HF Houses - Sedbergh - Leaving the Car at Home.

The house in Aug 2018.

Getting to Sedbergh by Public Transport

I think Sedbergh is one of the most difficult HF houses to get to by public transport.

Oxenholme is the nearest railway station.

There is an HF transfer taxi but there is only one, late in the day, so most of the tea & scones will be gone by the time you arrive. The transfer is very expensive and if your train is late it will not wait for you, in that case you will end up paying for the transfer and an expensive taxi. To avoid that people might get an earlier train and hang around for hours in a bleak station. HF appear to price these transfers around commercial taxi rates so, if there are 2 or more of you it may be cheaper to book your own taxi (if you can get one between school runs).

HF like to try to appear environmentally friendly but the reality does not match their words, they do little to encourage sustainable travel and these transfers appear to be charged around commercial taxi rates.

At the station entrance is David Willan Food Hall so, if you have a long wait for a taxi (web site) food is available.

Image from Google Street View.

If you walk up the drive there is a bus stop (there is also a bus stop on the other side of the station).

Image from Google Street View.

When I went to Sedbergh I used the HF transfer so I have not tried to get to the house by bus.

There is S1 Sedbergh to Kendal via Oxenholme Station (Mondays and Fridays only) operated by Westmorland and Furness Council although they are quite infrequent.

As I have not used this bus myself Diane has kindly given a first hand report:

Comment from Diane Horton

I am pleased to report that the Westmorland and Furness S1 bus service from Oxenholme to Sedbergh is a pleasure to travel on. NB this service is limited to certain days. It is run by the Council and seems to be completely reliable with a very friendly helpful bus driver. The bus stop nearest to the HF house is about a four minute walk. The timetable is somewhat limited to mornings but there is a good waiting room at Oxenholme and cafe/toilet facilities.

Comment from Martin Baker

Diane, Thanks this is useful to know. Please could I have your permission to cut and paste this post to my website here and include your name:

http://www.euclideanspace.co.uk/hf/sedbergh/index.htm

Its just that it would be good to have all this kind of information, about getting to HF houses, all in one place. Since HF have not got round to doing this I have taken it on myself to provide a store of this information.

Also I seem to remember there are bus stops on both sides of Oxenholme station, which one does this bus use? Is it the side with David Willan Food Hall?

Comment from Diane Horton

Permission granted! The bus stop is opposite the station car park towards Sedbergh outside the white cottage. When coming from Sedbergh to oxenholme it is on the other side of the road. I believe you can use the bus stops next to the subway entrance but these were less obvious. Could be useful shelter though if it was raining. Thanks for all your work providing information

There are also some services operated by westerndalesbus which are also not frequent:

S1S (Saturday only)
S1T (Tuesday and Thursday only) Kirkby Stephen - Sedbergh - Oxenholme - Kendal
S1W (Wednesday only) Dent - Sedbergh - Oxenholme - Kendal
S5 (Friday only) Kirkby Stephen - Ravenstonedale - Newbiggin - Kendal

So I would be interested to hear if anyone tries it.

Comment from Andy Page See HF Holiday Fans ( unofficial) Facebook forum

Sedbergh is a dismal place to reach by bus. As well as Oxenholme station there are infrequent buses to both Dent and Kirby Stephen Stations on the Settle Carlisle railway. Garsdale Head is the nearest S&C station but you would need to pre-book a taxi. Depending on your starting point this may be better than a train to Oxenholme, and definitely more fun!

Comment from Martin Baker

Yes, I agree about the buses, its very complicated the way the buses go to different places on different days of the week.
When I went to Sedbergh from London direction the only practical way was the HF transfer from Oxenholme.
Do do like the idea of using the Settle Carlisle railway though. I wonder if it would be practical to have a few nights at Malham, then transfer to Sedbergh using the Settle Carlisle railway then have a few nights at Sedbergh?
The buses were useful for the walks though, I had 7 nights self-guided and on several days I walked into Sedbergh, caught whatever bus was running that day of the week, got off the bus at a convenient stop to walk back to the house.

HF House

My room was under the kitchen, the room was fine except the fridges in the kitchen above kept switching on and off during the night and waking me up. Why do HF do these things? I would have thought that a good nights sleep is fundamental to a holiday but I get the impression that HF don't even think about these things. So I haven't gone back to Sedbergh since.

Here are some Google Street View images: the enterence:

and the back of the house.

Walks from Sedbergh without using a Car

Cautley Spout, Hazelgill Knott (587 m)

Could walk there or better catch the S1T bus (Tuesday and Thursday only) toward Kirkby Stephen and get off bus at The Cross Keys Temperance Inn.

The Pepperpot, an ornamental feature of the Akay estate on the edge of Sedbergh.

Lune Viaduct

There are walks around Sedbergh along the river Lune and the former railway.

Can't remember where this is:

Getting To HF Houses on Public Transport
Abingworth Hall
Dolserau Hall in Dolgellau
Longmynd Hotel in Church Stretton
Holnicote House - Selworthy
Newfield Hall - Malham
Derwent Bank - Keswick
Freshwater Bay House
Chy Morvah - St Ives
Harrington House - Bourton-on-the-Water
Nythfa House - Brecon Beacons
The Peveril of the Peak - Dovedale
Larpool Hall - Whitby
Thorns Hall - Sedbergh
Monk Coniston
Nether Grange - Alnmouth
Alitshellach - Glen Coe

Former HF Houses
Conwy (1914- 2011)
Newlands (1914- 1987)
Swanage (1947- 1995)
Isle of Arran (1925- )
Scarborough (1954- 1998)
Lulworth
Beddgelert
New Inns
Penrith
Milford-on-Sea

About This Site

Here is some information I have gathered together about getting to and walking from HF houses when leaving the car at home. On these pages I have also put some history about former HF houses I have visited.

The information here is based on my visits to HF houses over the years. It may be out of date so don't rely on anything here without checking. If you find any errors why not let others know by putting a post on the HF Holiday Fans ( unofficial) Facebook forum. I will try to quote such posts here so they don't get lost.

This is information I have discovered over the years which would have been useful to know before. Unfortunately the travel information on the HF website, for getting to houses by public transport, is poor. I think it would be better if the information on this page were on the HF website.