BOWNESS -ON- WINDERMERE.

A cottage style building with stone flagged beer garden out front off a small lane near main car park on the Windermere to Bowness road (A592). Inside a narrow door with a small step down to the bar. There are 2 bars, Smithy's bar is down another, larger, step and is cozy and snug with a stained glass window on one wall and real beamed ceiling. Stone floors and real range fire keep you warm here. Seats are wooden tables and chairs. The first bar on entrance is long and narrow with a huge wooden bar facing you. Hops hang from the real beamed ceiling as does a collection of toilet pots(?). lots of stuffed 'real' animals adorn the walls and can be quite tasteless when you are eating (12-2 & 6-9). Old pictures also adorn the walls and the walls are wood panelled half way up. Seating is wooden settles and country kitchen tables and chairs. A fruit machine is at one end, a huge real fire at the other. This is a Hartley's pub and serves well kept XB, Robinsons Best, Frederick's and Old Tom at this visit. Food is good with vegetarian choice on the blackboard, the menu is constructed on the day by the landlady from fresh ingredients (eating recommended) - average price £6-7 (whole pheasant £9.95). A small beer garden at the front for summer. Toilets are difficult to negotiate for the disabled, but should be seen as they are majorly tiled. Upstairs there is another room with juke box for noisy people. 3 minutes from the lake and boat trip jetty. Access not good for wheelchairs (steps). No accommodation here but try: Denehurst Guest House, 40 Queens Drive, Bowness-on-Windermere, LA23 2EL, (01539) 444710. from Single £20, Double £36 per room.

This pub is set a stones throw from the banks of the lake. Originally the building was part of the parish church opposite. It has a single bar that flows through two rooms in an 'L' shape. There is plenty of red button velour seating (alcoves shaped with wooden partitions, some with stained glass). Tables are rough stripped oak (some butchers style blocks) which compliment the low beamed ceiling. Seating is a mixture of benches and chairs on a dark carpet. A TV and fruit machine are close to the bar. Around the picture rail are bottled beers and old street name signs from the local area. A real fire warms the weary as they examine the food blackboard above it. For your comfort in the summer there is air-conditioning. Normally it has three or four guest ales on, but during the week it often has less, though they had 5 ales on this ocassion. The beers being served on this occasion there were Jennings Cumberland Ale, Pedigree, Castle Eden Ale, and Hawkshead Bitter. Food is served (all day in summer) in the bar, though there is a restaurant too (till 10pm). The food is filling and there is plenty of it for an average £8.45 - plenty of choice for vegetarians too - £7.95. Toilets are basic for men and women. Beer garden out front on wooden benches, limited car parking here also. Access for the disabled is up a step or two into the pub, some have deemed it OK for wheelchair access. No accommodation here. 

This blue and white pub has a shop-like front to it with big windows you can see through to the inside. Two rooms, both basic decor, benches, wooden tables, chairs and stools, juke box in corner, fruit machine. Food is served here, basic but wholesome. The pub serves Jennings ales. Accommodation here £40.

Other accommodation in Bowness-on-Windermere.

Dene House,
Kendal Road
Bowness on Windermere
Cumbria
LA23 3EW
015394 48236  phone/fax
email jdene@globalnet.co.uk

Dene house is a typical Lakeland House, 5 mins walk from village and lake, AA. 4 Diamond rated accommodation, Home baking, and Hearty Breakfasts, Great friendly atmosphere, staff very helpful and there to help you enjoy your holiday.

En-suite prices range from £24 per person per night, midweek to £25 per person weekends( Nov to June) to £27.50 per person per night (July to October) discount will be given for groups and longer stays than 3 days