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The Cross Keys Temperance Inn, Cautley

The Cross Keys at Cautley is a 500-year-old National Trust-owned temperance inn at the foot of Cautley Spout, where the Howgill Fells rise above the A684 between Sedbergh and Kirkby Stephen. No alcohol is served, though guests are welcome to bring their own - glasses are provided and no corkage is charged. The food is good, home-cooked and unhurried, and the setting is beautiful, with Yarlside rising behind. Dogs are welcome in the lounge area, though not in the tabled restaurant area, so it counts as one of the dog friendly pubs round here with a caveat attached. The Cross Keys sits at the start of the walk to Cautley Spout, so it is a natural fit for a slow wellness or retreat day - the walk in along the river, cold air off the falls, and tea and lunch at the inn afterwards. The sort of place that suits the dale rather than interrupts it.

The Cross Keys is a National Trust temperance inn at Cautley, a few miles out of Sedbergh towards the Howgills, close to Cautley Spout - the highest waterfall in England by total drop. It has been a temperance inn since 1902, when Mrs Edith Adelaide Bunney bought the place and removed the liquor license, and no alcohol has been served here since. What you get instead is a book cafe selling second-hand books on history, local history and nature, and a small farmhouse-style restaurant doing daytime meals and snacks with evening meals available too, for which booking is essential.

There are two rooms for bed and breakfast if you want to stay. The inn sits at the foot of Cautley Spout in the heart of the Howgills, and the walk up to the waterfall is one of the more dramatic in the area - the Cautley Spout cascade drops around 650 feet down the fellside above the inn. National Trust ownership means the building itself is looked after, and the flagged floors and thick walls are what you'd expect from a place this old.

The Cross Keys is dog friendly with one condition worth knowing before you set off, which is that dogs are allowed in the lounge area but not in the tabled restaurant area. If you are walking up to Cautley Spout with the dog and want lunch afterwards, ask for the lounge when you come in. It is worth knowing before you turn up, because that split catches people out.

Cross Keys Temperance Inn

Stay Near Cross Keys Temperance Inn

We have three holiday cottages in Garsdale you can use as a base for visiting Cross Keys Temperance Inn.

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