Ings Kippers Campsite and Shepherd's Hut

View prices & book 9.6 352 reviews
Pitches with views (added by manager 13 Sep 2022)
Camping pitches are either side of the gator track
One of the bigger hillside terrace pitches with a small tent on it
Rural view from the field

  • Small, basic adults-only site two miles from Windermere
  • Well placed for cycle paths and public transport; pub five mins' walk
  • Firepit provided for each pitch; wood available to buy on site
Backpacking the Dales Way? Stopping off en route to Scotland? Exploring as many of the Lake District’s fells and lakes as you can? Whatever your reason for heading to Cumbria, you can expect a warm welcome from the owners at Ings Kippers Campsite. This is a small adults-only basic site with a handful of pitches in the grounds of a private house, so you won’t find any large groups, families or dogs running about here. It’s a peaceful place that’s all geared up for backpackers, cyclists, bike-packers, solo campers and couples in search of space to relax; after 10pm all should be pretty quiet (other than perhaps the crackle of the logs in the firepit or the gentle swish of a car passing in the distance…) Cars are kept away from the pitches too, so you’ll start your stay by walking your gear a short distance along a grassy path between the Christmas trees on the steep Lakeland hillside to find your choice of level grass pitch. Compact tents (4-person maximum), light gear and strong tent pegs are the key items to pack here for the best experience. Each one has a firepit (with wood available to buy on site) and a great view out over the local fells, and you're welcome to light off-ground barbecues for an alfresco dinner. (Although you may like to note the award-wining pub and microbrewery five minutes’ walk away…) Free phone charging and ice-pack freezing are available at the house, and guests also have access to clean toilets and hot showers. Those hot showers will certainly be welcome after long days of adventures: wild swimming, paddleboarding and kayaking are all on the menu nearby, and there are lots of safe bike paths in the surrounding areas. Windermere is only two miles away from Ings Kippers, and lots of other top Lake District spots are within easy reach too – Ambleside, Coniston and Great Langdale among them. The main road is only about 100 metres from the site, and regular public transport services run nearby for sustainable travels.

Site type

Tent sites 10
Lodges, cabins, pods or huts 1
Open now
Opens May 3
Please note
  • Group bookings of 4 or more adults are not permitted (couples and immediate family members excepted).
  • Single-sex bookings of 4 or more people (couples and immediate family members excepted) are not permitted via Pitchup.com.
  • A charge of £0.20 ($0.34) applies for the use of the shower.
  • Guests under the age of 18 are not allowed on site.
  • No cars/motorcycles at the site. All cars must be parked in the designated area.
  • Guests are advised to bring a good quality flashlight with them as parts of the park are unlit.
  • No naked flames are allowed inside the hired accommodation units.
  • Please note that the toilet/shower facilities are unisex.
  • If reception is closed on arrival: please contact the number provided on your booking confirmation.
  • Bookings for Non-electric grass tent pitch must not be for more than 5 consecutive nights.

Languages spoken

English

Open from Fri, May 3 to

Pitch types & availability

Reviews

97%

would recommend this site to a friend

95%

would stay here again

  • 85%
    10
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Only showing reviews for the last 30 months.

Great facilities, friendly staff, close to all amenities, travel light

Overall 10/10
Location 8
Value for money 8
Accommodation 8
Facilities / Activities 10
Customer service 10
Child friendliness 10
Cleanliness 10
Wifi 6
Jack P. The reviewer booked through Pitchup.com

Primitive grass tent campsite

Liked: All of the pitches were located away from the car park which gives you that wild camping feeling surrounded by trees. The site does provide a trolley to transport all of your equipment. The petrol garage is just across the road so any essentials were easy to obtain. we were welcomed by a very friendly and approachable owner of the campsite who made us feel at ease upon arrival which was good as it was my girlfriend’s first camping trip. Only a 5 minute drive to windamere made it a perfect location for us. Great weekend.

Disliked: The only downside was that it was close to the A road going into Windamere and you can hear the cars driving past but I still found it a very peaceful location and it wouldn’t stop me from revisiting.

Recommend to friends Visit again

It is the perfect campsite ideal if you want to get a…

Overall 10/10
Location 10
Value for money 10
Accommodation 10
Facilities / Activities 10
Customer service 10
Child friendliness 10
Cleanliness 10
Wifi 2
Willim W. The reviewer booked through Pitchup.com

Primitive grass tent campsite

Liked: It is the perfect campsite ideal if you want to get a idea of what wild camping feels like with the added safety, lovely owners very cheap very quiet, and hill really isn’t to bad to get to the tent pitch I purposely picked the highest pitch with incredible views. Will definitely be back next year Thank you!

Disliked: There’s nothing to dislike if you genuinely enjoy camping

Recommend to friends Visit again

Unbelievable good value that's a great base for exploring the Lakes

Overall 10/10
Location 10
Value for money 10
Accommodation 10
Facilities / Activities 10
Customer service 10
Child friendliness 10
Cleanliness 10
Wifi 10
Ben S. The reviewer booked through Pitchup.com

Primitive grass tent campsite

Liked: The location, the size and peacefulness of the pitches, the fact every pitch came with a fire pit, the service and most importantly the LOVELY hot shower!

Disliked: Nothing, it's the perfect campsite.

Recommend to friends Visit again

Layout of pitches, facilities were very clean, location…

Overall 10/10
Location 8
Value for money 10
Accommodation 10
Facilities / Activities 10
Customer service 10
Child friendliness 6
Cleanliness 8
Wifi 10
mark s. The reviewer booked through Pitchup.com

Primitive grass tent campsite

Liked: Layout of pitches, facilities were very clean, location

Disliked: Nothing

Recommend to friends Visit again

Peaceful, each pitch has a fire pit which is a nice touch…

Overall 10/10
Location 8
Value for money 10
Accommodation 10
Facilities / Activities 8
Customer service 10
Child friendliness 6
Cleanliness 10
Wifi 6
Andy S. The reviewer booked through Pitchup.com

Primitive grass tent campsite

Liked: Peaceful, each pitch has a fire pit which is a nice touch

Recommend to friends Visit again

Nice and friendly campsite. Individual pitches nice and flat.…

Overall 8/10
Location 8
Value for money 10
Accommodation 10
Facilities / Activities No rating
Customer service 10
Child friendliness No rating
Cleanliness 10
Wifi 10
Anonymous The reviewer booked through Pitchup.com

Primitive grass tent campsite

Liked: Nice and friendly campsite. Individual pitches nice and flat.

Disliked: Very few toilets for size of site. One toilet had a shower so unavailable for some time.

Recommend to friends Visit again

From the manager: Thank you for your review. Regarding toilets and showers, we have three toilets (one regular, one portaloo and one composting loo with a urinal) and two showers (one indoor one outdoor) for 10 pitches with a maximum of two people per pitch. Even when full the number of campers on site is usually no more than about 15 with a mix of couples and singles. This is one toilet between five campers, one shower between about 7 or 8 campers. This is not much less than many households have. Occasionally we have up to 20 campers on site but it's rare except at weekends. I clean the toilets every day and seldom find that they have been overly used, especially not the portaloo and the compost loo. It's also rare this year to see a queue for the portaloo or the outdoor shower, albeit in hot weather it's more popular. If I got another portaloo hired in, I doubt it would be used at all. The problem we have is that everyone favours the excellent indoor facilities and even if the other facilities are available they would rather queue. That's why the metered 20p shower , to help give campers a timer for their shower. We are a tiny campsite so we don't have funds or space for big toilet and shower blocks like the 60-100 pitch park sites have. In wet weather it can be a bit more challenging to get a shower when no-one wants to use the outdoor shower. As you said , this means if someone has a very long shower it effectively stops anyone using the indoor toilet, which is unfortunate. However I think that given that it's all adults here, it's not unreasonable to expect customers to be considerate to each other and communicate politely if they need the facilities. We far exceed the minimum site requirements , especially for showers which are not actually required at all below 60 pitches.

Recommend

Overall 8/10
Location 8
Value for money 10
Accommodation 8
Facilities / Activities 6
Customer service 10
Child friendliness No rating
Cleanliness 10
Wifi No rating
Anonymous The reviewer booked through Pitchup.com

Primitive grass tent campsite

Liked: The location was perfect for our visit The hosts were attentive and informative. Coffee shop with pastries across road for a simple breakfast with a pub with nice atmosphere for a cheeky beer adjacent to the garage. Fire pit available ( sadly the rain soon put out our fire ) Individual camping ledges and plenty of seating and great views

Disliked: There is some road noise and the transport link is constant even throughout the night

Recommend to friends Visit again

Excellent site owners brilliant top site for lakes

Overall 10/10
Location 10
Value for money 10
Accommodation 10
Facilities / Activities 10
Customer service 10
Child friendliness No rating
Cleanliness 10
Wifi No rating
Steven R. The reviewer booked through Pitchup.com

Primitive grass tent campsite

Liked: What wasn't there to like about this site the owners very helpful and inviting fantastic facilities location brilliant with very good public transport close by,,travelling as a sole male this site is perfect for backpackers for a night or 2 stop over or for longer if you just want some piece and quite to recharge batteries will definitely becoming a regular stop over for my trips

Disliked: There's nothing to dislike about this site couldn't find a single fault

Recommend to friends Visit again

excellent place to stay, helpful staff and clean facilities

Overall 10/10
Location 10
Value for money 10
Accommodation 10
Facilities / Activities 10
Customer service 10
Child friendliness No rating
Cleanliness 10
Wifi 6
Emma K. The reviewer booked through Pitchup.com

Primitive grass tent campsite

Liked: the natural scene of the camp. the facilities were always clean and tidy. each pitch was perfectly private. the owners were very accommodating and lovely to meet. and the lovely cat that came to say hello!

Disliked: coming home :(

Recommend to friends Visit again

August camping

Overall 2/10
Location 8
Value for money 6
Accommodation 6
Facilities / Activities 6
Customer service 2
Child friendliness 2
Cleanliness 8
Wifi 2
Anonymous The reviewer booked through Pitchup.com

Primitive grass tent campsite

Liked: The facilities on site were very good, three toilets in total; one mains, one porta loo, one natural near to the tents. There was drinking water accessible to the tents. Car parking on site and near to local amenities such as shop/ petrol station. There is also a nearby pub with great food.

Disliked: I felt very judge on arrival to the place. Myself and my partner at 30 years old. The other campers on site were very nice we made friends with some. At 9:30pm myself and my partner who had a low volume phone paying songs were asked to turn the music down by another group this was no problem and we turned it off and then decided to watch the stars which were bright from the campsite. At 10:30pm we were getting into bed I had my pjs on and we were settling down. The owner of the place decides to come to the tent shine a light through the tent telling us to shut up and how he owns the land. A grown man told me as I said we were getting into bed and not making noise he told me to “shhhhhh” would not let me speak and commented on how we were young and that he had been watching us. This is disgusting and disrespectful. It made me feel unwelcome and for one we would never ever recommend this campsite as active campers. There was no sign of the owner in the morning, I have never felt so belittled.

Recommend to friends Visit again

From the manager: Your review is factually incorrect and I have evidence on SMS (see below ) of the complaints from other campers. This is the one and only time this season I have had to personally intervene regarding anti social behaviour at our campsite and it is very disappointing. You broke our rules which is that it is quiet time after 22:00 until 08:00. The interaction with me you described was at 23:20 after the second set of complaints, not 22:30. During that interaction I personally witnessed you being verbally aggressive towards one couple on a nearby pitch who had filed a complaint with me. My role in this situation is to keep the peace between campers so that everyone has a pleasant and restful time. If campers are keeping others awake and are rude or aggressive towards them at night then it's my duty to intervene to enforce our rules. I only intervened , reluctantly, because campers requested it and it was late , with no prospect of an end to the disturbance. I did not call you young (you're not actually, compared to a large proportion of our customers). I wasn't watching you, I went up the hill to check and listen for a while for excessive noise at 22.40 but you had been told by other campers to be quiet just before then and had temporarily stopped. We didn't 'judge' you. My wife did the usual welcome introduction and you didn't see me until 23:20 that night. If anyone was judging you it was other campers. The sequence of events and timings is clear from texts I received. We always allow campers to leave in the morning without checking out or interaction with us unless they ring the bell. This is our standard practice. Here is my evidence - incoming messages on my phone which I have copied and pasted here, removing personal details. : 22:33. "Hi, Sorry to bother you but we have a couple at the campsite who are singing out loud, listening to music and chatting loudly. They are a bit drunk I believe. I told them that it's getting late but they don't seem to have reacted to that despite saying they would. " ** 22:40 after receiving this I visited the camping field to check on the disturbance and stood quietly for a while. There was some loud talking from your tent which I could hear from about 10 metres away but I incorrectly judged that you would quieten down soon so went back to the house to watch TV. 23:15. "they are very loud still and just had words with a guy who told them to be quiet." ** At around 23:20 I had to visit the camping field once again and talked to you both to ask you to be quiet as per site rules. After considerable and loud verbal resistance your partner agreed that you would both be quiet and there would be no more disturbance. I thanked him for that. 23:23 " thank you for taking care of the couple; we came back tonight at 7pm and they were drinking already then, singing out loud, listening to music and despite being told to please be quiet after 10pm they carried on - including talking loudly and shouting insults to a man who told them to be quiet" ** At 00:00 I walked back up to the campsite again and found that all was quiet, as it usually is. Next morning 09:13 "We wanted to thank you again for sorting the antisocial behaviour last night. It did carry on a bit further, as calling them out clearly ruffled some feathers, but the rest of the night was calm. " Next afternoon 14:49 after one couple found your Google review and discussed it with me by text "Hello both, We are terribly sorry to hear that, but not at all surprised given our experience of the couple in question. Was it the review on PitchUp, which is now removed? If so, it was a completely inaccurate account with every detail they had listed"


Features

Leisure on park

Bar or club house Cycle hire Evening entertainment Fishing Fitness centre Indoor swimming pool Kids' club On-site restaurant/cafe Outdoor swimming pool Playground Recreation room/arcade TV room Takeout Tennis Watersports

Amenities on park

Bath available Car parking by site/unit Composting toilet Dog park Drying room Free wifi Grocery store Ice pack freezing Internet access Laundromat Parent & baby washroom Payphone Pick-up from public transport Portable toilet Pub toilets Restrooms Shower available Washing-up area Wifi

Groups welcome

Family friendly Motorcycle friendly Single-sex groups welcome Student groups welcome

Rules

Adults only Barbecue grills allowed Barbecue provided Campfires allowed Commercial vehicles allowed Dogs allowed No dogs allowed No pets allowed

Themes

Budget/backpacker Hikers’ paradise Lake and/or mountain Leave the car at home Peaceful Remote location Spectacular scenery

Utilities

Charging facilities Communal freezer Dump station Electric car charging point(s) Propane/gas cylinders available Recycling available Renewable energy

Nearby amenities

Bar nearby Convenience store nearby Dog walk nearby Public transportation nearby

Type

Tiny (1-10 sites)

Accessibility

Disabled facilities Smooth, hard roads e.g. tarmac Uneven terrain; gravel or loose mud

Nearby leisure

Canoeing/kayaking nearby Climbing nearby Cycle hire nearby Cycling nearby Fishing nearby Golf nearby Horseback riding nearby Indoor pool nearby Leisure/theme park nearby Mountain biking nearby Outdoor pool nearby Restaurant nearby Sailing nearby Tennis nearby Watersports nearby

Location

Ings Kippers Campsite and Shepherd's Hut

Ings

Windermere

Cumbria

England

LA8 9PY

Directions

Timezone

Europe/London +0100 (GMT+01:00)

GPS

54.38087°N
-2.85081°W

Nearest transport

Coach
3.4 km Rail Station
3.5 km Tourist Information Centre
8.9 km Bus Station
Rail
2.2 km Staveley Rail Station
3.4 km Windermere Rail Station
6.2 km Burneside (Cumbria) Rail Station
Ferry
5.1 km Bowness on Windermere Ferry Terminal
6 km Bowness Ferry Nab Ferry Landing
6.5 km Far Sawrey Windermere Ferry Terminal

Please note: All distances on this page are calculated "as the crow flies" - please check actual distance depending on your mode of travel using the Get directions button above.

Local attractions

You can see the Old Man of Coniston from the pitches on a clear day… and if that whets your appetite for scenic outdoor pursuits, you’ve come to the right place. Wainwright baggers can easily get to Kentmere Horseshoe and the other Far Eastern Fells from Ings Kippers, and it’s an easy two-mile journey to the shores of Windermere for wild swims, watersports or waterside walks (or maybe a leisurely lake cruise if you need a little rest…) This area is well-known for its links with Beatrix Potter too – if you’d like to find out more about the author behind the classic children’s books, take a trip to The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction (10 minutes’ drive), and then visit her former home at Hill Top (half an hour). It’s worth stopping by in Kendal (15 minutes) too – it’s home to a castle, a lively arts scene and lots of shops and places to eat. For a real taste of the local area, head to Staveley (five minutes) and a tour of the Hawkshead Brewery (preceded by a walk up Reston Scar if you feel the need to earn that pint…)

Water quality at nearby bathing waters

Name Distance Type 2020 2019 2018 2017
Morecambe North 33.7 km Estuary Good N/A Good Good
Morecambe South 34.3 km Sea N/A N/A Good Good
Haverigg 35.5 km Sea Poor N/A N/A N/A
Silecroft 37.1 km Sea N/A Excellent Excellent Excellent
Walney West Shore 39.8 km Sea N/A Good Good N/A

Data source: European Environment Agency

Must see

The World of Beatrix Potter 4.9 km

Windermere Lake Cruises, Bowness 5.1 km

Blackwell, The Arts & Craft House 6 km

Brockhole - Lake District Visitor Centre 6.4 km

Hill Top 8.4 km

National Trust

Windermere and Troutbeck 4.2 km

Townend 5.3 km

Hill Top 8.4 km

Beatrix Potter Gallery 9.7 km

Sizergh Castle and Garden 12 km

Cycle routes

Find local routes on the National Cycle Network - over 12,000 miles of cycling routes.

Other

Staveley - Ratherheath Tarn - Staveley 2.2 km

Bowness - Winster Valley 5.2 km

Troutbeck Church - Townend - Wansfell Pike - Troutbeck 5.4 km

Troutbeck Church to Ing Bridge 5.4 km

Troutbeck Church - Dubbs Reservoir Circular 5.4 km

Please note: All distances on this page are calculated "as the crow flies" - please check actual distance depending on your mode of travel using the Get directions button above.

Nearest sites

Unfortunately, we have no nearby bookable sites.

Want to know more about camping in The Lake District and Cumbria?

Frequently asked questions

  • Does Ings Kippers Campsite and Shepherd's Hut have a swimming pool? No View all features
  • Is Ings Kippers Campsite and Shepherd's Hut dog friendly? No View all features
  • What attractions are near Ings Kippers Campsite and Shepherd's Hut? You can see the Old Man of Coniston from the pitches on a clear day… and if that whets your appetite for scenic outdoor pursuits, you’ve come to the right place. Wainwright … Read more
  • When can I check in and check out of Ings Kippers Campsite and Shepherd's Hut?
    RV, travel trailer and tent sites
    Arrive:  2 p.m. –  10 p.m.
    Depart by:  noon
    On-park accommodation
    Arrive:  2 p.m. –  10 p.m.
    Depart by:  noon
    Read more
  • How much does it cost to stay at Ings Kippers Campsite and Shepherd's Hut? From $39.52 (for 1 night, 2 adults) - prices may change depending on your dates and party.