Eskdale

Getting there and parking

Without a car: The nearest stations as the crow flies are Ravenglass (10 km away) and Drigg (11 km away). The bus map has every stop we hold.

Eskdale is the one Lakeland valley you can reach by train. The Cumbrian Coast line stops at Ravenglass, and from the same platform the narrow-gauge Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway runs seven miles up the valley to Dalegarth for Boot, with stations at Muncaster Mill, Irton Road and Eskdale Green on the way. It is a heritage line with a seasonal timetable and a fare, not a bus, and it is the only public transport in the valley: as of this year no bus route serves Eskdale at all. The Wasdale Explorer leaves from the same station for the next valley north.

By car the valley is entered from the A595 coast road at Holmrook or by Muncaster, or from the east over Hardknott Pass, which is not a road for a first visit in the dark. At Boot the car parks are small: Dalegarth station is pay and display and the natural start for Stanley Ghyll and Harter Fell, and the church at St Catherine's asks for a payment. In the upper valley the National Trust's Wha House car park is free and is the start for Slight Side, Scafell and the Hardknott Round. The car parks are listed below with what they charge and who runs them; the parking map shows every option in the valley on one map.

What to see

• The railway — La'al Ratty, the fifteen-inch line from Ravenglass to Dalegarth, steam-hauled for much of the year and the reason half the valley's visitors come.
• Stanley Ghyll Force — the waterfall in the wooded gorge a mile from Dalegarth, the valley's short walk.
• Boot — the hamlet at the railway's end, with its packhorse bridge, its pubs and Eskdale Mill, a working corn mill on the beck above the village.
• Hardknott Pass and the Roman fort — the road at the head of the valley and the fort of Mediobogdum on its Eskdale side, built about AD 117 and free to walk round.
• Muncaster — the castle and its gardens at the mouth of the valley, above Ravenglass.
• Ravenglass — the only coastal village in the National Park, at the meeting of three rivers, with the Roman bath house behind it.
• Devoke Water — the largest tarn in the district, on the moor above Eskdale Green, ringed by small Birketts.

Where to stay

The valley has a handful of inns and a lot of camping. This is what is here, from the coast up:

Each is a business named for the reader's convenience, not a recommendation; check its own site for what it costs and whether it has room.

Pubs and food

The Boot Inn and the Brook House Inn in the village, the Woolpack on the road above it and the King George IV at Eskdale Green are the valley's pubs, and the railway has a café at Dalegarth. There is a small shop at Eskdale Green. For anything more, it is the coast.

The walks

Eskdale's walks are the quiet approaches to famous ground. From the upper valley, Slight Side and Scafell is the long southern way onto England's second mountain, and the Hardknott Round takes Green Crag, Harter Fell and Hard Knott through some of the emptiest country in the Lakes. From Eskdale Green, Boat How and Great Bank climbs to Illgill Head and the top of the Screes above Wast Water. On the moor, the Birketts around Devoke Water and Great Whinscale and Green Crag are half-days on Birker Fell with the coast in view. The full list is below, with the fells each one climbs.