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Boot

The village of Boot is situated on Whillan Beck, on the northern side of Eskdale, just off the main road up the valley, and is the first community reached after crossing Hardknott Pass. There is little or no parking in the village itself, which is made up of a single street ending in a stone bridge over the beck, but there is parking at Dalegarth Station, a quarter of a mile to the south-west. Dalegarth is now the eastern terminal of the Ravenglass & Eskdale narrow gauge railway, built in 1875 as a normal gauge industrial railway. It was turned into a narrow gauge railway when the mining ended, and since 1960 has been owned and run by a preservation society.

Eskdale Mill, at the northern end of the village, dates back to at least 1578, although there has been a mill on the site since the 13th century. The mill remained in use until 1920. In 1972 it was restored by Cumberland County Council, and on 2006 it was purchased by the Eskdale Mill and Heritage Trust. The mill is now open for most of the tourist season (check their website for dates).

The area around Boot contains a number of waterfalls, of which Stanley Force, about a mile south of the village is the most spectacular.

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