819 it reached Kendal. Then the railways came, then the motorway, and in the 1960s the M6 was driven across it here at Tewitfield, cutting the top fourteen miles off from the rest. The flight of eight locks behind the marina, the only locks on the whole canal, now leads to a dead end of water. It is a strange and rather beautiful place — the towpath runs south from the door towards Carnforth and Lancaster past the boats moored in the marina, flat and quiet, with the Lakeland fells appearing over the hedges to the north. Bring a bicycle; the towpath is made for one.
Ten minutes west is a corner of England most visitors to the Lakes drive straight past: the Arnside and Silverdale coast, a limestone country of woods, cliffs and salt marsh on the edge of Morecambe Bay. Leighton Moss is its heart — the RSPB's largest reedbed in the north-west, with bitterns booming in spring, otters, marsh harriers and, in autumn, starlings by the hundred thousand coming in to roost. Beside it is Leighton Hall, the Gillow furniture family's castellated house, with birds of prey flown on the lawn on summer afternoons. Arnside Knott, the little hill above the estuary, gives the best view of the bay and the Lakeland fells for twenty minutes' walking.
Carnforth station, three miles away, is where David Lean filmed Brief Encounter in 1945; the refreshment room has been restored to how it looked in the film, and the clock is the one Celia Johnson kept glancing at. North of it the road runs through Burton-in-Kendal and up into Cumbria, past Levens Hall with its topiary garden and Sizergh Castle with its rock garden, to Kendal itself — the grey market town where the Lakes begin, with the castle on its hill and the mint cake in its shops. From there the whole of the national park is in front of you, and that is what the next section is for.
From Tewitfield the Lakes are a day trip, and the easiest way to make one is Oxenholme station, about twenty minutes north, which is a pickup on some of our tours — the Ten Lakes with its Ullswater cruise, Brontë Country and All Creatures Great and Small. Windermere station, for the rest, is about forty minutes. 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 Oxenholme station, about twenty minutes north, for some of our tours.
From the border a day of your own earns its keep — planned around where you are staying, no drive to a departure point, and a full day built around whether you want the lakes, the Dales, or the great houses between here and Windermere. Well-behaved dogs are welcome aboard our private tours 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.
Arriving: M6 junction 35 is a minute away — about the easiest arrival in this guide; Carnforth station is three miles, on the line from Lancaster
Parking: free at the inn, and plenty of it
Oxenholme: about twenty minutes by car, on the West Coast Main Line — useful both for arriving and for our full-day tour pickups
Leighton Moss: check the RSPB for what is showing — the starling roost is an autumn and winter spectacle
Ages: our tours suit adults and older children, about seven and up.
At Tewitfield, just off junction 35 of the M6 on the road towards Burton-in-Kendal, beside the Lancaster Canal and Tewitfield Marina — about three miles from Carnforth and twelve from Kendal.
Our private tours collect in Kendal, Windermere, Bowness, Ambleside, Grasmere and Oxenholme, and Tewitfield 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 Oxenholme station, about twenty minutes north, for some of our tours.
No — it is just over the border in Lancashire, about twenty minutes south of Kendal and forty from Windermere, which makes it a practical base for day trips into the national park.
The Lancaster Canal and its locks from the door, Leighton Moss nature reserve and Leighton Hall about ten minutes away, Carnforth station of Brief Encounter fame, and Levens Hall and Sizergh Castle on the road north to Kendal.
Our private tours collect in Kendal, Windermere, Bowness, Ambleside, Grasmere and Oxenholme, and Tewitfield 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 Longlands 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 inn 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: Longlands Inn and Restaurant; RSPB Leighton Moss; Leighton Hall; Lake District National Park Authority.
Lake District Tours is an independent local tour company based in Kendal. This guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by Longlands Inn.
This page was checked by Gillian in .
Levens Hall topiary: Kevin Waterhouse, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0. Photographs are of the area rather than the hotel itself. Tour photographs are credited on each tour page.
