The Lake District at its wildest
Ennerdale Bridge
A tiny Coast to Coast village at the threshold of a road-light valley, with Ennerdale Water, forest tracks and high fells drawing you east.
- Best for
- Quiet walks and wild valley landscapes
- Give it
- A half day, or longer for the lake circuit
- Don't miss
- The car-free northern shore of Ennerdale Water
The Fox verdict
A small village opening onto a very big landscape
Ennerdale Bridge is less about village attractions than the rare sense of space beyond its last houses.
Come for a quiet lakeside walk, the evolving woodland of Wild Ennerdale and a village whose inn and church hold the human scale of the valley. Coast to Coast walkers supply the evening energy; Ennerdale Water and the forest supply the silence.
Where to go
Places in Ennerdale Bridge
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesEnnerdale Water
A remote lake with a quiet, largely level circuit and a northern shore kept free of road traffic.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 2 hours
- Locality
- in Ennerdale valley, east of the village
- Access
- There is no road along the northern shore; explore it on foot.
Ennerdale Forest and Wild Ennerdale
An extensive network of forest roads and paths within a pioneering wilding landscape where native woodland is spreading and the River Liza can move naturally.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 1 hour 30 minutes
- Locality
- beyond Ennerdale Water in the valley
Coast to Coast Walk at Ennerdale Bridge
Wainwright's route reaches Ennerdale Bridge thirteen miles from St Bees, making the village a classic first overnight stop.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 1 hour for a local stretch
- Locality
- passing through Ennerdale Bridge
- Access
- The full route is a long-distance undertaking; choose a section suited to your time and ability.
Food & drink
1 placeThe Fox and Hounds Inn
A traditional CAMRA-listed Lakeland inn serving homemade food, locally brewed ales and vegetarian and vegan choices, with three en-suite rooms.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 1 hour 15 minutes
- Locality
- in the village centre, opposite St Mary's Church
Walks & outdoors
1 placePillar and Pillar Rock Views
Pillar rises to 892 metres above the valley, with the dramatic Pillar Rock crag below its summit over High Gillerthwaite.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 1 hour 30 minutes for valley-level views
- Locality
- above High Gillerthwaite at the valley head
- Access
- Pillar Rock is a serious rock-climbing objective, not a walk; this listing is for valley-level views.
History & heritage
1 placeSt Mary's Church, Ennerdale Bridge
The Romanesque church of 1858 replaced a late-medieval chapel and connects the village with Wordsworth's poem The Brothers.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 30 minutes
- Locality
- in the village centre, opposite the Fox and Hounds
No places match this filter. Choose All places to reset the list.
Three ways to explore Ennerdale Bridge
Signature outings
Walk Ennerdale Water
Take to the road-free northern shore for one of the quieter lakeside walks in the National Park.
Settle into the Fox
Order homemade food and a locally brewed ale where Coast to Coast walkers gather after the stage from St Bees.
Pause at St Mary's
Visit the churchyard whose unmarked graves helped inspire Wordsworth's The Brothers after his 1799 visit.
The village story
Ennerdale Bridge: walkers, wild water and Wordsworth
The untouched Travel Fox story moves from the village inn to the lake and wild valley, then returns to the church and the effort of getting here.
Thirteen miles to the Fox and Hounds
The Fox and Hounds sits in the middle of the village, opposite the church, and on most evenings a good share of the people inside have walked thirteen miles to get there. Ennerdale Bridge is the first big overnight stop on Wainwright's Coast to Coast, thirteen miles east of St Bees, so the bar fills with people who set out from the Irish Sea that morning and are working out whether their feet will forgive them.
The inn is a traditional Lakeland one, CAMRA-listed, reopened in 2018 under new management, with five locally brewed ales and three en-suite rooms upstairs. Everything is homemade and cooked to order. The headline dish is the Fox and Hounds Burger Stack — steak mince with smoky cheese, bacon and caramelised red onion in a toasted brioche bun, with homemade onion rings and chips. There are steaks, other burgers, and a long list of vegetarian and vegan options, which is not always a given this far west. Pudding is Lakes Ice Cream.
Where the village gives way to water
That is more or less the village's commercial centre. There are no shops to speak of; for those you go to Cleator Moor or Whitehaven. What Ennerdale Bridge has instead is one of the emptiest valleys in the National Park.
A mile east lies Ennerdale Water, and there is no road along its northern shore. You walk it or you don't see it, which makes the flat lakeside circuit one of the quieter ways to spend a few hours in Cumbria. The River Ehen drains the lake westward and runs through the village under one of its three bridges.
A forest allowed to find its own course
Beyond the water the valley turns into Ennerdale Forest — twenty-odd miles of forest road and path, and the setting for Wild Ennerdale, one of England's first large-scale rewilding projects. Since 2003 the Forestry Commission, Natural England and the National Trust have been letting the place go, in the good sense. Herdwick sheep have been removed from much of the valley, native woodland is spreading back, and the River Liza is allowed to move where it wants rather than where anyone has decided it should. It has become a model for how the upland UK might be managed by leaving it largely alone.
Above the valley head stand Pillar and Steeple. Pillar reaches 892 metres, and Pillar Rock, the crag below its summit above High Gillerthwaite, is one of the great rock-climbing venues in the Lake District — a serious objective, not a walk.
Wordsworth, the church and the road in
St Mary's Church, opposite the pub, is the 1858 building, Romanesque, by Charles Eaglesfield of Maryport. It replaced a late medieval chapel of ease recorded in 1534. Wordsworth and Coleridge came to Ennerdale in 1799, and after Wordsworth talked to the priest about the unmarked graves in the churchyard, he wrote "The Brothers," in which a man returns from sea to find his brother buried without a stone.
Getting here takes some doing: no railway, no regular bus, and a drive in from Cleator Moor on the B5251 or from Cockermouth by way of Lamplugh. Which is rather the point of the place.
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 Fox and Hounds Inn — foxandhoundsinn.org operator, sector body or destination organisation
- St Mary's Church, Ennerdale Bridge — achurchnearyou.com national body or asset manager
- Ennerdale Water — nationaltrust.org.uk national body or asset manager
- Ennerdale Forest and Wild Ennerdale — lakedistrict.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Coast to Coast Walk at Ennerdale Bridge — gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Pillar and Pillar Rock Views — nationaltrust.org.uk national body or asset manager