Where to eat

Our closest pub is a mile up the road - the Cross Keys at Cautley Spout. The food is delightfully old fashioned and I believe all still cooked on an Aga. It is also a Temperance Inn which means it doesn’t serve alcohol, but it makes up for this by having the most extensive soft drinks menu I’ve ever seen! And you can take your own alcohol. The story behind the Temperance Inn goes back a couple of hundred years when apparently the landlord drowned saving a drunk patron who fell in the river. The family then vowed never to sell another drop. Then when the National Trust took it on they honoured this and the tradition continues to this day.

Slightly further afield, a 7 minute drive into Sedbergh, we have the Black Bull and the Dalesman. Both excellent pubs serving delicious food. The Dalesman isn’t dog friendly but the Black Bull is. The latter has a bar and a restaurant, depending on your needs, and I’ve often popped in for a coffee during the day when I’ve needed to work-from-home-not-at-home. They have a woodburning stove which is lit all winter long and makes it super cosy.

15 minutes in the other direction (north) is Ravenstonedale, a picturesque village boasting 3 pubs - the Fat Lamb, the King’s Head and the Black Swan. My local friend who is a food writer describes the latter as ‘swanky’ which is a pretty high praise if you ask me!

A little bit further in the same direction is the The Engine Shed (outskirts of Kirkby Stephen) which is a campsite with big barn selling absolutely delicious burgers. We’ve had some great summer evenings here with the kids running around outside (there’s a playground and toys) so it’s a great family friendly choice.

If you want to venture as far as Kendal (30 minute drive) you are absolutely spoilt for choice for restaurants, but if I had to pick two I’d go for Ramble or Comeda. Book for both as they are popular, and if you’re a bigger group or a family I’d say Comeda is slightly better suited just because it’s bigger. But both have delicious food and great atmosphere.

Wild Swimming

One of the most common questions we’ve been asked recently is where can we recommend to swim locally. We are located in the Rawthey Valley, and the River Rawthey runs through the hamlet of Cautley just 200m from the door. (Yes we named our second child after this river!)

For a very shallow paddle (or to wash your dog!!) you can pop over the way down a little lane signposted to Step’s End and there is a ford where you can cross the river when it’s low enough.

This is our favourite doggy paddle spot as it’s shallow enough for dogs to jump in and out easily without getting stuck or swept away! Do be mindful though in very wet weather the river can rise very quickly, cutting off the ford and our neighbours on the other side of it. In the summer this is a lovely safe spot for toddlers to paddle in too, and we once took our kayak down there to give our 3 year old a taste of boating!

At the other end of the spectrum, Uldale Force is one of my personal favourites. There is an excellent blog post explaining how to get there, where to park, and the route into the waterfall, so I won't go over all that again here. However, this is not one for the feint hearted. The walk in turns into a scramble in places, and when we’ve been our children were young enough to be carried safely, I think it could be tricky for slightly older children (or adults!) who aren’t sure-footed and used to scrabbling around on the side of a fell!

If you are up for an adventure though, it is well worth it. When you get to the waterfall itself it honestly takes your breath away (and that’s before you’ve jumped into the icy cold water!!) The pool is deep enough for jumping in and you can pretty much guarantee you’ll be the only people there so don’t worry if you’ve forgotten your cossie! The walk in on a hot day is the perfect way to work up the courage (or sweat) to tempt you into the water to cool off.

Another spot we love is Cautley Spout. Cautley Spout is the highest cascade in England (our claim to fame!) and if you’re fairly fit you can walk all the way up to the top of it alongside the waterfall. However it is fairly steep so I’d probably only recommend it if you are a confident hiker and not scared of heights. In winter we have known the waterfall to freeze over and Jonny has ice-climbed it which is pretty epic. Obviously something to attempt only if you are an extremely experienced winter climber!

But the nice thing about Cautley Spout is that its accessible to all - you don’t have to be an expert climber or hiker and get to the top to appreciate it. If you drive about a mile up the road from Ridge House you’ll come to the Cross Keys pub where you can park. There is a bridge across the river here and you can walk towards Cautley Spout along a very easy flat wide path. There are a number of spots to have a dip in here and its a beautiful open part of the valley where you can appreciate the views up to Yarlside, Cautley Spout and the surrounding fells. There are sheep roaming here (as they do everywhere round us) so be sure to keep your dog under close supervision if you have one.

Another lovely spot for a dip which I spent a lot of sunny days with the kids at is Millthrop Bridge. You do need to drive there (or cycle if you’ve brought bikes), but it’s not far. Head towards Sedbergh (3 miles south) and left at the roundabout signposted towards Dent. You’ll cross Millthrop Bridge (the hamlet of Millthrop is just beyond this) and you can park in the lay-by on the other side. Then you just need to squeeze through the tiny gate onto the public footpath and you’ll see a large stoney beach which is perfect for picnics. It gets the afternoon sun too which is lovely, and the river is a good enough depth here for swimming.

There are loads more swim spots locally - too many to write about! But I hope that gives you a flavour. Wild swimming is one of our favourite things to do in the summer here. I’m not one of these year-round swimmers, the earliest I’ve managed is March when the water felt absolutely freezing! So hats off to anyone who does it through the winter!

How it all started

We bought Ridge House in 2017, the year we got engaged, and moved in on a freezing December day. It was damp, cold, draughty, mouldy, and there was ice on the inside of the windows! But we were full of youthful enthusiasm and couldn’t wait to get started on our project: our forever home. Jonny’s mum had painstakingly cleaned the 1950s kitchen for us on the day we completed. But that evening, on finding that the asbestos backed oven was melting the 18 year old dishwasher next to it, we decided to rip it out instead and Jonny put his carpentry skills to good use and constructed a temporary plywood kitchen just in time for Christmas!

We lived like that for 3 years - a temporary woodburner with a back boiler providing some heating and hot water - and on the days we got in late we’d go to bed with hats on. Then in the spring of 2020 I quit my job, lockdown happened, I got pregnant, and we decided to crack on with the house! We demolished the leaky, draughty, rotten 1970s extension and Jonny dug out 250 tonnes of earth to make space for the new kitchen diner and two bedrooms above. In true Grand Designs style I was nail gunning shingles to the roof without knowing I was pregnant! We got the extension done in time for our daughter to be born by the fire on a freezing January day in 2021 and then got snowed in for a week.

Once she’d learnt to walk to we started work on the old part of the house, originally a school. Jonny built a temporary shed on the patio for the three of us to sleep in, and we put a temporary loo and bath in the utility room. Typically I got pregnant again, and we managed to finish the old half of the house just in time for our son to be born, also at home, in spring 2023.

A (nearly) finished house, a family of four, done and dusted. What more could we want? But of course, it’s the process we enjoy (are addicted to?) and we are now embarking on our next project…

Ridge House is a very special place to us. Most of what you see around you had been hand made by Jonny, from the kitchen to the table and benches, the oak light mounts to the window cills and copper loo roll holders. We’ve poured blood sweat and tears into this house, and created what we think is a very special place. Take in the views, pause for a while, don’t get cross at the owl for keeping you up at night. Go outside on a clear night and look at the stars. They are amazing. Take a little piece of Ridge House home with you. We love sharing this special place with people. We hope your stay here fills you up with whatever you need, rest, rejuvenation, recalibration. And we hope to see you again soon.