A Destination.

Nestling in the centre of The Lake District National Park, Ambleside is a destination for all sorts of folks. Along with a vibrant local community, Ambleside attracts outdoor enthusiasts from cyclists to runners, photographers to walkers (and many more). The beauty of the park draws people in from all over the world, who enjoy the Park in many different ways.

Here at Rattle Ghyll Fine Food & Deli, we provide hearty, home cooked goodness, all to takeaway, along with a shop bursting at the seams with locally sourced and ethically sourced foods. We have a refill section, helping to cut down on plastic consumption, just pop along and fill your own containers from our selection of foods and cleaning products. Whether it's for one of our local regulars, day trippers, holidaymakers, folks out for lunch, runners just back from the famous Fairfield Horseshoe or cyclists out to bag some of the notorious Lakeland passes. We provide that honest feed that folk crave, no matter what they've been up to.

on the go.

With our in-house kitchen running 7 days a week, we provide a full takeaway menu containing freshly made sandwiches, burritos, soups and salads. Or choose form our range of pies and rolls, all freshly baked.

shop.

Our fully stocked shop is bursting at the seams with beautiful hand picked stock, chosen with care based on ethics, packaging and locality. We also offer many products you won’t find easily elsewhere.

refill.

Bring your empty jars and containers to fill up on items such as pasta, nuts, pulses, muesli, or cleaning products such as shampoo, conditioner or soap. Our refill section means you can fill up and reduce plastic waste.

The Rattle Ghyll concept begun in 2013, when Alec and Claire took over Rattle Ghyll cafe in Ambleside, Cumbria.

Alec and Claire always dreamed about owning and running a café. They found out they both had this shared dream whilst on a 7 day bush walk in the blue mountains of Australia.  The long slog up the 'Strong Leg ridge' gave them a chance to work out how, where and when they would do this.

They would go into cafes around the world, quietly critiquing them, discussing which ideas they would steal or commenting on what they wouldn’t do, until one day they walked into the Rattle Ghyll Café in Ambleside.

In 2019, after the birth of their 1st child Adelaide, the opportunity arose to take over the well known Stockghyll Fine Food, on the high street, and the Rattle Ghyll Deli was born.

The hard decision to move the cafe on to new owners was taken in 2020, and now Alec and Claire are ploughing all their time and energy into Rattle Fine Food and Deli.

How We Run the Business

Built on education, powered by green energy, and driven by our local community.

Our Ambleside deli is built on strict ethical values and a commitment to real, measurable sustainability.

• Rigorous Sourcing: Every item on our shelves is carefully vetted. We partner with local Cumbrian suppliers and trusted ethical distributors like Suma and Cotswold Fayre (a carbon-neutral B-Corp) to stock Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, and anti-slavery certified products.

• Planet-First Operations: We run a 100% meat-free establishment with a near-zero food waste kitchen. We run almost entirely on renewable sourced electric power, reuse all incoming packaging (like bubble wrap and chilled wool insulation), and compost food scraps locally.

• Data-Proven Efficiency: We don’t guess our impact; we audit it. An independent audit by Go Low Carbon verified our top-tier energy efficiency, and a carbon-tracking study with Eco-I North West proved our bulk-refill station saves 104kg of carbon and 60kg of plastic annually.

• Community Driven: We actively collaborate with the Cumbria Development Education Centre (CDEC), hosting local school workshops on ethical farming and global citizenship to inspire the next generation.