The Watermill Café at Priest's Mill

Caldbeck sits at the quiet northern edge of the fells, and beside its churchyard — where the huntsman John Peel lies buried — an old stone corn mill has found a second life. The Watermill Café at Priest's Mill serves proper home cooking above the beck: local produce, generous cakes, Fairtrade tea and candlelit supper evenings through the season, with the water sliding past below the windows. Around it cluster small workshops and the Wool Clip, a cooperative of Cumbrian wool makers. The Lake District's honeypots feel a long way off here; this is the Northern Fells' slower, kinder register, and all the better for it.

An independent café in a restored watermill in one of the Lakes' genuinely quiet corners — editorially interesting setting, well away from the crowds.

• Coffee & Cake
• Peace & Quiet
• Walkers