Grange Bridge Cottage Tea Shop

Having visited Grange River Cafe, I am at a loss to reconcile the poor reviews which I have read. I have visited this beautiful cafe on several occasions over a number of years both with my family/ children and as a solo walker, at the end of many a walk in the Borrowdale area, I have always looked forward to ending my walk sitting having tea and scones on a fine day or one of the excellent homemade soups on a wet one. I have spent many a good conversation with both the Lady and Gentleman owners who have always been not only courteous, but engaged in good conversation.

On holiday in the North/Western Lakes we visited this area, but we know we didn’t even ‘scratched the surface’. There is so much to see, exploring all the lanes, villages, tarns, rivers, streams, waterfalls, hills and moutains etc. What we saw was very beautiful and probably worthy of a longer visit on another occasion. Borrowdale lies close to the western side of Derwentwater: it is owned by the National Trust and covers approximately 46 square miles. We saw some of this area during walks and trips in the car but we suspect some views can only be enjoyed by trekking across the fells and neither of us at our ages are fit enough to do that. One of the areas we stopped and looked around was Grange, it was just so impossibly beautiful by the twin bridges over the Derwent. Sadly we arrived here after the café had closed for the day. We will be back, we don’t know when, but we must.

This is a great treasure to be found at the end of Derwent Water. An ideal stop off point while walking. A good selection of refreshments especially the cakes and the hot chocolate.

My husband and I visited here on a day when there were terrential downpours .The tea room is only small and in beautiful surroundings. Upon entering there were 3 tables taken by 2 sets of couples and a table of 4 leaving 2 tables remaining Making our way to the table to the side which was away from the kitchen we were approached by the proprietor and informed the table was reserved guiding us to the table by the kitchen in the center of the room We seated ourselves down and upon seating one of the other tables became available so we decided to move this table was vacated by a couple On moving the proprietor approached us rather rudly and stated I 'm trying to run a business here and this table will take more people than you two!! . Dumbfounded I responded by stating that this table had been vacated by a couple whilst also pointing out that another couple who had entered the tearoom after us had taken the table we were originally going to take until we had been told it had been reserved ...obviously not as there was now a couple sat there!!!!!! Whilst there I noted that the larger party only purchased dri nks which cost far less than my husband and I drink and snack so she should not assume that larger parties bring in more revenue!!!! Had it not have been for the awful weather and the need for a warm drink and snack I would have told her where to stick her tearoom and walked out . Needless to say we shall not be returning as she does not deserve the custom speaking to people as she did .!!!!!!

I stayed at Hollows Farm and went for a big hike, on my way back to the campsite I thought I buy cakes. So I popped in here and wanted 1 of each. Means 4 slices of cake. The gentleman said he’ll have to put them on napkins I said I’d be ok to carry but I didn’t actually realised until they were all on the table that how can I possibly take them without dropping them don’t mind squashing. I paid over £10 and had to take them in a carrier bag. I wonder why a very busy cafe don’t have take out boxes available. Cakes were very lovely, enjoyed all of them