The Wild Boar sits in the Gilpin Valley on Crook Road, between Kendal and Bowness and comfortably off the tourist route. It began as a seventeenth-century cottage, grew into a coaching inn, and now has seventy-two acres of woodland behind it, a smokehouse in the kitchen and a microbrewery in the bar. The name comes from a genuine piece of local legend, and it is a better story than most hotel names manage.
Quick Facts
The story goes that in the thirteenth century a boar of exceptional size and temper was terrorising the villages of this valley, until Sir Richard de Gilpin tracked it down and killed it. The Gilpin family gave their name to the valley — and, several centuries later, to a rather good hotel a couple of miles away as well. Whether the boar was quite as ferocious as the telling suggests is not recorded, but wild boar were genuinely present in medieval England and genuinely a problem, so the bones of it are plausible enough.
The woodland behind the inn is semi-ancient — meaning it has been continuously wooded for centuries — and it is threaded with marked trails leading down to a tarn. It is a genuinely good hour's walking without leaving the property, and it is the reason to arrive early on your first day rather than pushing straight on to the lake. Woodland activities can be booked if you want more than a walk.
Both are on site and both are real rather than decorative: the kitchen smokes its own meat and fish, and the ale in the bar comes from the inn's own microbrewery. There is also a serious whisky list. For a stay where dinner is a fixed point of the day rather than an afterthought, this is a strong position to be in — and it is worth booking a table when you book the room.
The A591 between Windermere and Ambleside carries a great deal of slow traffic through the season. Crook Road does not. You are ten minutes from Windermere and a world away from the queue, which in August is worth a good deal. The neighbouring lanes are also excellent for cycling — quiet, rolling, and largely ignored by visitors.
Windermere and Bowness are ten to fifteen minutes west for the station, the piers and the lake. Kendal is a similar distance east for a proper market town and the main line. Levens Hall and Sizergh Castle are a short drive south — the oldest topiary garden in the world and a seven-hundred-year family house, both of which we run tours to.
The high passes and the far valleys need someone else driving, and from Crook everything involves a drive to begin with. Our tours carry seven guests at most, from three pickups within easy reach; private days collect at the inn.
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 & bookFor a stay built around good food and a dog under the table, a private day fits neatly — collected at the inn, no departure time to drive to, and a route shaped around your party. Well-behaved dogs are welcome aboard and travel safely in our vehicle crates, which suits a place this dog-friendly.
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.
Getting here: M6 junction 36, then the A590/A591 and the B5284 through Crook. Windermere station is the nearest rail.
Without a car: harder here than in the towns — bus service on Crook Road is limited. Most guests drive in, then leave the car for tour days.
Booking: the restaurant is popular with locals as well as guests; reserve when you book the room.
Ages: our tours suit adults and older children, about seven and up.
On Crook Road in the Gilpin Valley, between Kendal and Bowness — a few miles east of Windermere, and deliberately off the main road.
Windermere station, a few miles west — Bowness Pier 1 and Ambleside library are the other two. On private tours we can usually collect you at the inn.
Yes, and notably so — dogs are welcome in the lounge as well as in rooms. Well-behaved dogs are also welcome on our private tours, travelling safely in the crates our vehicles carry.
Seventy-two acres of semi-ancient woodland with marked trails and a tarn, plus bookable woodland activities. The inn also has its own smokehouse and microbrewery.
From the Wild Boar of Westmorland — a thirteenth-century legend about a boar terrorising local villages until it was hunted down by Sir Richard de Gilpin, whose family gave the valley its name.
We are an independent local tour operator. This guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wild Boar Estate or English Lakes Hotels.