The quiet western valley
Eskdale Green
Ride the little railway, follow the Esk through woodland and meadows, or trade the valley floor for rugged, lightly visited fells.
- Best for
- Fell walking and heritage railway journeys
- Give it
- A valley day, with longer for the highest fells
- Don't miss
- La'al Ratty running through the Eskdale landscape
The Fox verdict
A quieter way into the western fells
Eskdale Green pairs a working valley community with a little railway, historic coaching inns and walks that range from the River Esk to high, remote ground.
Come for the contrast: a flat valley floor of woodland and meadows below Harter Fell and the fells rising towards Scafell. The heritage railway makes the valley practical without a car, while the two named coaching inns and village store give useful stopping points between walks.
Where to go
Places in Eskdale Green
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesKing George IV Inn
A traditional slate-and-wood-floored coaching inn with a separate restaurant, familiar pub dishes, a varied specials board and up to ten changing real ales.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 75 minutes
- Locality
- Eskdale Green
Bower House Inn
A coaching inn dating to 1751, retaining original features and serving traditional pub food made with locally sourced Cumbrian produce.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 75 minutes
- Locality
- Eskdale valley
Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway
La'al Ratty is a 15-inch narrow-gauge railway built for ore traffic in 1875 and converted in 1915, linking the coast at Ravenglass with Dalegarth near Boot.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 120 minutes
- Locality
- Ravenglass to Dalegarth near Boot
Walks & outdoors
2 placesHarter Fell
A rugged 649-metre fell above Eskdale with views towards the Scafells and into the Duddon Valley.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 210 minutes
- Locality
- above Eskdale
Scafell Pike via Eskdale
The longest route to England's highest mountain, beginning at Brotherkeld at the head of the valley.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow a full mountain day
- Locality
- valley head at Brotherkeld
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Three ways to explore Eskdale Green
Signature outings
Take La'al Ratty
Follow the seven-mile narrow-gauge line from the Cumbrian coast at Ravenglass to Dalegarth near Boot.
Make for Harter Fell
Gain the rugged 649-metre fell for views towards the Scafells and into the Duddon Valley.
Climb Scafell Pike from Eskdale
Begin at Brotherkeld for the long route from the head of Eskdale to England's highest mountain.
The village story
Eskdale Green: rails, ales and western fells
The untouched guide moves from a pub with a changing line of ales to the railway, road approaches, valley provisions and the wide choice of walks above the Esk.
Ale and the little railway
The King George IV Inn keeps up to ten real ales on at once, none of them regular. They rotate daily, often from West Cumbrian breweries, and there is no permanent line — you drink whatever turned up that week. It's a slate-and-wooden-floored coaching inn in the heart of the Eskdale valley, CAMRA listed, with a separate restaurant and a specials board that runs to more unusual things than the usual. The steak and ale pie, the Cumberland sausage with Yorkshire pudding, the fish and chips and the scampi are all there if you want them plain.
You can reach it by train, which is not something you can say about most valley pubs. The Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway — La'al Ratty, Cumbrian dialect for "Little Railway" — runs 15-inch narrow-gauge track seven miles from the coast to Dalegarth, and all five of the valley's real ale pubs sit within reach of its stops. It was built in 1875 to carry ore, converted to narrow gauge in 1915, and is now one of the oldest and smallest public railways in the world. It is also the main way visitors without a car get here.
Roads and the valley's inns
The other option by road is Hardknott Pass from Ambleside, single-track and steep, with a gradient touching one in three. Most people come the gentler way, from the coast via Holmrook on the A595. The nearest mainline station is Ravenglass, on the Cumbrian Coast Line, where La'al Ratty begins.
The valley's second pub is the Bower House Inn, which dates to 1751 and has kept its original features. It is under the same ownership as the King George IV, does traditional pub food with locally sourced Cumbrian produce, and is CAMRA listed too. Between the two of them the valley is better supplied with real ale than its population would suggest.
Village provisions and fell paths
For everything else there is Eskdale Stores, the village shop and post office, and more or less the main community amenity in the valley.
The walking is the reason most people book. Harter Fell, 649 metres, is a rugged climb with views across to the Scafells and down into the Duddon Valley. For something remoter, the path over the fell to Burnmoor Tarn takes you to a large, lonely upland tarn ringed by stone circles, and carries on to Wasdale Head if you keep going. If you want flat, the valley floor follows the River Esk through woodland and meadow with La'al Ratty running alongside. And the longest, most rewarding route up Scafell Pike — England's highest mountain — starts from the valley head at Brotherkeld.
Church and quiet western valley
The church is St Bega's, a Victorian rebuilding of an earlier chapel, serving a settlement scattered thinly across the valley floor.
This is the western Lake District, the quiet side. The Esk runs the length of the valley, enclosed by Harter Fell and the fells climbing toward Scafell, and the whole place is lightly visited compared with the central lakes. You come for the fells and the little train, and the fact that so few other people have bothered.
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.
- King George IV Inn — kinggeorge-eskdale.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Bower House Inn — bowerhouseinn.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway — ravenglass-railway.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Harter Fell — visitlakedistrict.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Scafell Pike via Eskdale — visitlakedistrict.com operator, sector body or destination organisation