The Riverside sits exactly where its name says, on the banks of the River Kent a short walk from the middle of Kendal — a seventeenth-century building grown into a hotel, with the river running past and the town on the doorstep. Of the Kendal hotels this is the one for people who want to walk rather than drive, and the riverside path outside is one of the easiest good walks in the county.
Quick Facts
The Kent is a short, fast river running off the Kentmere fells to the estuary, and it is the reason Kendal is where it is — it powered the mills that made the town's wool money. The path along it is part of the Miles without Stiles network: level, well-surfaced and genuinely suitable for anyone, including wheelchairs and pushchairs. It is easy to dismiss a riverside path as a filler activity. This one is not; it is the best hour in Kendal and it starts outside the hotel.
Everything in Kendal is walkable from here. The yards — narrow passages running off the main streets, a survival from the wool trade — reward twenty minutes of wandering. Abbot Hall sits by the river; the Quaker Tapestry, in the Friends Meeting House, is an extraordinary and little-known thing; and the Brewery Arts Centre does food, film and theatre in one building, which on a wet evening is the answer to everything.
Across the river and up the hill stand the ruins of Kendal Castle — twelfth-century, free, always open, and giving the best view of the town and out towards the fells. It was held by the Parr family, and while the guidebooks like to say Katherine Parr was born there, the evidence for that is thin. What is certain is that the family held it, and that the walk up takes twenty minutes and costs nothing.
Scout Scar, the limestone edge west of Kendal, gives a huge view over the Lyth Valley for a short walk. Levens Hall and Sizergh Castle are minutes south — the oldest topiary garden in the world and a seven-hundred-year family house respectively, and both places we run tours to. Staveley, a few minutes north, is a small village with a disproportionately good food scene and the Kentmere Valley behind it.
Oxenholme is a short ride away and picks up our full-day tours; private days collect at the hotel. From a Kendal base the lakes are twenty minutes and the Yorkshire Dales are closer still.
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 & bookA private day from here is simple — collected at the hotel door, no drive to a departure point, and the route shaped around the lakes, the Dales or the houses south. Well-behaved dogs are welcome aboard, travelling safely in the crates our vehicles carry.
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.
Without a car: the best of the Kendal bases for it — town on foot, Oxenholme by taxi, tour days from there.
Parking: on site, which spares you Kendal's town-centre car parks.
Wet days: the Brewery Arts Centre, Abbot Hall and the Quaker Tapestry are all walkable.
Ages: our tours suit adults and older children, about seven and up.
On the banks of the River Kent, a short walk from Kendal town centre — a seventeenth-century building, extended, with a leisure club attached.
Oxenholme, a short taxi ride away, is a pickup on our full-day tours. Half-day tours run from Windermere station, Bowness Pier 1 and Ambleside library. Private tours can usually collect at the hotel.
Within Kendal, yes — this is the most walkable base in the town, with the centre, the castle and the riverside path all on foot from the door.
The Miles without Stiles route along the Kent is level, well-surfaced and genuinely pleasant — one of the easiest good walks in the area, and it starts effectively outside.
We are an independent local tour operator, based in Kendal. This guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Riverside Hotel.