A HOTEL based six miles outside Keswick is set to change hands after half a century.

The Royal Oak Hotel in Rosthwaite has been sold following the retirement of current owners Susan and Nuala Dowie after 50 years, and two generations, of family ownership.

The Royal Oak Hotel, a 15-bedroom hotel and restaurant, had an asking price of £1.275 million. The hotel has been providing accommodation for visitors and walkers for over one hundred years.

The former farm and miners’ tavern in part dates back to the 1750s and is located on the crossroads of the Cumbrian Way and Inn Way along the coast-to-coast route, within close distance to the fells from Scafell Pike and the shores of Derwentwater.

Haydn Spedding from Colliers’ Hotel Agency team said: “The Royal Oak Hotel is a well-known hotel, and firm favourite for walkers. The business has done really well in the last five decades, expanding its offering to provide further accommodation in the converted barns.

“Susan and Nuala have very much enjoyed their time at the Royal Oak, especially their interactions with the many staff and guests they’ve grown to know. While it is the an end of an era for them, they wholehearted wish the new owner the very best as they take the Royal Oak and its rich heritage into a prosperous future.”