Quiet Location – Off Street Parking – Mountain Views – Wood Burner – Historic Building

How Head Barn is a c.300 year old, Grade 2 Listed lakeland barn. It forms part of the historic How Head collection of buildings, the oldest in Ambleside.  The external walls are 2ft thick and contain stones originally taken from the Galava roman fort down by the River Rothay. There are exposed oak beams in every room which, as in most old buildings in The Lake District, were originally salvaged from broken up ships on the Cumbrian coast.

Up here in the oldest and quietest part of Ambleside, the barn sits on a spur of granite overlooking the town. There are no nearby houses less than 150 years old and the barn itself occupies the site of the first ever settlement here over 1,000 years ago.

Geographically, Ambleside sits at the centre of The Lake District National Park, England’s first and oldest national park.

Located just off the road to the top of Kirkstone Pass, the highest road pass in the Lake District, there is hardly any through traffic, yet we are only a two minute walk down ancient lanes to the very centre of town. If you’re using the what3words app, the location of How Head Barn is language.prepare.perfumes

Ambleside is the hub of everything to do with ‘the great outdoors’ here in The Lake District National Park, surrounded as we are by fells on three sides, whilst to the south is Windermere, England’s longest lake.

There are c.22 outdoor clothing and equipment retailers here, c.30 coffee houses, restaurants and cafes, together with some excellent specialist bookshops, galleries and old coaching inns. These pubs, such as The Golden Rule and The Unicorn, are very close by and serve local beers produced by some of the +30 micro breweries located here in the county of Cumbria.

Try Kysty for breakfast or The Rattle Gill Cafe for coffee and lunch. Bookshops – try Fred Holdsworth’s or The Lake District National Park whose website is full of ideas of things to do and places to go when visiting The Lake District.