Forest Side

Forest Side stands in the vale that Wordsworth called home, a grey-stone Victorian Gothic mansion looking over Grasmere towards the fells. Rescued and re-imagined in the mid-2010s, it stripped away country-house chintz for a cleaner Cumbrian aesthetic—natural timber, wool, muted greens—that lets the landscape through the windows do the decorating.

The reason most guests make the journey is the restaurant, which has held a Michelin star for its fiercely local cooking built around the hotel's own restored Victorian kitchen garden and foraged ingredients from the surrounding fells. Menus read like a map of the valley—herbs, roots and berries travelling metres rather than miles—and the wine and juice pairings are handled with equal conviction. Dinner here is the Lake District's most compelling contemporary food experience.

The twenty rooms range from snug fell-view doubles under the eaves to generous master rooms with freestanding baths facing the crags. There is no spa; instead, walking boots by the door and drying rooms speak to the real local wellness programme, with Easedale Tarn and Helm Crag within striking distance of breakfast. Forest Side suits couples and walkers who want their gastronomy serious and their surroundings sublime.