Armathwaite Hall
Armathwaite Hall is a 17th-century country house on Bassenthwaite Lake in the northern Lake District, set in a 400-acre deer park with the family's own wildlife park a short walk across the grounds. Families come for that park, a lakeside estate to roam and one of the best-rated spas in the Lakes, wrapped up in a four-star country hotel six miles from Keswick.
On this page
Is it worth it?
The quick read before the detail: who this country house suits, and the facts to weigh first.
Armathwaite Hall is a grown-up country house hotel with a proper children's attraction on its doorstep. The spa is the headline, the estate and lake are yours to walk, and the family owns and runs the Lake District Wildlife Park a couple of minutes away, where hotel guests get in cheaply. What it isn't is a resort: there's no kids' club, no crèche and no childcare, the pool opens to children only in two short windows a day, and it's a period building on a hillside, so it isn't flat and buggy-easy throughout. You'll get the most out of it with children old enough to enjoy animals, walks and the outdoors, and with a plan of your own rather than a programme to hand them to.
Best for
You want a country house and a proper spa, a lakeside estate to roam and a wildlife park on the doorstep that younger children take to.
Maybe not for
You need a kids' club or childcare, all-day pool access for children or flat, buggy-easy ground throughout.
Best ages
Roughly two and up, once a child enjoys animals, the outdoors and a walk. Little structured provision below toddler age.
What stands out
The five-bubble spa, and the family's own Lake District Wildlife Park across the grounds.
What to check
The two daily children's pool windows, and cots and any baby kit to confirm with the hotel.
Where is it?
On Bassenthwaite Lake in the northern Lake District, about six miles from Keswick and 40 minutes from the M6.
Quick facts for families
What the hotel and estate are like
Where Armathwaite Hall sits, what the 400-acre estate gives you and how the old house works with a pushchair.
Armathwaite Hall is a 17th-century country house on the southern shore of Bassenthwaite Lake, in the northern Lake District, about six miles north-west of Keswick. It sits in 400 acres of its own deer park and woodland, under the bulk of Skiddaw, with the water and the northern fells laid out in front of it. The Graves family have owned and run it since 1976, building it up over that time into a four-star hotel with a large spa, and it carries the AA's Inspectors' Choice mark, Condé Nast Johansens' Best Countryside Hotel 2026 award and membership of Pride of Britain Hotels. Bassenthwaite is the only stretch of water in the whole Lake District that is actually called a lake, the rest being meres and waters, and ospreys have nested along it since 2001, so the setting is a working part of the Lake District National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, rather than a backdrop. For the wider area, its walks and its other lakes, see our Lake District guide.
The estate is as much the point here as the hotel. You can walk from the door into woodland and down to the lakeshore, and the family's wildlife park sits a few minutes across the grounds. The house itself is a period building on a rise, so inside there are steps, changing levels and the narrow passages that come with a building of its age. Ground-floor access is there for the restaurant, bar, spa and some bedrooms, with reserved parking and a rear courtyard entrance, and the hotel states it meets the Disability Discrimination Act. If getting a buggy in and out easily matters to you, the ground-floor rooms that open straight onto the garden are the ones to ask about: they're advertised for dogs, but that step-free garden access is just as useful with a pushchair.
The rooms and suites
Every room category, which ones suit a family and how the children's rates work.
There are over 40 individually designed rooms across eight categories, spread through the main house, a spa wing and a garden wing. No two are the same, and the hotel doesn't publish room sizes, so the choice is mostly about which part of the house you want to be in, the view and whether you need a suite's separate sitting area. The table below is the full line-up; the guidance after it is which ones suit a family.
| Room | Beds | Where and the view | Good to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Club Rooms | Double or king | Main Hall and Spa Wing; garden, deer park or courtyard views | The smallest category |
| Feature Rooms | King, queen or twin | Throughout the main house and spa; garden and courtyard views | Individually designed, with a bathroom television |
| Deluxe Rooms | King, double or twin | Main Hall and Spa Wing; park, garden or courtyard views | The hotel points families here, with an extra bed added |
| Deluxe Lake View Rooms | King, queen or twin | Main House, looking across the gardens to Bassenthwaite Lake | The lake view without moving up to a suite |
| Garden Suites | King | The garden wing | A sitting area with a fireplace |
| Estate Suites | King or super-king | Main house or The Loft near the brasserie and spa; deer park, woodland or courtyard views | Sitting area with a fireplace; more recently refurbished |
| Studio Suites | King | Lake or garden views; four of them only | The top tier; a sitting area with a fireplace, a spa or sunken bath and his-and-her basins in some, a music centre and a rooftop terrace in the Hartley Tower one |
| Family Rooms | Extra beds, including bunks | Arranged around children | Interconnecting rooms available for a separate children's or grandparents' bedroom |
For a family, the room set up for children is the Family Room, with extra beds including bunks. If you'd rather the children had their own space, the hotel can book an interconnecting room alongside, giving older children or grandparents a separate bedroom; that adjoining room is charged as a second room at the child rate. The Deluxe Rooms are the other family option, large enough to take an additional bed, and the hotel points families towards them.
Children's prices are structured rather than free, and worth confirming when you book because tariffs change. Under-12s sharing your room are charged £25 a child a night, breakfast included; under-16s in a room of their own get 25% off the bed-and-breakfast rate; and a deluxe family room with an adjoining twin runs £60 a child a night, again with breakfast included (all last checked June 2026). Under-16s go out on the boat hire free.
Every room comes with Egyptian cotton bedding and mattress toppers, a Freeview television, a direct-dial phone, a tea and coffee tray, a hairdryer, an iron and board, a robe and slippers and a private bath or shower, and most have a second television in the bathroom. There's no minibar, room service runs around the clock and Wi-Fi reaches some rooms rather than all, so ask if being online matters. If you're bringing a dog, up to two are allowed in the ground-floor dog-friendly rooms at £25 a dog a night (last checked June 2026), though availability there is limited so it's worth booking early, and dogs aren't allowed in the dining rooms or the spa.
Every restaurant and bar
Each place to eat, how booking works and where children fit at each meal.
Meals aren't bundled into one all-inclusive rate here. A short break is normally bed and breakfast, with dinner added only on specific dinner-inclusive packages and no full-board option, so dinners beyond breakfast are booked and paid for as you go. There are two main restaurants, an Indian dining room, lighter all-day eating and afternoon tea.
The Dining Room, also called the Lake View Restaurant, is the formal one, holding two AA Rosettes for contemporary British cooking built on seasonal Cumbrian produce, with a cellar of 110 curated bottles. It's open to non-residents as well as hotel guests, with a reservation. It serves dinner Wednesday to Sunday, roughly half past six to a quarter to nine, and is closed for dinner on Monday and Tuesday; Sunday lunch runs half past twelve to two. Dress is smart casual and booking ahead is essential. Children are welcome and there's a children's menu, but this is the one real catch for families: there are no highchairs at dinner, though they're out for daytime service and Sunday lunch. Sunday lunch is priced at £30 for two courses or £39 for three per adult, and £16 or £20 per child (last checked June 2026). So the evening here suits a child who will sit at the table, and buggy-aged children are better served at lunch.
The Grill, the hotel's bar and brasserie, is the informal everyday option, open daily from midday to nine in the evening for steak and seafood, with a Sunday roast running midday to five. Dress is stylish yet informal, and it's open to non-residents too. It's the more relaxed room and the easier one with children, though it's worth asking whether there's a separate children's menu here. Booking is recommended rather than required.
Zaika serves Indian food in its own dining room. Its days and hours aren't fixed in advance, so treat it as a call-ahead to see what's on when you're there, and ask whether there's a children's menu.
The Bar and Conservatory handle lighter daytime eating, with lake views from the Conservatory and the Lake Room, a lake-view patio and the Hall Lounge with its fireplace, and they'll pack a walkers' backpack or a hamper if you want to eat out on the estate. It's a daytime option to ask about rather than one you can time in advance. There's also a cocktail bar for a drink before dinner.
Afternoon tea runs daily from half past twelve to five in the public rooms, with sandwiches, scones, cakes and pastries, plus vegan or coeliac versions if you give notice. It's booked ahead and priced in four tiers: a traditional tea is £39 a head, a sparkling version with Prosecco £45, a champagne tea £50 and a celebration tea with cocktails £51 (all last checked June 2026). Ask about children's pricing when you book. Dining tables cancelled inside 24 hours carry a per-person charge, more for dinner than for lunch or tea.
Eating with young children
Lunch is the easier meal here. The Grill is the relaxed all-day room if you want somewhere less formal with children, and there's no buffet anywhere, so every evening meal is a sit-down booking, which is worth bearing in mind if your child struggles with a long table.
The spa, pools and hydrotherapy
The pool and its children's windows, the hydrotherapy pools and the adults-only spa.
The spa is what Armathwaite Hall is best known for. It was built in a multi-million-pound expansion in 2009, holds the Good Spa Guide's top five-bubble rating and won the Good Spa Guide's 2015 Best Real Results award. For a family it's a mixed picture: the pool has set children's hours, and everything else in the spa is essentially an adults' space.
The centrepiece is a heated 16-metre indoor infinity pool, 1.2 metres deep the whole way, looking out over the landscape. Children under 16 can use it in two windows a day, 8:00 to 9:30 in the morning and 5:00 to 6:00 in the late afternoon, and an adult has to be in the water with them; outside those hours the pool is for over-16s. That's the single most important thing for a family to plan around: for a morning swim you need to be in before breakfast, and the late-afternoon slot is the other chance. There's also a shallower, indoor wallow pool at one metre, calm water suited to less confident swimmers, and for children the same two pool windows apply. On top of that there's an indoor hydrotherapy pool with a neck shower and mood lighting, and an outdoor hydrotherapy pool heated to 36 degrees year round with 27 spa jets, an infinity edge and views over the gardens. The hydrotherapy pools are set up as adult spa amenities, so treat them as over-16s. Pool and spa access comes with a stay, from the 3pm check-in through to the 11am checkout.
The rest of the spa is for adults, 16 and over. On the wet side there's a sauna with garden views, a steam room with an amethyst feature, a salt inhalation room and tropical and rain showers. On the dry side, a Life Fitness gym, an exercise studio, two relaxation rooms called Hush and Tranquillity, a lounge with a fireplace, the covered Tranquillity Terrace, an outdoor sun terrace and ten treatment rooms including a couples' room with a whirlpool bath. The spa opens 7am to 9pm Monday to Saturday and 8am to 8pm on Sundays.
Treatments use the Temple Spa, VOYA and Made For Life Organics ranges, the last developed with oncology masseurs for sensitive skin. Spa days are all adults-only, running from a Sunrise Spa (7:30am to 10am, £70 on weekdays or £80 on a bank holiday Monday) up to a Serenity Full Spa Day (10am to 6pm, with a treatment and a two-course lunch at The Grill, £200 on weekdays or £210 at weekends, strictly 18 and over); in between sits an Escape Half Day (four hours with a treatment, £140 on weekdays or £150 at weekends), plus a Mother to Be Day, a Sereni-Tea half day, a Head Spa & Reset and a Sunset Spa (all prices last checked June 2026). Private hire of the spa isn't priced up front, so ask when you enquire if you want it to yourselves. There's a New Beginnings Pregnancy Massage for a parent expecting a new baby, a 50-minute full-body treatment built around the bump with a face and scalp massage, at £105 (last checked June 2026); the usual advice while pregnant is to skip the sauna, steam, hydrotherapy pools, hot tub, deep tissue work, hot stones and CBD treatments, with particular caution in the first 12 weeks.
The Lake District Wildlife Park
The park the family owns and runs, the guest deal on it and everything else the estate and lake lay on.
The Lake District Wildlife Park is the family's own, a short walk across the estate, and it's the thing that makes Armathwaite Hall work for younger children. It's a real attraction in its own right, drawing more than 50,000 visitors a year, with lemurs, meerkats, alpacas, Grant's zebras, birds of prey, reptiles, otters, gibbons and tapirs, alongside conservation work with partners like the Red Panda Network. For children there's an adventure playground, tractor rides, soft play, a tearoom and a gift shop, and daily demonstrations including keeper talks and bird of prey shows, included in standard admission.
Hotel guests get a good deal on it: two adults in for the price of one, and children go free, which is a real saving on the gate price. Standard admission is £15.95 for an adult and £13.95 for a child aged three and up, with a family ticket for two adults and two children at £56 and under-threes free (all last checked June 2026), so the guest deal is worth having. You can pre-book with your stay or ask at reception on arrival. In spring and summer it opens daily from 10am to 5pm, and in winter it runs Wednesday to Sunday from 10am to 4pm, closed on Mondays and Tuesdays and on Christmas Day and New Year's Day, with last entry an hour before closing. There are annual passes too if you think you'll be back.
Two things at the park are just for hotel guests, and separate from the wildlife park's own standard demonstrations. The Apprentice Zookeeper experience lets children meet, groom and feed the animals alongside the keepers, and there's a birds of prey display staged in the deer park a couple of minutes' walk from the hotel. Ask the hotel for the zookeeper session's ages and prices when you book.
Things to do on the estate and the lake
Beyond the wildlife park, the estate and the lake are the draw. There's no beach here: Armathwaite Hall borders Bassenthwaite, but the water is reached through the grounds, with no managed bathing beach and no lifeguard, so it's a lakeshore to walk and paddle at the edge of rather than a swimming beach. The nearest proper bathing waters, Windermere, Coniston and Buttermere, are elsewhere in the park.
On the water, the hotel runs paddleboarding and guided wild swimming on the lake, and under-16s go out on the boat hire free. On land, a conservation officer from the wildlife park leads guided fell walks through the estate woodland, looking for roe deer, red squirrels and kingfishers and out to the lakeshore for the ospreys; self-guided maps are at reception, and the Wainwright walks up Sale Fell and Skiddaw start from close by.
There's a longer list of estate activities, most of them exclusive to hotel guests: archery and clay pigeon shooting, alpaca walking, a guided photography course, canoeing and kayaking, plus a two-hour forest bathing session, minimum two people, at £110 a head (last checked June 2026), that suits adults or older teenagers more than small children. Sailing, raft building, tree-top adventures, fishing and tennis appear on the hotel's lists too. Confirm prices and minimum ages for most of these with the hotel; where a class is described as suiting older children, take that as the guide until you've checked. There are also adult fitness classes through the week, from circuits and HIIT to yoga and Pilates, booked in advance.
Off the estate, the hotel's partnership with the Theatre by the Lake in Keswick gives guests £3 off tickets (last checked June 2026), and its repertory programme includes family shows.
Babies and toddlers
What is and isn't laid on for the youngest children, and the things to confirm before you book.
Armathwaite Hall is a country house hotel and spa, not a resort with childcare, and it's worth being clear about that before you book. There's no crèche, no kids' club and nobody laid on to mind the children. The family draw is the wildlife park, the estate and the pool windows, so it suits children old enough to enjoy animals and the outdoors, roughly two and up. Below toddler age there's little structured provision, and it works best for parents happy to plan their own days rather than hand the children to a programme.
Baby equipment shouldn't be taken as given: cots, highchairs, monitors and baby food aren't guaranteed, so confirm what the hotel can provide before you travel. Highchairs are out for daytime dining and Sunday lunch in The Dining Room but not at dinner, and it's worth checking whether The Grill or Zaika have them. The pool, as noted, opens to under-16s only in the morning and late-afternoon windows, with an adult in the water. None of this makes it a poor choice with young children, but it does mean the practical baby logistics need a phone call to the hotel first.
The area and days out
Keswick and the northern Lakes on the doorstep, and how far the honeypot towns are from here.
The hotel sits in the northern Lake District, which puts a different set of days out within reach than a base down at Windermere.
Keswick, about six miles south, is the practical hub: a proper lake town on Derwentwater with hop-on-hop-off boat trips, the Theatre by the Lake, Keswick Museum and Art Gallery and the Derwent Pencil Museum, the Alhambra Cinema, indoor climbing at Kong Adventure and the Castlerigg Stone Circle just outside town. Closer still, Dodd Wood a mile or two along the road has woodland walks, red squirrels and a tearoom at the old sawmill, and is one of the spots to watch the Bassenthwaite ospreys; its car park is open 24 hours and pay-on-exit, up to £13 for the day. Whinlatter, a few miles south-west, is England's only true mountain forest, with mountain biking, Go Ape tree-top courses, a café and visitor centre, and views back over Bassenthwaite and Derwentwater. Skiddaw and Sale Fell are walkable straight from the estate, Skiddaw being one of the more manageable of the high fells.
Further out you're into most-of-a-day trips. Lowther Castle near Penrith, about 30 miles (48 km) away, has a big adventure playground; Beatrix Potter's Hill Top, with admission at £17 for an adult, £8.50 for a child and £42.50 for a family (last checked June 2026), and the separate World of Beatrix Potter experience are down near Windermere, also around 30 miles (48 km) off. Hill Top has cobbled paths and stairs with limited wheelchair access, and pre-booking is required if you're arriving by car. The Lakes Distillery is only a few miles away with a family-friendly café, and over towards the coast there's the Ravenglass and Eskdale miniature steam railway and Muncaster Castle with its owl centre. The thing to know is the geography: the central and southern honeypots, Windermere, Bowness, Ambleside and Coniston, are 25 to 35 miles (40 to 56 km) away and take most of a day, so Keswick is the town you'll actually pop into.
Loves and gripes
What guests rate and what frustrates them, the drive in and the weather to plan around.
Across the review sites the hotel rates well overall: 4.6 out of 5 on Google from around 1,430 reviews, 4 out of 5 ("Very Good") on TripAdvisor from around 2,815 reviews, ranking it sixth of 20 hotels in Keswick, and 8.7 out of 10 on Booking.com from 245 reviews (all last checked July 2026).
What guests love
- The lake and fell views, from the rooms and across the grounds.
- The spa, which comes up again and again as the high point of a stay.
- The wildlife park, especially with younger children.
- The long-serving, friendly staff.
- The dining and the setting of the estate.
Common gripes
- The premium price, on the food and the extras in particular.
- Some unevenness in housekeeping and room temperature.
- The two short children's pool windows, the main frustration for families.
- No kids' club or childcare, a gap if you're expecting a resort programme.
Getting there and when to go
Armathwaite Hall is a drive-to hotel, and having a car makes the most sense for the days out too. It's about 40 minutes from the M6 at junction 40 near Penrith, roughly two hours from Manchester Airport (118 miles, 190 km), an hour and a half from Newcastle Airport (77 miles, 124 km), and about two hours and a quarter from Edinburgh (114 miles, 183 km), with Glasgow a similar distance away. There's free parking on site for up to 80 cars, along with electric-car charging.
There's no hotel shuttle, so by train you'll change to the road for the last leg: the nearest station is Penrith, about 22 miles (35 km) away and roughly four hours from London Euston, and from there it's a taxi, hire car or pre-booked transfer, since there's no direct bus and Keswick has no station of its own. Bikes can be stored on site at your own risk. Weekends need a minimum two-night stay and bank holidays three.
Weather
The Lake District is one of the wettest corners of England, and the hotel is open all year, so the weather is worth planning around rather than hoping on. Rain is likely in any month and comes heaviest from autumn into winter, while late spring and summer are the driest and warmest stretch, as the month-by-month table below sets out. Frosts run from late autumn into spring and snow is common on the fell tops, so pack waterproofs and warm layers whatever the season.
For a family, summer brings the warmest, longest and driest days but also the peak crowds; late spring is another of the drier, quieter windows, and September is quieter still once the school holidays end. Whenever you come, waterproofs and wellies aren't optional, and the spa, the indoor pool and the wildlife park give you solid wet-day cover, remembering the park closes on Mondays and Tuesdays through winter.
| Month | Daytime high | Overnight low | Rain | Wet days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7° | 1° | 218 mm | 18 |
| February | 7.5° | 1° | 192 mm | 16 |
| March | 9° | 2° | 167 mm | 15 |
| April | 12° | 3° | 114 mm | 14 |
| May | 15.5° | 5.5° | 114 mm | 13 |
| June | 17.5° | 8.5° | 109 mm | 14 |
| July | 20° | 10.5° | 108 mm | 12 |
| August | 19.5° | 10° | 133 mm | 13 |
| September | 17° | 8° | 153 mm | 14 |
| October | 13.5° | 6° | 242 mm | 19 |
| November | 9.5° | 3° | 216 mm | 20 |
| December | 7° | 1° | 230 mm | 18 |
Typical monthly averages from weather-station records. Armathwaite Hall is open all year.
Questions
The things families ask most, the useful links and when this guide was last refreshed.
Can children use the pool whenever they like?
No. Under-16s can only swim in two windows a day, 8:00 to 9:30 in the morning and 5:00 to 6:00 in the late afternoon, and there has to be an adult in the water with them. The morning slot is the longer of the two.
Will there be a cot and a highchair for our room?
Don't assume either is provided. Call or email to confirm a cot before you travel, and note that the restaurant highchairs are out for daytime service but not at dinner.
Do we need a car?
Effectively yes. There's no hotel shuttle and no direct bus, the nearest station is Penrith about 22 miles off, and the good days out are all a drive away. Parking on site is free, so a car is the easy option.
Is it suitable for a baby or a young toddler?
It can be, but there's little laid on below toddler age and no childcare, so it suits parents happy to build their own days around the pool windows, the grounds and the wildlife park rather than a programme.
Are there minimum stays?
Yes. Weekends need two nights and bank holidays three, so check that against your dates before you set your heart on a single night.
Is the spa open to children?
Only the main indoor pool, in the two daily windows. The saunas, steam room, hydrotherapy pools and treatments are all for over-16s, and the spa days are adults-only.
Can we eat at Zaika any night?
Its days and hours aren't fixed in advance, so check what's running during your stay rather than counting on the Indian restaurant being open every evening.
See more Armathwaite Hall photos
Open the Armathwaite Hall photo gallery →Useful links
- Armathwaite Hall: the hotel's own site for rooms, dining, the spa and family breaks.
- Lake District Wildlife Park: opening times, prices and what's on at the park.
- Lake District with little ones: our guide to the wider area, its walks and its lakes.
Last updated 12 July 2026.
