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Submitted on Monday, 15^th December 2025
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Queens Head Hotel, Ambleside

Main Street
Hawkshead
Postal town: Ambleside
LA22 0NS

Correct details

Served areas

Hawkshead

Reviews of Queens Head Hotel (Average Rating: 6 of 10) Add Review see review guidelines

Ian Mapp left this review about Queens Head Hotel

Quite a selection of pubs (and a micro tap room) in Hawkshead. I chose this, as it was the oldest and the one referenced in my guide book for the walk I had completed.

Nice friendly greeting on entrance to the low ceilings bar. A dining room around the back and another room to the side. I saw similar Robinsons beers to Will below and chose the Cumbria Way, which was in fine condition. This, with a bottle of Old Tom to take out, was £10.10. Mrs M, on seeing the banking app, thought this was just a pint.

MY guide book makes a great song and dance about the "Girt Clog". A shoe that was in a glass case about the fireplace. It belonged to a Mole Catcher from the 1820s who suffered with Elephantitis. It also provided the name to the local mountaineering club, the Girt Cloggers.

Of course, I forgot to look for it on my visit - too busy looking for after a small dog. I rather think it has been moved, as I can see no other reference to it, apart from some ancient texts and a photo on the mountaineers web page.

Maybe future pubsgalorers could be on the lookout and report back :-)

On 15^th December 2025 - rating: 6
[User has posted 1714 recommendations about 1688 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Will Larter left this review about Queens Head Hotel

This is a lovely old inn with remnants of some original features. The dominant impression on entering was the smell of fried fish, but I suppose this is something that we get used to after a while. The beers are all from Robinsons: Dizzy Blonde, Cumbria Way and Patterd'ale. The latter is 4.2% and presumably based on one of the former Hartleys beers, though I can't find any information about it. I drank it and my only notes made at the time were that it was cheap for the area, at £2 for a half.

Date of visit: 3rd March 2022

On 26^th August 2022 - rating: 6
[User has posted 4531 recommendations about 4152 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Will Larter left this review about Queens Head Hotel

It was quite busy when I was here one Monday lunchtime in January. There's a dining room to the rear, and a small area near the bar, to the right upon entering. I found my way to a small room to the left, with rather odd tartan wallpaper. There is wood panelling and low beams throughout, but rather than playing up to the traditional Lakeland pub image which would seem to fit this place to a T, there are pretensions to hotel status, which I find off-putting. One symptom of this was the over-loud lounge bar-type music, which I could definitely have done without.

There were three hand pumps on the bar, two ales being available: Marstons Double Drop and Hartleys Cumbrian Way, probably two of the most anonymous beers you could find around these parts.

On 17^th February 2012 - rating: 5
[User has posted 4531 recommendations about 4152 pubs]

This pub features in the following crawls:
Central Lake District by bus (winter) by Will Larter

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