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The 10 Lakes Full-day Tour
Nine until six, ten lakes and an Ullswater cruise. The one full day that can just about work with a High Newton table, given the shorter drive.
See dates & bookThere is one thing about heft that will ruin your evening if nobody tells you, and it is not the food. On certain days every table is served at the same time, which means arriving twenty minutes late is not a minor inconvenience — it is a real problem. Everything else about the day should be planned backwards from that.
Quick Facts
heft is a seventeenth-century village inn that Kevin and Nicola Tickle took on and restored, and the thing people miss is that it is still a pub at the front. Locals come in for a pint. The starred cooking happens in the room behind — a tasting menu built around the seasons and Kevin's own foraging, from a chef who won a star at Forest Side before this.
Nicola's family have farmed these fells for generations, and the name comes from hefting — the way Lakeland sheep learn a patch of fell and stay on it without fences, passing the knowledge down. It is the right name for what they have built.
Good news, for once. High Newton sits between Windermere and the Cartmel peninsula, off the A590, and from Windermere or Bowness it is around twenty-five minutes — roughly half the run to Cartmel. From Ambleside, allow about forty minutes.
The catch is the timing rather than the distance. If your booking falls on a day when all tables are served together, being late is not something the kitchen can absorb. Confirm the arrangement when you book and treat the arrival time as fixed.
The shorter drive changes what is possible. A full-day tour returning to Windermere at six leaves enough room for a table at half past seven at High Newton, which it does not for Cartmel. It is tight but it is real, provided you are not also trying to change at a hotel forty minutes in the wrong direction.
A morning tour is still the calmer choice, and a private day removes the question entirely — we simply build the return around your arrival time.
High Newton is a small village and taxis need arranging in advance. The five rooms at the inn are the obvious answer if the tasting menu is coming with wine; failing that, Windermere and Bowness are a manageable pre-booked run.
Nine until six, ten lakes and an Ullswater cruise. The one full day that can just about work with a High Newton table, given the shorter drive.
See dates & bookBack at one, with the afternoon entirely free. The relaxed version of the same day.
See dates & bookBuilt around a fixed arrival time, which matters more here than almost anywhere. From £459 per group.
See dates & bookThe inn's own rooms are the simplest answer. For the wider area, our guide to staying in Cartmel and the southern Lakes accommodation hub cover what is around you.
In Newton-in-Cartmel, also called High Newton, off the A590 between Windermere and the Cartmel peninsula. Around 25 minutes from Windermere or Bowness.
On certain days every table in the restaurant is served at the same time, so a late arrival cannot easily be absorbed. Confirm the arrangement for your date when you book.
It is possible, unlike at Cartmel — our full-day tours return to Windermere at 6pm and High Newton is about 25 minutes away. It is tight, and a morning tour or a private day is calmer.
Yes, the inn has five guest rooms.
We are an independent local tour operator. We have no affiliation with, and no commercial arrangement of any kind with, any restaurant or hotel named on this page. There are no paid placements and no affiliate links here.