Eden Valley pause
Tirril
A small farming village where a richly historic inn, gentle lanes and the road towards Ullswater set the pace.
- Best for
- A pub lunch with an Eden Valley outing
- Give it
- A relaxed half day
- Don't miss
- The Wordsworth indenture inside the Queen's Head
The Fox verdict
Come for the inn, stay for the quiet lanes
Tirril is a modest east-fringe base rather than a full village-attractions day.
The Queen's Head gives the village its strongest reason to stop: a 1719 inn with deep stone walls, old fittings, home-cooked food and a direct Wordsworth connection. Around it, the Eden Valley lanes offer unhurried walking and cycling, while Ullswater and Dunmallet broaden a short visit.
Where to go
Places in Tirril
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesQueen's Head Inn
A 1719 village inn with flagstones, oak beams, thick stone walls, old meat hooks, home-made pies and the framed indenture linking it to William Wordsworth's brother Richard.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 90 minutes for a meal and a look at the historic interior
- Locality
- Tirril
Ullswater Way and Shorepath
The nearby lake shore gives access to the Ullswater Way, extending a Tirril visit with a section of long-distance lakeside walking.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 2 hours for a chosen out-and-back section
- Locality
- Ullswater
- Access
- This is a long-distance route reached from Tirril; choose a section suited to the time available.
St Peter's, Askham
One of the nearest churches to Tirril and an option for visitors seeking a Sunday service outside the village.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 30 minutes around a service
- Locality
- Askham
- Access
- Check the Official site before travel if planning around a Sunday service.
Walks & outdoors
1 placeEden Valley Lanes
The quiet lanes around Tirril cross gently rolling Eden Valley farmland and suit a short, unhurried walk or cycle from the village.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 60 minutes for a short walk or cycle
- Locality
- Around Tirril
History & heritage
1 placeDunmallet Hill Fort
A hill-fort outing at Pooley Bridge that adds a compact historical stop to time around Tirril and Ullswater.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 60 minutes
- Locality
- Pooley Bridge
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Three ways to explore Tirril
Signature outings
An easy turn through the Eden Valley
Set out from Tirril for an unhurried walk or cycle through the gently rolling farmland around the village.
A fort above Pooley Bridge
Make Dunmallet the compact historical counterpoint to the lanes and lake around Tirril.
A taste of the Ullswater Way
Choose a manageable section of the shorepath rather than treating the long-distance route as an all-or-nothing walk.
The village story
Tirril: an inn, a valley and the road to Ullswater
The untouched guide moves from a Wordsworth document and an old Cumbrian pub to the sparse village, its lanes, the lake and the practicalities of arriving.
Wordsworth on the Pub Wall
Framed on a wall inside the Queen's Head Inn is an original indenture recording that William Wordsworth's brother Richard once owned the pub. William helped manage it until Richard came of age. The paperwork is still there, hanging on the wall.
The Queen's Head was built in 1719, and it looks it. Original flagstone and timber flooring, oak beams, wooden settles, stone walls two feet thick. Above the fireplace are the original meat hooks, once used for smoking meats. Three hundred years of bric-a-brac and memorabilia have accumulated on the walls, and nobody seems in a hurry to take any of it down.
Pies, Provisions and the Nearest Pews
The kitchen runs to nine different home-made pies with local meats. There are several burgers, roast dinners and seasonal specials too, with vegan and gluten-free options among them. It is hearty, home-cooked food.
It is also more or less the whole reason to stop in Tirril, because there are no shops in the village and no church either. If you want a loaf of bread, you leave. For a Sunday service you go to St Peter's at Yanwath or St Peter's at Askham.
A Brewery at the Valley Edge
The beer has a history of its own. In September 1999 the Tirril Brewery was set up behind the pub, one of the early Cumbrian microbreweries. It now operates separately — Robinson's holds the tie on the Queen's Head these days — but it started here, out the back.
Tirril sits in the Eden Valley limestone country, on the eastern fringe of the Lake District, right on the edge of the National Park boundary. This is the gently rolling agricultural land between Penrith and Ullswater, quiet and given over to farming, and there is not a great deal to it beyond the pub and the lanes.
Lanes, Lakeside and Dunmallet
The lake is two and a half miles away, close enough that the Ullswater shorepath and the Ullswater Way long-distance route are within reach on foot, if you don't mind the walk out and the walk back.
Closer to hand, the Eden Valley lanes make for flat, unhurried walking and cycling, the sort you can do without a map or a plan. A short drive gets you to Pooley Bridge and the hill fort at Dunmallet.
The Road In, and Why to Stop
There is no railway. You arrive by car, on the B5320 from Penrith toward Pooley Bridge, or up from Ullswater the other way. Penrith is about five miles north. The buses from Penrith exist but are limited, so a car is the sensible option.
What Tirril amounts to is a pub, some good walking, and the road to the lake. On a wet afternoon, with a pie in front of you and Wordsworth's paperwork hanging on the wall, that turns out to be enough.
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.
- Queen's Head Inn — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Ullswater Way and Shorepath — lakedistrict.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Dunmallet Hill Fort — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- St Peter's, Askham — carlislediocese.org.uk national body or asset manager
- Eden Valley Lanes — visitlakedistrict.com operator, sector body or destination organisation