Ravenglass & Eskdale railway

On one of our recent visits to the lake district we came across Eskdale by our adventure on the Ravenglass & Eskdale steam railway. Ravenglass is on the west coast of cumbria & when we arrived at Ravenglass station & parked up, got our tickets for the railway we had 30 Min's to spare so we went round the museum which was very interesting & had lots of historic facts about the railway. We boarded and set off full steam ahead on our 7 miles & 40 minutes adventure, and what a lovely adventure it was. On our journey they was spectacular scenery & wild life to be seen as the trains goes straight through the woods at some parts of the journey.


When we arrived at Dalegarth you have the options of all different walks, we walked half a mile to Boot which is a small village in the beautiful scenic valley of Eskdale. As you walk to it you will find it well sign posted, after passing a couple of pubs on the way 1 of them been the Boot Inn, you cross a 17th century pack horse bridge which leads to the Eskdale mill which dates back to 1578, where you can visit one of the very few remaining two wheel water corn mills, and learn more about life in Cumbria, its industry and its people.


We completely fell in love with Eskdale & spent a good few hours discovering it until we finally set off back on the railway to Ravenglass. We were in the lake's for 7 nights & was on our 6th night. We had not booked anywhere so after visiting Whitehaven which is a seaside resort on the western coastline about 30 Min's drive away (17 miles), my husband rang round a few of the numbers he had collected in his phone for any future visits. We managed to get in Stanley house at Beckfoot which is a 10 min walk into Boot. Stanley house is a fantastic place to stop if you are discovering the lake's, it is a big house with with 12 bedrooms & you can use the 2 living rooms, one with log fire & a large kitchen area to do any cooking. It is very big & modernised, ideal for walkers coming & going who don't want to be sat in there rooms resting in between walks. The owners live near by & are there in a morning to cook breakfast.


We were very lucky to get to stay at Boot because by coinsidence we had fallen up on it at its annual beer festival. These beer festivals started in 2001 during an outbreak of foot & mouth. Because the fells were closed to walkers, it was an idea to attract people to the beautiful valley of Eskdale. There are 3 pubs which stage the event jointly which are Brook House Inn, The Woolpack & The Boot Inn. Each pub has its own theme night over a 4 day period. We were stopping 2 nights so on Thurs we went to the Boot Inn & enjoyed a delious meal, then finished off in the Brook House Inn who had a great live band on The Roosters. Everyone was enjoying themselves & it was a full house. All the pubs have a selection of beers available & enjoyed a few half pints of different ales.







Friday we walked round and did a couple of the walks in the fells & discovered the valley a bit more. Friday late afternoon we tried a few more selections of the beers & ate at the Wool pack where the food was exceptional. The landlord does his own cooking & he did Dave's crazy outside kitchen in a marque for everyone to see. The live band Vortigern added to the lovely atmosphere whislt enjoying our food & were brilliant.





We would definately go back to Eskdale it is one of the best places in the Lake district & I highly recommend it, we were really sad to leave on saturday.