The Lake District is one of my favourite destinations for a UK break. The breath-taking scenery, the miles of amazing hiking and the fact that pretty much everywhere is dog-friendly makes it the perfect place.
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I was lucky enough to be invited to try out The Quiet Site, one of the Lake District’s most sustainable glamping sites. The Quiet Site is located in Penrith, overlooking Ullswater, and offers a range of glamping options as well as pitches for caravans and campervans.
There are also dog friendly options so you can bring your four-legged pal with you. Read on to find out what I thought to The Quiet Site glamping in the Lake District.
Accommodation
During our stay, we stayed in one of the Gingerbread Houses. These are gorgeous wooden cabins with a cosy Scandinavian feel.
These cabins really are the definition of glamping and I absolutely loved it. They’re quite basic – you need to bring your own bedding, cups, plates and cutlery.
In that way it feels like a proper adventure, just like camping (but more luxurious!).
However, they are super warm – no need to worry about getting cold during the night! And, of course, you don’t need to faff around putting a tent up – a nightmare when it’s raining.
These gorgeous cabins are carbon positive. They have a PV panelled roof, underfloor heating from a ground source and they’re wrapped in a ginger beech hedge which keeps them really cosy.
There’s plenty of storage too with shelves in the kitchen for your food and places for your bags underneath the bed.
They sleep up to two adults and three children but I think this might be a bit of a squeeze. However, with just the two of us (and Alfie!), it felt super spacious.
The Gingerbread House has a gorgeous kitchen with some self-catering facilities. The kitchen has a cute mini Belfast sink and stylish tiles.
There is a microwave and toaster and a BBQ platform outside for disposable BBQs. This is perfect for al fresco dining during summer.
You could also bring a camping stove with you for cooking outside.
Outside there is also a picnic table and a couple of additional wooden chairs. Despite us visiting in February, we sat out here to enjoy our breakfast and morning coffee – with our coats and hats on, of course!
This is a lovely area to enjoy dining al fresco during the summer months. It is also covered so you can sit out here even when it’s raining and breathe in that fresh Lake District air.
There are spectacular views of Ullswater from here too.
They also have an en-suite bathroom, something you don’t often get with a tent! The bathroom has a hot shower (perfect after a day in the drizzly fells!) and plenty of hooks for towels and wet gear.
Facilities
One of my favourite things on-site was the dog washing station which we made lots of use of! It was quite muddy during our stay so Alfie ended up quite dirty.
In the dog washing station there was a bath for small dogs and a larger shower area for bigger dogs. You could wash your boots here too.
We popped Alfie into the bath and washed the mud off him using the shower attachment. We massively appreciated this as it’s a nightmare when you take a muddy dog back to your room and try to wash or towel them off.
You usually end up with mud everywhere!
There is free wi-fi available throughout the site which means that you can work remotely from here. We used the wi-fi for streaming Netflix and it worked perfectly.
Food & drink
On site there is a bar where you can enjoy a few drinks. The bar is super cosy with a roaring fire and they have live music performances in there too sometimes.
It has a relaxed and friendly atmosphere and it’s a great place to enjoy a glass of wine. The bar dates back to 1680 and there is table football, a pool table and air hockey here too.
Although there isn’t a restaurant as such on site, there is a takeaway hut which serves breakfast in the morning and pizzas in the evening, as well as coffees throughout the day. You can then eat the pizzas on the benches outside here if the weather is fine, take them back to your cabin, or take them to the pub.
Of course, we chose to take them to the pub with us! The pizzas were delicious and they were the perfect choice for us as we had walked around 10 miles that day.
Pizza is my fave food too, so a big thumbs up from me!
Location
It’s all about location, location, location and The Quiet Site has it. Although it’s not too far from a main road, it really feels like you’re in the middle of nowhere.
It’s tranquil and surrounded by stunning scenery. There are great views of Ullswater from the site.
The Quiet Site is a perfect destination for a dog-friendly trip as there are plenty of hiking routes right from the door. We did a couple of lovely walks during our trip and there are some maps on The Quiet Site’s website for inspiration.
On our first day we got there quite late on in the afternoon so we did a short Bennethead and Longthwaite walk which was a quick two mile walk with lovely views of the lake.
You can also spot the area’s Herdwick sheep on this route. They’re big, fluffy sheep which have the cutest smiley faces. Be sure to keep dogs on leads so as not to startle them, especially if they have lambs.
On our second day we walked to Aira Force, a spectacular waterfall. The walk here and back was around eight miles in total and you can either walk there and back along the same route or take a circular route.
There were some amazing views of the lake and the surrounding fells on this one, despite the cloudy conditions.
We absolutely loved our stay at The Quiet Site – I couldn’t recommend it enough for a dog-friendly break. Alfie can’t wait to go back!
If you like the sound of The Quiet Site then find out more and book your stay on their website.
Other Lake District walks
If you’re looking for more walking inspiration in the Lake District then check out my Old Man of Coniston route or my Rawlinson Nab and Windermere Shore walk.
