Another Place: key info
Cost: From £180pn for a double room
Address: Watermillock, Ullswater, Lake District, CA11 0LP
Nearest town: Penrith
Getting there: trains from London to Penrith take roughly three hours, plus a 15-minute taxi to the hotel. Or it’s a 5hr40 drive.
To book: book online at another.place
Another Place, Ullswater, Lake District: What’s the score
Forget the old-fashioned hotels, forget stuffy three-course dinners, forget wading through the tourist hordes of Windermere and the Southern Lakes to get anywhere: at this design-led modern bolthole in the rugged and picturesque North Lakes, you can bring the outdoors in, balancing the classic Cumbrian outdoors break with a little bit of luxury.
Since the Rampsbeck Hotel’s multi-million-pound renovation, expansion and reincarnation as Another Place back in 2017, people have been found sipping tea in wetsuits in its lounge, having just taken a dip in the water a minute’s walk from the front door. Sister hotel to the much-loved Watergate Bay Hotel in North Cornwall, this is a property that encourages you to enjoy the outdoors for every minute you can, but also knows how to help you relax afterwards.
If the weather doesn’t let you out, you can hunker down in the Living Space for food or indulge in a rejuvenating indoor swim or treatment at Swim Club. There’s an outdoor plunge pool for the particularly brave, too.
Another Place, Ullswater, Lake District: What to eat
Another Place isn’t about formal dress and swanky restaurants, but that certainly doesn’t mean it doesn’t know how to get its funk on food-wise. Casual dining for all the family is available in the Living Space, the hotel’s all-day dining area that’ll serve you sarnies, coffee and cake by day, and boards, burgers and cocktails in the evening.
Order your drinks to the Library if you’re looking for full-on cosiness. For something more luxe, the Rampsbeck Restaurant serves three-course dinners at £40pp, taking in the best of local produce, from the roast picanha beef to the beer list.
Another Place, Ullswater, Lake District: What to do while you're there
You’re in the Lakes, so most of what you’re going to want to do is right outside the door. Luckily, Another Place will help you make the most of it, offering easy access to almost every kind of activity imaginable. Its outhouse (the Sheep Shed) has wetsuits and water boots to borrow at any time, while classes, courses and single sessions in kayaking, wild swimming, trail running and much more are all available through the hotel, too.
Nearby, you can bag a number of Wainwrights, from the short, sharp Hallin Fell to the more sustained Bonscale Pike and Arthur’s Pike. Similarly, you could trade all that activity for a little bit of relaxation and just look at them from the comfort of the bathtub. Yeah, that’d be nice.
Ullswater, Lake District: More to do nearby
Helvellyn
No doubt one of the most dramatic and iconic mountains in England, 950m-high Helvellyn is a sharp, fin-like ascent that looks back over a lake hundreds of metres below. Its best-loved – Striding Edge – is easy to access from Glenridding, a village at the far end of Ullswater. Scramble to the top in good conditions and you’ll be rewarded with epic panoramas of Lakeland.
Distant Horizons
As well as running some of the activities at Another Place, Lakes-based expedition company Distant Horizons offers a range of outdoor adventures from expedition challenges for offices, families or particularly competitive couples to weekends of mountaineering and wild camping. distant-horizons.co.uk
Jim Varney/Aberration Films
Ullswater Steamers
If you're up in the Lakes without a car, the most scenic way to explore is by old-school steam ferry. A half-hour walk from the hotel in the nearby village of Pooley Bridge, Ullswater Steamers' fleet is the perfect way to get around the area, stopping off at some of the best points of interest along the way. ullswater-steamers.co.uk
Visit Britain/Andrew Locking
