Our drawing of the route — the shape of the walk, not a navigation aid. Carry OS Explorer on the hill.
Five miles there and back on the corpse road that Wasdale Head once used to carry its dead over the fell to St Catherine's in Eskdale, before it had a churchyard of its own. The track leaves Boot behind Eskdale Mill, climbs steadily up the west side of Whillan Beck onto Eskdale Moor and drops to Burnmoor Tarn at 252 metres, a big shallow sheet of water with Illgill Head behind it and the ruin of Burnmoor Lodge on the shore. The going is a broad grass and stone track the whole way, which makes it one of the few Eskdale fell routes a dog can do without scrambling. It is all grazed common with Herdwicks on it and the National Trust asks for a short lead throughout Eskdale.
The refurbished cafe at Dalegarth for Boot, at the Eskdale end of the fifteen-inch gauge line, serving lunches, snacks and ice cream to walkers coming off Stanley Ghyll and the Esk path. Dogs are allowed on the lower floor but not upstairs, where Wakefield's afternoon tea room is, so the ground-floor seating and the platform are the places to sit. There are toilets and a large pay-and-display car park here, which makes it the practical starting point for most Eskdale walks. Water bowls are set out around the station.
Seven converted farm buildings around a yard at Boot, on a working farm beside the Whillan Beck, with the most detailed published dog policy anywhere in Eskdale. Six of the seven take dogs but the number varies by cottage: two large or three small at the Farmhouse, two at Wastwater, two at Scafell only if they sleep in crates, one large or two small at Hardknott, Wrynose and Stanley Ghyll, and one small dog at Whillan Beck. There is an enclosed shared paddock and a garden by the beck, though dogs are not allowed off the lead in the shared gardens. No dog under a year old is accepted at all.
A walkers inn at the entrance to Boot, with a bar known for its whisky shelf and the Eskdale Mill path over the bridge. Dogs are allowed in the bar and the snug only: they are not allowed in the bedrooms at all, which is the opposite of most Eskdale inns and worth knowing before you book.
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