Askham has two village greens, whitewashed cottages lining both, and 44 listed buildings crammed into a conservation area that covers most of what you can see. It sits on the eastern edge of the Lake District National Park, in the Eden Valley, with the Lowther River running past. Estate villages are usually tidy. This one is tidier than most.
There are two pubs, and they have divided the work between them without much overlap.
The Punchbowl Inn is the upmarket one — a country pub with rooms, doing confit duck leg, spinach and goats cheese strudel, and a Sunday roast made in-house with local meats and Yorkshire puddings. Food runs noon to nine daily, though winter hours can shorten. There's Hawkshead Bitter on the bar plus up to three guest ales. Reviewers keep using the phrase "beautifully presented," which for Sunday lunch is either a promise or a warning depending on your appetite. Dogs are welcome in the bar, and in the rooms for a small surcharge.
The Queen's Head is the cosier one. Anthony Amos is head chef, and the kitchen turns out wood-fired pizzas alongside more refined plates built on local, seasonal ingredients; food runs half past twelve to three and four to half past eight. Every bedroom takes dogs, and each arriving dog gets a Doggy Welcome Pack — treats, poo bags, and a map of local walks. It is a thorough approach to a species that mostly wants the treats.
St Peter's is Grade II* listed and dates from 1832, the foundation stone laid on 28 June that year. It was designed by Sir Robert Smirke, who at the time was two miles up the road working on Lowther Castle, and shortly afterwards would design the portico of the British Museum. The church has extraordinary leaded windows — small diamond panes set at angles so they catch the light at any hour and any season. It is a village church built by the man who built the British Museum, which is not a sentence you get to write often.
Askham Hall anchors the other end of the village's history. It began as a 14th-century pele tower — a defensive tower thrown up against Scottish raids — then was extended into an Elizabethan mansion by Thomas Sandford in the mid-1500s. The Sandfords held it until 1828, when it became a rectory. It is now a hotel and restaurant, and its Allium restaurant held a Michelin star, making it one of the most remote starred kitchens in England. The walled ornamental gardens are open to visitors.
The walking spreads out in every direction. North, a gentle riverside path follows the Lowther Valley through farmland toward Lowther Castle. South, about four miles off, is Ullswater and Pooley Bridge, reachable on foot via Celleron. Above the village runs the High Street, the Roman road that crosses the eastern fells and predates everything else here by a wide margin.
There's no railway; Penrith is five miles northeast on the West Coast Main Line, reached by the B5320. Buses are limited. Bring a car, and let the dog find the welcome pack.
