The Wild Boar Inn, Windermere: A Cosy Inn, Woods and a Surprisingly Explosive Past

It was one of those wild, blustery days when the trees sound like the sea.
Autumn in full flow with rust coloured leaves falling to the ground and for once, no rain! Stephen (my husband) was out in the woods with the hawks, busy with his wonderful (might be a bit biased, but they are amazing) Lake District Falconry walks, and I was exactly where I like to be on a day like that.
Inside. By the fire. Laptop open, a drink beside me, and no intention whatsoever of going out in that wind. I was at the Wild Boar Inn. One of my favourite pubs.

The Wild Boar Inn sits on the Crook Road, a short drive out of Windermere, and it’s one of my favourite places in the Lake District. We’re lucky enough to be friends with the owners and lovely people who work there, and I’ll admit, a fair chunk of In Her Pocket was written at one of its tables.
If you’ve ever wondered where a thriller writer goes to think and write about terrible things, it’s somewhere with a real fire, a very good lunch and real ale.

I just read that back and I make the writing life sound pretty good, don’t I?
It is pretty good on days like this, so if you’ve been thinking about getting into a writing routine, quick tip, make it one like this.

Inside the Wild Boar Inn

Walk in and the first thing that gets you is how old it feels. Low ceilings, dark beams, a proper open fire that someone is always looking after. The decor is the kind of country inn I’d happily move into, all warm corners and things worth looking at twice. It’s got a really nice energy about it, cosy, warm, friendly, easy to slip into. It’s that kind of place.

The food is delicious (this is not me being polite to friends, it genuinely is). And the welcome is the same whether you’re a regular or you’ve wandered in soaked from the fells. Everyone is friendly. Nobody minds if you stay a while. Dogs are more than welcome.

It’s proper cosy in the truest sense. The sort of place where the weather outside makes the inside better, it’s nice at all times of the year (see more of that below) but autumn and winter, especially when the Christmas decorations go up, are my favourite times to visit.

The legend of Richard de Gilpin and the wild boar

Every good story needs a monster, and this valley had one.

The legend goes that, around the early thirteenth century, a ferocious wild boar was terrorising people travelling through the area from Kendal to Windermere. A local man, by the name of Richard de Gilpin, tracked it through the forest and, after a vicious fight, killed it on the spot where the inn now stands, on the banks of the little stream that has carried his name ever since, which is of course, the Gilpin.

He did rather well out of it. Gilpin changed his family crest to show a black boar on a gold background, and the story goes he was rewarded with the manor of Kentmere by the Baron of Kendal. The Wild Boar Inn still takes its name from him, and proudly claims the site as the place where the last wild boar in Westmorland was slain.

Is it true? Legends rarely are, entirely. But I like that the most peaceful spot I know is built on the place a monster died. It’s got the spooky, scary whilst still being cosy vibe down to a tee.

The woods behind the Wild Boar Inn

Behind the inn are 72 acres of ancient private woodland, and this is where Stephen does some of his hawk walks. On a still day, it’s one of the calmest, most peaceful places I know.

In spring the bluebells here are like nothing else.
The whole floor of the wood turns into a bright blue carpet and the air smells of them. There’s also a swing that our daughter absolutely adores. She begs to go on it every single time we bring her (and we always say yes).

So when the wind finally dropped enough for me to brave it, the other day, I took myself off into the trees to learn a little bit more of the history, and that’s when the woods started telling a different story.

Charcoal, gunpowder and Hell Fire Pass

The first thing you notice in autumn is the sweet chestnuts. They’re everywhere, those spiky green cases scattered all over the paths, and they are so prickly to touch. (I did pick one up for the camera. I regretted it.)

They aren’t there by accident. Many of the old trees in these woods are coppiced sweet chestnut, cut back again and again over the years, and that wood was used to make charcoal for gunpowder and explosives during the First World War.

You can see how it was done. Tucked into the woods is a re-creation of a charcoal pit, the flat platform where charcoal burners would stack the wood and burn it slowly, for days, into charcoal. Stand there long enough and you can almost smell the smoke.

Keep walking and the war gets closer. The woodland map the Wild Boar gives to its guests marks a WW1 rifle range and a row of WW1 firing platforms, where volunteers of the Rifle Corps came to practise their shooting during the Great War.

And right beside those firing platforms, the same map marks a path that was once known as Hell Fire Pass.

Nobody seems quite sure who named it. One theory is that it’s a memory of the Crimean and Boer Wars, brought home by men who’d been there. But stand on that path, and it’s not hard to imagine how it earned the name.

But then, I write thrillers. I can’t walk down a path called Hell Fire Pass without wondering who named it, what they’d seen, and why a quiet Cumbrian wood has got a name on one of the paths like that.

Go back further still and these woods were working for Kendal’s textile trade. You can still find the old retting ponds on the map, where flax was softened for the mills, though most have long since gone back to wetland.

So the next time you’re out here in the bluebells, remember that this peaceful place once burned, smoked and rang with gunfire.

Visiting the Wild Boar Inn

The Wild Boar Inn is on Crook Road, Windermere, LA23 3NF, a few minutes’ drive from the lake. You don’t need to be staying to come in for food or a drink by the fire. And it’s currently being done up to include a spa, which I think is going to be tremendous.

If you want to see the woods with a hawk on your glove, Stephen’s hawk walks start right here. You can call in afterwards for a pint and a great meal by the fire.

Either way, come back in spring for the bluebells. You won’t regret it.

Want more places like this? Download my free Windermere map, with all my favourite spots pinned (and a few darker stories along the way).

If you liked this, you might enjoy A Darker History Walk Through Bowness-on-Windermere or my local’s guide to things to do in Windermere.