At the foot of Coledale
Braithwaite
A Northern Fells village where Grisedale Pike rises above the beck and two traditional inns wait below.
- Best for
- Northern Fells walking
- Give it
- A village pause or a full fell day
- Don't miss
- The classic ridge circuit of the Coledale Round
The Fox verdict
A fell-first base with a rewarding return
Braithwaite puts Grisedale Pike and the Coledale Round within reach of a small village with two traditional inns.
Come for the direct access to the Northern Fells, then stay for the contrast between Coledale's mining history and the village's two distinct inns. The Royal Oak serves hearty Cumbrian pub food, while the family-run Coledale Inn carries the unusual memory of a mill and brief pencil factory.
Where to go
Places in Braithwaite
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesThe Royal Oak
A traditional Cumbrian village inn serving hearty pub classics, with four permanent Jennings real ales including Cumberland Ale.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 75 minutes
- Locality
- Braithwaite village
The Coledale Inn
A dog-friendly, family-run inn serving homemade pub classics in a building constructed as a mill in 1824 and later used briefly as a pencil factory.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 75 minutes
- Locality
- Braithwaite village
St Herbert's Church
Braithwaite's nineteenth-century church offers a short historical pause within the village.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 30 minutes
- Locality
- Braithwaite village
Walks & outdoors
2 placesGrisedale Pike
The 791-metre fell rises directly above Braithwaite and provides a classic Northern Fells ridge walk from the village.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around four hours
- Locality
- above Braithwaite
Coledale Round
A classic Northern Fells circuit over Grisedale Pike, Hopegill Head, Eel Crag and Sail, returning by Causey Pike.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow a full day
- Locality
- Northern Fells from Braithwaite
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Three ways to explore Braithwaite
Signature outings
Grisedale Pike
Take the classic Northern Fells ridge directly above Braithwaite to the 791-metre summit.
Coledale Round
Follow the classic circuit over Grisedale Pike, Hopegill Head, Eel Crag and Sail, returning by Causey Pike.
St Herbert's Church
Make time for Braithwaite's nineteenth-century church between the fells and the village inns.
The village story
Braithwaite: fells, mines and the way home
The original Travel Fox guide follows the beck and the fell skyline through two inns, a mining story, high routes and the practical return to the village.
The fell above and the inn below
Coledale Beck runs down through the middle of Braithwaite, and above it, more or less straight up, rises Grisedale Pike. The fell is 791 metres and it starts almost from the back doors of the village, which is the sort of thing you notice when you arrive at the foot of the Coledale valley two miles west of Keswick and realise how much of the sky is taken up by a single mountain.
There are two pubs, which is generous for a village this size. The Royal Oak is a traditional Cumbrian inn tied to Jennings Brewery, with four permanent real ales including Cumberland Ale. The food is the kind you want after a day on the fells: Cumberland sausage served in a giant Yorkshire pudding, fish and chips with mushy peas and tartare sauce, pies, and a Sunday roast that comes with unlimited Yorkshire puddings and gravy. Portions are generous. Vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options are on the menu, and they'll do smaller plates if the giant Yorkshire pudding feels like a commitment too far. There are en-suite rooms upstairs.
From mill to mine
The Coledale Inn is the more historically confused of the two. It was built in 1824 as a mill, then spent a brief spell as a pencil factory before Keswick built its big one and made the point moot. It's a family-run place now, dog-friendly, doing homemade pub classics with local and seasonal ingredients and Sunday lunch from noon.
The pencil business is worth staying with for a moment. The graphite came from Force Crag Mine, up the Coledale valley above the village, which fed a cottage pencil industry in Braithwaite until the Keswick factory took over. Force Crag went on mining lead, zinc and baryte and became the last commercially worked mine in the Lake District, closing in 1991. The National Trust owns it now and runs guided tours, so you can walk up Coledale and see where the pencils, in a manner of speaking, came from.
Ridges and the village church
That walk up to the mine is the gentle option. The steeper one is Grisedale Pike itself, a classic northern Lake District ridge climbed directly from the village. For anyone with a full day and reasonable legs there's the Coledale Round, a circuit over Grisedale Pike, Hopegill Head, Eel Crag, Sail and back via Causey Pike. It's counted among the finest ridge walks in the Northern Fells, and Braithwaite sits at the bottom of it like a car park with pubs.
There's a church, St Herbert's, from the nineteenth century. That is most of what there is to say about it, and it doesn't seem to mind.
Arriving, then coming back down
Shops mean a trip into Keswick, two miles east. There's no railway — there never really was — so you arrive by the A66 running west out of Keswick, or on the Keswick–Cockermouth bus, which passes through. A car is the honest answer.
What Braithwaite mostly is, in the end, is a place to come back down to. The fell fills the window, the beck keeps running through, and there's a pint of Cumberland Ale waiting at the bottom for whichever of the two pubs you decide you belong to.
Stay around Lake District
Make a longer stay of it
Travel Fox holiday homes around Lake District, linked directly to their property pages.
A guide with a point of view
Written from research. Edited for real journeys.
Use the Official site links for live practical details, then use this guide for context, ideas and room to explore.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- The Royal Oak — royaloak-braithwaite.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- The Coledale Inn — coledale-inn.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- St Herbert's Church — achurchnearyou.com national body or asset manager
- Grisedale Pike — keswick.org other published source
- Coledale Round — keswick.org other published source