Cross Keys Inn

The Cross Keys is a whitewashed temperance inn on the Cautley road north of Sedbergh, at the foot of the Howgill Fells where Cautley Spout, England's highest cascade waterfall above ground, tumbles some 650 feet down the head of a glacial valley below The Calf. Recorded from 1619 as the farmhouse of High Haygarth and an inn from about 1819, it lost its licence in 1902 after a landlord helping a customer home fell into the River Rawthey and drowned; Edith Adelaide Bunney bought it, removed the liquor licence and in 1949 bequeathed it to the National Trust to be kept as an unlicensed inn in memory of her sister, Mary Blanche Hewetson. Tenants run it today as a tea room with light lunches and cakes, two guest bedrooms and no alcohol for sale, though visitors may bring their own bottle with no corkage. Reviewers praise the welcoming service, the home-made crumble and cakes and the old-world feel, and most call in before or after walking up to the waterfall. One tip from regular visitors: it is a small place popular with walkers, so treat it as a lunch or tea stop rather than a destination in itself.