The beautiful little English village that's home to UK's best restaurant

Cartmel, a small town nestled between the Lake District and Morecambe Bay, has lived many lives.

Its history began a millennium ago, when William Marshal – eulogised as the “best knight that ever lived” – founded Cartmel Priory, around which the settlement grew.

After World War Two, its focus shifted to the local racecourse, which surged in popularity as a National Hunt track in the Sixties.

Combining these attractions with the breathtaking scenery of Cumbria, it has since morphed once again into a minor tourism hub.

Most recently, however, Cartmel has become a distinguished gem on the foodie circuit, being home to what is perhaps the UK’s best restaurant.

With a population of around 1,000, this Westmorland and Furness town is, most days, as sleepy as it is postcard-perfect. 

A handful of single-lane streets lined with stone cottages, nostalgic inns and craft shops sprawl out around the Priory, whose gatehouse is a Grade II-listed scheduled monument according to the National Trust. 

From a spring in the hills above the River Eea weaves its way through the houses.

This peace is very much punctuated by the nine racedays held at Cartmel Racecourse each year between the Whit Holiday weekend at the end of May and the August Bank Holiday.

The course has been known to attract crowds of more than 20,000, giving it the third-highest attendance of any jumps track in the UK, after Aintree and Cheltenham.

The three-day May race meeting is actually held over five days to allow visitors to explore the Lake District in between race days – and there is certainly plenty to see.

The picturesque Lake Windermere, the largest natural lake in England, is just a 15-minute drive north. Cruises glide across its mirror-calm waters all year round.

For those with a hankering for physical exertion who don’t fancy scaling the country’s highest mountain, Scafell Pike, the limestone plateau of Hampsfell on the Cartmel Peninsula offers commanding fell and sea views in all directions.

The once-booming Victorian seaside resort of Grange-over-Sands, nicknamed “the Jewel on the Bay” is also at hand with an old-timey promenade and listed Thirties lido.

First sold in 1984, Cartmel sticky toffee pudding was the town’s first foray into the national culinary scene. In 2002, however, chef Simon Rogan converted an old antique shop into a restaurant that would, in time, definitively put it on the map.

L’Enclume got its first Michelin star back in 2005 and has, since last year, cemented its rarefied status by being among just eight venues in the British Isles to hold three stars – widely considered the most prestigious accolade around.

Last year’s edition of The Good Food Guide deemed it the “most exciting” restaurant in Britain. 

The princely 17-course tasting menu runs the gamut from oysters with seaweed custard to dry-aged Herdwick lamb loin with fermented cabbage, and frozen Tunworth cheese and Champagne rhubarb.

If the attached £250 price tag is too dear or the art of fine dining too unconvincing, Cartmel also has three traditional pubs with familiar oak beams and roaring fires.