The Pooley Bridge Inn sits in the middle of the village with open fires inside and two outdoor spaces — a front garden facing the street and a quieter courtyard behind. It is a proper village pub with rooms rather than a hotel, dogs and children are equally welcome, and the Robinsons ales are kept properly. This guide covers what a base at the top of the lake actually gets you.
Quick Facts
Pooley Bridge has a handful of pubs and they fill through the season, which tells you something about how people use this end of the lake: they walk or sail during the day and come back for the evening. The courtyard behind the inn is the quieter of its two outdoor spaces and worth knowing about when the front is full.
The village works best if you treat it as a base rather than a destination — everything worth doing is a short boat ride or drive away, and the pub is what you come back to.
The Steamers run from the pier a few minutes away — sail the length of the lake to Glenridding, or go one way to Howtown and walk the shoreline path back, around seven miles and largely level. Wainwright rated it the most beautiful walk in Lakeland and he was not a man given to overstatement.
Aira Force is roughly ten minutes down the western shore: a sixty-five-foot fall through ancient woodland, and the ground where Dorothy Wordsworth recorded the daffodils her brother later made famous. Go before nine — the car park fills.
Lowther Castle, a short drive east and outside the national park, is a vast roofless Gothic shell with gardens being brought back after decades of neglect. Almost no Lakeland visitor goes. It is strange and rather wonderful.
Our scheduled small-group tours depart Windermere station, Bowness Pier 1 and Ambleside library — all a fair drive south over Kirkstone or round by the A66. From Pooley Bridge a private day collected at the door is the practical answer, and it can run the northern fells or head south to the famous central lakes.
From this end of Ullswater a private day is simply how it works — the scheduled pickups are a fair drive away, so we collect at the door 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.
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 & bookIn the centre of the village at the northern end of Ullswater, a few minutes from the Steamers pier.
Yes — there are family rooms and some with adjoining doors, and children are welcome in the bar. Note our tours suit adults and older children, about seven and up.
Yes, in the bar and in rooms. Well-behaved dogs are also welcome on our private tours, travelling safely in our vehicle crates.
On private tours, yes. Scheduled departures leave Windermere station, Bowness Pier 1 and Ambleside library, all a fair drive south.
We are an independent local tour operator. This guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by The Pooley Bridge Inn.