Borrowdale on foot
Rosthwaite
A small valley village where level paths, high fells and the Coast to Coast meet ancient yews, real ale and a deep whisky shelf.
- Best for
- Valley walks and fell days
- Give it
- A long half-day
- Don't miss
- The level way into Langstrath
The Fox verdict
A walking base with its priorities straight
Rosthwaite puts Borrowdale's valley floor, surrounding fells and long-distance trail within reach, then keeps food and drink simple to find.
Start gently beside Stonethwaite Beck towards Langstrath, use the village as a base for a higher objective, or meet the Coast to Coast as it passes through. The Scafell Hotel spans walkers' bar snacks and ales through to modern British restaurant dining.
Where to go
Places in Rosthwaite
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesScafell Hotel
A hotel bar with a separate side entrance, light meals and snacks, real ales and more than sixty malt whiskies; the restaurant offers modern British dining.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 1 hour 15 minutes
- Locality
- Rosthwaite
- Access
- Walkers and dogs are welcome in the Riverside Bar.
Coast to Coast Walk at Rosthwaite
Experience a local stretch of the Coast to Coast Walk where the long-distance route passes through Rosthwaite.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 1 hour 30 minutes for a local stretch
- Locality
- on the route through Rosthwaite
Flock-In
A walkers' café serving light lunches and cakes in Rosthwaite.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 45 minutes
- Locality
- Rosthwaite
Walks & outdoors
2 placesLangstrath Valley Walk
Follow Stonethwaite Beck from Rosthwaite into the Stonethwaite valley and the level ground of steep-sided Langstrath.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 2 hours
- Locality
- Stonethwaite valley and Langstrath
Haystacks
A 597-metre fell usually approached from Honister, with Rosthwaite offering an alternative base via Gillercomb.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 4 hours
- Locality
- Honister Pass
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Three ways to explore Rosthwaite
Signature outings
Ease into Langstrath
Follow Stonethwaite Beck from Rosthwaite into a valley of level ground held between steep sides.
Set out for Haystacks
Approach the 597-metre fell from Honister, or use Rosthwaite as an alternative base via Gillercomb.
Choose ale or malt
Use the walkers' entrance to a dog-friendly bar with real ales and more than sixty malt whiskies.
The village story
Rosthwaite: a Borrowdale village made for walkers
The untouched guide moves from the Scafell's tables to the valley paths, then into Rosthwaite's early tourism, Wordsworth's yews and the road from Keswick.
Whisky, ales and ten courses
The Scafell Hotel has a side entrance for people who have been walking all day and don't want to bring the fells inside with them. It leads to the Riverside Bar, where walkers and dogs are welcome and the shelf behind the counter holds over sixty malt whiskies. CAMRA lists it. There are two regular ales and two that change, with Tirril the name that comes round most often.
The bar keeps things simple — light meals and snacks — but the restaurant does not. The kitchen under head chef Chris runs a modern British à la carte, and if you're staying long enough to make an evening of it, a ten-course tasting menu that works its way through game, meat and fish. That is a lot of courses for a village at the bottom of a Cumbrian valley.
Café comforts and the Borrowdale floor
The other place to eat is the Flock-In, a walkers' café doing light lunches and cakes. Between the two you have somewhere for a slice after a wet morning and somewhere for sixty whiskies after a long one, which covers most of what a valley like this asks for.
Rosthwaite sits in central Borrowdale, six miles south of Keswick. The valley, narrow further north, widens here into a flat flood plain, and the River Derwent meanders across it with no particular hurry. Glaramara stands over it at 783 metres. High Spy and Eagle Crag close in the sides. Stonethwaite Beck comes in from the east.
From level valley to high fells
That east is where the flattest walk starts. Follow the beck a short way and you're in the Stonethwaite valley, which opens quietly into Langstrath — level ground and steep sides, the sort of walk you do when your legs have had enough of climbing.
When they haven't, the fells are all around. Eagle Crag and High Spy rise straight off Borrowdale. Haystacks, at 597 metres, is usually done from Honister, but Rosthwaite works as an alternative base for it via Gillercomb. The Coast to Coast passes through the village, so on any given morning some of the people at breakfast are a fortnight into a walk across England and some have arrived by car for the afternoon.
A small village with an early welcome
There is no church here. The nearest are at Grange-in-Borrowdale and Stonethwaite, both a walk away, which tells you how small Rosthwaite is and always has been.
It was, though, one of the first settlements in Borrowdale to take up tourism, back in the early nineteenth century, on the strength of the valley's looks and how easily you could reach it from Keswick. The Scafell's main house went up in 1816–17, built by Mary Barker, and was already trading under its present name by 1875 — described then as "romantically situate among the hills." It has been one of Borrowdale's principal places to stay for two hundred years.
The yews and the road south
Just down the valley are the Borrowdale Yews, the ancient trees Wordsworth put in a poem in 1803 — "those fraternal Four of Borrowdale, joined in one solemn and capacious grove."
Getting here means the B5289 from Keswick, or the seasonal 78/79 Borrowdale Rambler, which stops in the village on its way to Seatoller. There is no railway, and there never was. You come in past the yews and the river, and the valley closes behind you.
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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.
- Scafell Hotel — ipa.allerdale.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Langstrath Valley Walk — keswick.org other published source
- Coast to Coast Walk at Rosthwaite — gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Flock-In — ratings.food.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Haystacks — visitlakedistrict.com operator, sector body or destination organisation