The Honister Story

WE BELIEVE REAL ADVENTURES MAKE REAL MEMORIES

Every experience here is rooted in the untamed beauty of the Lake District, carved from real rock, weathered by real storms, and brought to life by those bold enough to step into it.

Abandoned stone barn with rusted metal garage doors and partially snow-covered roof in a remote moorland valley with green hills under cloudy skies

Founded on brave ideas

We took the grit of Lakeland slate mining and turned it into adventures that stay with you for life. Three decades on, we're still here. Still building on the same belief that the best days are the ones that pull you out of the ordinary.

Group of six mountain climbers wearing orange safety helmets and colorful winter climbing gear posing together on a snowy slope, with snow-covered peaks and a valley visible in the background behind them.

Adventures for everyone

Whatever your starting point, there's an adventure at Honister that fits. Our guides take people to the edge of what they think they can do, and help them discover it's further than they thought. Never done anything like this before? Good.

Two hikers with arms raised celebrate on a rocky mountain outcrop overlooking a scenic valley with two blue lakes surrounded by green hills and mountains under a clear blue sky.

Big horizons, deep roots

You're standing on slate that was formed 450 million years ago and worked by human hands for three centuries. This isn't just a backdrop, it's the whole point. Honister is rooted in this place in a way that no other adventure destination can claim.

Person rock climbing on a cliff face wearing an orange safety helmet and harness, with a rope secured to metal anchors, while other climbers in orange helmets wait in the background on a rocky mountainside.

We don’t offer polished rides or scripted thrills.

What we offer are challenges, moments that demand courage, ignite adrenaline, and reward you with stories you’ll carry for a lifetime.

Because the memories that endure aren’t made in comfort zones. They’re forged in grit, laughter, fear, triumph – and in the bold decision to say yes to the unknown.

Two people wearing safety helmets and sunglasses stand outdoors against a clear blue sky, smiling at each other near a rock climbing wall. The person on the left wears a dark helmet with red accents, while the person on the right wears an orange-red helmet and a gray shirt with "Huel" branding.

Our team

With you every step

Honister is run by people who know this mountain and love it. From the guides leading every adventure to the miners still cutting slate today, meet the team behind everything we do.

Meet the team

Person wearing a cap and dark shirt working at a woodworking or metalworking bench in a workshop, focused on a project with various tools and equipment visible in the background.

Regenerative Tourism

Respecting people and place

This mountain has given a lot over four centuries. We take our responsibility to it seriously, and to the community, the landscape and the heritage skills that nearly disappeared. Here's how we think about the future.

Explore our approach

Our history

450 MILLION YEARS IN THE MAKING

Honister's history isn't in a glass case. It's cut straight into the landscape – the quarries, the inclines, the tunnels still being worked today. Every twist, tunnel and ridge has a story to tell.

Black and white photograph showing a person in light-colored clothing working underground in what appears to be a mine or cave, with stacked wooden logs visible on the walls above and a cylindrical container on a stone surface in the foreground.

Origins

450 million years ago, immense heat and pressure forged the slate we now call Westmorland Green. Humans arrived much later – slate extraction is thought to date back to Roman times, with solid evidence from the late 1600s. For over a century, barrow-men dragged loads of a third of a tonne downhill by hand, then shouldered their empty barrows and walked back up. You can still see the faint sledge tracks on the hillside today.

Vintage black and white photograph of a cable car or aerial tramway system on a mountainous terrain, with wooden support towers and suspended cables crossing over rocky, barren hills under an overcast sky.

Mining heritage

From the late 1800s, tramways replaced barrows. The Honister Crag Railway, a 13-year engineering feat, ran diagonally up the crag face almost to the summit. That summit is now the launch point for our zip wire. Before that, for 300 years, slate travelled by packhorse over the mountains on a route called Moses' Trod. Named after quarryman Moses Rigg, who also used the mine to hide smuggled whisky. We don't recommend that bit.

Person wearing an orange helmet and shirt smiling while rock climbing in a mountainous canyon with rocky cliffs in the background.

Adventure begins

Operations stopped in 1989. In 1997, Mark Weir reopened the mine, to keep producing slate, and to turn the old workings into adventures. His family still runs it today. In 2007 we opened the UK's first via ferrata on Fleetwith Pike, following the inclines walked by Victorian miners. Every adventure here is a continuation of what this mine has always meant to the Lake District.

Stories