Review – The Lancrigg, Lake District

If you’ve visited the Lake District, chances are that you’ve heard of the bustling village of Grasmere, arguably the most popular village in Cumbria. Recognised as the home of poet William Wordsworth, boasting a stunning mirror-like lake, countless dog friendly cafes and restaurants and of course the best gingerbread in the world!

Yet just a 15 minute walk from the centre of the village (or 2 minutes by car), Lancrigg feels a million miles away from the busy village centre. This country house hotel is perfectly nestled in 30 acres of private gardens and even has its own woodland. We received such a lovely warm welcome from the manager Katrina and it’s fair to say that as soon as we arrived we felt instantly relaxed, taking in the stunning views along the Easedale valley from the hotel.

Lancrigg welcomes dogs in 8 of its bedrooms; 4 of which are in the main house, with the other 4 housed in the newly refurbished barn rooms just a few steps away from the main building. All bedrooms and areas of the hotel have undergone refurbishments over the past few years but we loved that the hotel still maintains all of its original character.

We stayed in one of the new barn rooms called ‘Sequoia’, which was absolutely perfect with Poppy and Maple in tow. With direct access to the vast grounds, our own table and chairs right outside the door for a morning coffee, yet only steps away from the dog friendly communal areas of the main building, we felt like we had the best of both worlds. Even better, no long list of dog rules to abide by – a big plus in our eyes.

Inside our room, the great first impressions continued, our room maintained all of the character of the original building, with exposed stone walls throughout, but including thoughtful additions like underfloor heating throughout, which just makes life so much easier with dogs and wet muddy walking boots!

We loved the decor of the room, with warm lighting and lovely soft furnishings to really up the cosy factor.

A special mention has to go to the walk in shower, which had water pressure I could only dream of having in my own home!

Probably the thing I loved most about Lancrigg was the wonderful communal areas in the main building. It’s easy to stay in a hotel and feel like you need to be cooped up in your room when you’re travelling with dogs, but this absolutely wasn’t the case during our stay here. All of our time in the evenings was spent either in the friendly bar, sharing stories from our day with other guests over dinner, or lounging by the fire with a glass of wine.

The lounge in particular was an absolutely stunning room, boasting a huge floor to ceiling bay window with views over the surrounding fells and cosy armchairs around the fire.

In the area

Lancrigg really is in the most fabulous location to explore the best of the Lake District, with so many incredible dog friendly things to do in such easy reach. We could barely scratch the surface on our weekend away, but see below for some inspiration of things to do while staying at Lancrigg.

Helm Crag

One thing we really love in a dog friendly stay is the option to have walks from the door of our accommodation, completely removing any of the stress of travelling and finding somewhere to park. So we were very pleased to find that the main path to Helm Crag, a stunning Wainwright overlooking Grasmere and the surrounding areas literally passes straight through the grounds of the hotel.

After a long journey up on the Friday, this seemed like a perfect leg stretch before dinner! It's a fairly short and steep route to the summit plateau, but the views are pretty much constant and the effort is certainly worth it. 

We didn't quite get the sunset from the top we were hoping for and had to descend with head torches, but it was such a treat to be able to tick off this little mountain right from our hotel room!

Grasmere Lake

Another option right from the door of Lancrigg, Grasmere Lake is a stunning lake just outside of the main village. We suggest walking along the western flank of the lake where you're away from the main road.

There are plenty of routes you can take to continue your walk including carrying on to Rydal Cave or along Loughrigg terrace which runs above the head of the lake and offers stunning views.

Loughrigg Fell

Another favourite of ours, in very easy reach of Lancrigg is Loughrigg Fell. We've written a blog post all about this walk which you can find here.

If there was one walk we could choose to give you a perfect flavour of the Lake District, this jaunt up to Loughrigg Fell and Rydal Cave would be it. With fells, lake views, swimming spots and an impressive cave on the list of things to explore, this varied walk ticks all the boxes for a perfect adventure on four paws.

While this walk generally starts from Ambleside, it would be fairly straightforward to come at it from the other direction instead. This alltrails route from Grasmere makes for a longer route, but takes in all of the same stunning views.

Overall, we absolutely loved our weekend at Lancrigg. Not only is it incredibly well placed for exploring the Lake District, but the rooms, the dog friendly welcome and the lovely staff all made it a weekend to remember. We wouldn’t hesitate in returning again.

Thanks for reading,

Cara, Andy, Poppy and Maple x

This post is a collaboration with Lancrigg and we enjoyed a complimentary 2 night stay in return for an honest review.

You can book your own luxury dog friendly stay with Lancrigg direct on their website here or via booking.com.