Originally a 17th-century corn mill on the Ellen, The Old Mill Inn keeps the bones of the building — the wheel pit, the dressed sandstone, the iron lintels — and offers six characterful rooms above a properly kept bar. Expect ales from Jennings and Hawkshead, a short seasonal kitchen, and the kind of fire you don't want to leave.
The story
There has been a mill on this bend of the River Ellen since the 1600s — first grinding corn for the surrounding farms, later spinning bobbins for the West Cumbrian textile trade, and finally falling quiet some time after the war.
The current owners took it on with the wheel pit still intact and the dressed sandstone walls four feet thick at the base. The mill race now runs past the beer garden; the old grain loft is the largest of the six rooms upstairs.
The bar is short and properly kept — Jennings, Hawkshead and a rotating guest cask — and the kitchen leans into what's around: Solway shrimp, Cumbrian lamb, a Sunday roast that pulls the village in for the whole afternoon.
Best for
- A quiet weekend at the western edge of the Lakes
- Walkers on the Allerdale Ramble & Cumbria Coastal Way
- Cyclists touring the Solway Coast
- Anyone who values a properly kept cask pint
The detail
- 6 rooms
- Cask ales
- Riverside garden
- Dog-friendly
