It is located to the east of the A5084 road, south of Coniston Water in the Lake District.

St John's was designed by the Lancaster architect E. G. Paley and built in 1862–63.

It is constructed in whinstone with a slate roof, and was built to replace an older church, also dedicated to Saint John the Baptist.

[3] Its architectural style is Gothic Revival, and it contains stained glass windows in the chancel depicting the Ascension, the Presentation in the Temple, and the Adoration of the Magi.

[8] It was "little better than a barn, of small dimensions, without a tower or steeple" and by 1861 was in "so ruinous a condition" that it had to be replaced.