30th September 2019

Conkers, the symbol of autumn, and a great game for generations of children (and the not so young). But what else can you do with the fruits of the horse chestnut tree? There’s plenty of them around this autumn, and right now they’re just starting to fall. It’s fun to collect them, to take the […]

11th September 2019

This is not an age-related offer, but…… We know that life can get a bit more challenging as you get older. We know that the young at heart, of all ages, love coming to stay here at the hostel. They love our home cooking with a glass of wine or good local ale available, and [...]

11th September 2019

Twenty three before tea? Well, we were certainly fortified by a hostel breakfast before we set off on this challenge, inspired by Paul Tierney’s record-breaking run around all the Wainwrights. Place Elterwater at the middle of the map, take a photo, and there are 23 Wainwright tops in the rectangle. And when some fellrunners on […]

4th September 2019

A pint or two after a long day in the hills: what could be more satisfying. There are some great pubs in the Lake District and we’ve chosen our favourite five “locals” to share with you. OUR nearest is the Britannia, virtually stumbling distance away from our front gate. A traditional Lakeland inn, it’s at the [...]

26th August 2019

This week we welcomed to our ensuite room at the hostel the winners of our prize draw at this year’s Ambleside Sports, Tony and Betty Bowman. As they arrived, we suggested that we would like a snap for the blog and Tony said, if he had known, he would have brought his running kit. We thought [...]

15th July 2019

We’re looking forward to Ambleside Sports next week,  the best family day out in the Lakes, when we will see young fell runners competing for the Elterwater Independent Hostel trophies. We stepped in last year with prizes for the new “under-nines” category in the hugely popular Guides races, and we saw some fantastic performances from [...]

8th July 2019

Twenty three Wainwrights and back in time for tea…could this be the new challenge for fellwalkers and runners? When we published our map of Wainwrights within reach of the hostel, after Paul Tierney’s record-breaking run round ALL of them, our list of 23 caught the imagination of many Lakes lovers on social media. Not content [...]

21st June 2019

Paul Tierney’s new record for completing all the Wainwrights in the Lake District has captured the attention of the world. (BBC news / ITV news) It’s a remarkable new record, six days six hours and five minutes to run over 214 Lakeland fells, breaking Steve Birkinshaw’s record by seven hours. Climbing Harter Fell at night. [...]

14th June 2019

Paul Tierney set off this morning (Friday) on a very big challenge to attempt a new record for running ALL the Wainwright fells in the Lakes. That’s 214 mountain summits, a distance of 320 miles, and around 118,000ft of climbing. And he’s aiming to do it in just over six days. Lots of our visitors […]

12th June 2019

Water’s free – and you’re very welcome to call here at Elterwater Independent Hostel and refill from our outside tap. In fact, it doesn’t seem so long ago that everyone carried a reusable water bottle. Now we have to mark National Refill Day to prevent millions of single-use plastic bottles from polluting our streets and our […]