Lovely place
Very nice place to stay, everything you need on site and within walking distance, Mark the owner is a very nice chap and helpful, will be going here again.
The Church House Inn
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9 days in October 2022 - great area to visit
This compact CL is at the back of a now-closed pub on the edge of Torver – a 10 minute drive south from Coniston.
The pitches are all hardstanding with grass alongside and EHUs within 25m.
The old pub car park has a few spaces for larger motorhomes.
The owner, Mark, is welcoming and friendly and can provide good information about the locality.
There is a bus stop for a service to Coniston just outside the entrance, but only 3 buses per day. Buses run from Coniston to Windermere and Ambleside where other services can be reached.
Mark provides WiFi but as in many rural areas the signal is currently quite weak and unreliable. We found that a WiFi booster improved the signal strength considerably, but not the reliability. The TV signal was good - note that if you have a directional aerial it must be in a vertical position.
This is an excellent location for visiting the southern Lake District area – several lakes, gardens worth visiting, Beatrix Potter locations, a steam railway, challenging passes and a multitude of excellent walking trails. Numerous good pubs and cafes.
Supermarkets can be found in Windermere and Ulverston.
June 2022
The two mid week nights I spent at this CL were very pleasant. A nice welcome by the proprietor, Mark. All 5 pitches were occupied plus the pod on site but very quiet campers and so no late night noise. The facilities on site ticked the boxes for me, sunny pitch, nice hot shower and the toilet paper included. As previously mentioned perfect site for accessing many good walking routes, I particularly enjoyed Torver Common.
Mid December visit
Just back from 3 peaceful nights on this CL. Great access to the Fells and The Old Man Of Coniston, and along the disused railway track walk to Coniston village and lake. Very friendly helpful owner. Large hot shower with hot ladder towel rail and two toilets. We were the only visitors during our stay so can’t comment on whether the facilities would be stretched when the site is full. We weren’t troubled by road noise at all , might have been the howling gales outside! Minimal light pollution so great star lit skies. We would imagine this is a quieter place than the busier sites in Coniston during the summer. For info there’s a new luxury pod with hot tub on the site which looks great!
Noisy spot
Great location for walking to the lake and on to fells.
Easy access off the road and through the carpark to a field with hard standings raised up from the grass which dictated which direction we pitched the caravan and put the awning, couldn’t get either level.
The public footpath running along the site allows users to see into the site and our caravan and was noisy at times. The track through the site leads to another field for campervans, this was closed during our stay.
There is regular traffic noise from the roads and dogs barking somewhere so it isn’t a peaceful site.
The toilet and waste emptying point was almost full to overflowing, making emptying the toilet even more unpleasant, it was drained during our visit.
There are 2 toilets and 1 shower next to the pub which were shared between the CL and any campervans ( 5 at one point )pitched in the carpark during our stay. I assume the motor homes in the additional field will also use the facilities, they are not for exclusive use of the CL as advertised.
Friendly host who is helpful and working hard on his business almost single handedly, a pod is currently being built on the CL.
£20 a night and £25 at weekends ( Sunday night is a weekend) isn’t competitive with the other local sites and is far too high for what’s on offer.
Livvvy
Reviewed on 23/05/2021 11:32
Enjoyed our stay
Pleasant stay and location. Good and easy dog walking from site and into Coniston. Owner very helpful and gave us sole use of a fridge as ours not working. Shame pub not open but another across the road.
Overpriced
Nice spot good path into coniston good pub over the road, the church house in is closed and no sign of opening, excellent base for walking. But at £20 a night mid week it is overpriced
Love our motorhome
Reviewed on 14/04/2021 15:02
Disappointed
This CL advertised:- pub, restaurant, drive over waste for MH, shower - none of which existed. No signs to indicate where the toilet was or bins. Price was £15/night - I questioned the owner about VAT reduction as per Government Covid Guidelines and he said - NO not discounting!! Extremely disappointed as this could be a super site. Perfect for walking in the Coniston area.
Response from the Club
The CL owner has been in touch as they work really hard to ensure their site is operational for members and that guests have the best possible experience when staying with them. The pub and restaurant have not reopened following lockdown as the rooms are quite small (cosy) with low ceilings which make social distancing impossible and therefore not financially viable at this time. The CL Owner informs members of this on arrival and tells them that the larger pub less than 100 yards down the road is open and serves food. The toilet is available and has been completely refurbished, an additional toilet is in the process of being installed. The shower is not available at this time as this is also being refurbished but should be available for members again soon.
Return Visit - we won't be back
This was our second visit and will sadly be our last, due to the following issues: Having booked almost a year in advance at £10 per night, after seeing an earlier review plus another one on social media regarding a price increase I emailed the (new) owner to double check the prices. I was told that our 8 night stay would be £140 rather than the £80 I thought it would. When I queried this I was immediately told that if I wanted to cancel the booking she fully understood, as my parents were also booked onto the CL, and my in-laws into a room at the pub, this wasn't really an option with 3 weeks to go and a further email from myself resulted in an offer of a £20 reduction. It transpires that the CL cost is now £20 per night at the weekend and £15 per night midweek. Throughout our stay the Elsan disposal point was quite frankly disgusting, this was reported twice and was not resolved until the last day of our stay. The first weekend that we were there, there were 6 vans on the site, there are 5 hard standing pitches and the 6th Van was pitched on grass in front of the drinking water taps. Not withstanding the obvious breach of the rules this site is not big enough for 6 vans. On the final Saturday of our stay 3 tents had appeared overnight in the pub owned field opposite the CL, as it is their land they are of course perfectly entitled to do what they like with it, however all the occupants of these tents them proceeded to use the "exclusive use" shower and WC on site. Despite an almost wholesale change of staff from the previous management and a lack of visibility of the owners (we weren't quite sure who the landlord was, and the landlady was, other than serving food on the first night, usually out with her dogs or walking round the car park on her phone) the food was still good, but sadly the atmosphere in the pub and the sense that you are mixing with locals has gone. All of the above issues just seemed like a lack of care to us, and whilst the location remains one of our favourites we will not return and will stay at the CL in Coniston itself, which with EHU and not charging a weekend premium, represents much better value.
Pleasant CL with great access to walks
A well looked after CL with hard standing places marked. It has great access to walks including the lake, many options for walking and cycling directly from the site. There are two water taps and a chemical toilet point - without water so care needed with the taps in case someone has used this for their toilet cassette. No obvious emptying point for grey waste except the chemical toilet point which wasn't very nice to use for grey waste. A toilet and shower is available to use, looked OK but didn't use. We were there on a Friday night so some noise from the pub as people left, walking along the path next to the pitches, but not a problem as only for a very short time. The location of this CL is excellent and the grass around the pitches made a lovely area to sit and relax.
