| Date: | 22nd. September 2015 | |
| Blog Status: | Complete (11 Oct 2015) | |
| County: | CUMBRIA | |
| Location: | Bowness-on-Windermere | |
| Type: | Scenic Area (Lake) | |
| Sub-Type: | Lake, Mountains, Shoreline | |
| Viewed by: | CRUISE from car park | |
| Car Park: | Pay 'n' Display | |
| Difficulty: | Easy (just need to board the boat!) | |
| Distance/Time: | 15 Km/75 Min | |
| Season: | Early Autumn | |
| Weather: | Cloudy/Some sunny periods. | |
| Time Of Day: | Mid-Afternoon | |
| Camera: | Panasonic Lumix FZ-150 (RAW) | |
| Scene Rating: | ••••• |
Please note: all data and opinions presented on this site are offered in good faith, but they are advisory only and are utilised at the risk of the user. The authors can accept no blame or liability for any loss or accident or other negative effect resulting from errors, omissions or data that has changed over time.
Original photographs found on this website are Copyright © Richard Baskerville 2015, All Rights Reserved. If small versions of other photographs are found here, they act only as links to larger versions on their originating websites. Such images may be copyrighted by their original owners. Please see the linked websites for copyright details.
Original photographs found on this website are Copyright © Richard Baskerville 2015, All Rights Reserved. If small versions of other photographs are found here, they act only as links to larger versions on their originating websites. Such images may be copyrighted by their original owners. Please see the linked websites for copyright details.
Windermere Cruise: An Introduction
For many people, the area around Lake Windermere will be their gateway to England's Lake District National Park. The towns of Windermere and Bowness-On-Windermere (some say "villages", although the combined permanent population is about 12,000) have grown into a single, continuous settlement which provides a wealth of accomodation, wining and dining and attractions that has netted increasing numbers of British (and, now, overseas) tourists for over 150 years. The twin towns still have defineably separate town centres, but - as a whole - provide a relaxed, almost Mediterranean, "holiday" feel, with locals and visitors visibly enjoying themselves in the spread of establishments providing alfresco food and drink.
Of course, the area's main attraction is its Lake. Usually called Lake Windermere - presumably to distinguish it from the town - the name is actually tautological, since the suffix -mere in itself means "lake," so that Lake Windermere would in fact translate as "Lake Winander's Lake" in standard English...
Windermere has the distinction of being the largest lake in England by area (although it is by no means the largest lake in the United Kingdom, since there are many larger bodies of water in Northern Ireland and Scotland.) Although there are cruises available on several other lakes, it also offers by far the most frequent and comfortable cruise schedules in Lakeland.
The first commercial passenger ferry service started in 1845 and the cruise industry has developed from that time into the busy service run by Windermere Lake Cruises today. The company operates 3 year-round routes - and a variety of additional summer-only routes - from departure points in Bowness-On-Windermere, Waterhead (Ambleside,) Lakeside (at the southern tip of the lake, near Newby Bridge) and Brockhole.
The majority of their boats are custom-designed motor cruisers with an open top-deck and a glass-encased lower "wide-view" deck (as in the photo below) although they still run some vessels they call 'steamers' and dating back as far as the 1930s as part of their regular schedule. [Actually these vessels - like the MV Teal and MV Swan - are no longer driven by steam - so they're not really steamers at all. They are powered by diesel motors. Older and true steamers, dating back to the 1850s, can, however, be found in the collection of what was the Windermere Steamboat Museum. This was closed at the time we wrote this and was being reincarnated as Windermere Jetty, Museum of Boats, Steam and Stories in a new, custom-designed building on Rayrigg Road LA23 1BN. It's due to open in 2017. Check their website for details.]
Windermere "Red" cruises can be on a steamer or on launches. We took the MV Cumbria.
How you personally rate Windermere (as a whole) will really depends on your interests and your family status. People with young kids will almost certainly find Windermere a more desirable destination than (for example) hard-core fell walkers. There are a variety of family-friendly attractions and easy walks around or close to the lake, which are less evident in the the rougher mountain landscapes to the north and west of the National Park.
Our relatively modest three-dot rating is not in any way an indication of either Windermere or the cruise being in any way unattractive or "bad value" - we had fun and we met some interesting people on board the boat. It's just that we consider other areas of the Lake District to be closer to our tastes for beautiful and rugged mountain scenery than the Windermere area. The peaks around Windermere are relatively modest in scale, with more appealing peaks like the craggy Langdale Pikes still somewhat distant.
That's not to say that there aren't nice walks and interesting locations around Windermere. It's may be that we just haven't sampled them yet. (Our trip to the Lakes was an impromptu one, and less well researched than usual, so we missed a variety of places that we would normally want to visit.)
To give a "fuller" and more rounded perspective on what's available in the vicinity than we have been able to experience so far, and to help you plan your trip, our Other Attractions and Walks Around Lake Windermere section (below) gives a variety of information (and links to other websites) on the following places and walks:
Orrest Head Walk
World Of Beatrix Potter
Rayrigg Meadow and the Adelaide Hill Walk
Brockhole
Stagshaw Gardens
Jenkin Crag Walk
Wansfell Pike Walk
Galava Roman Fort
Bridge House (Ambleside)
Armitt Museum (Ambleside)
Loughrigg Fell Walk
Wray Castle
These are also shown as "brown spot" locators on our map. We hope to give a more personal evaluation of many of these after our next visit!
Of course, the area's main attraction is its Lake. Usually called Lake Windermere - presumably to distinguish it from the town - the name is actually tautological, since the suffix -mere in itself means "lake," so that Lake Windermere would in fact translate as "Lake Winander's Lake" in standard English...
Windermere has the distinction of being the largest lake in England by area (although it is by no means the largest lake in the United Kingdom, since there are many larger bodies of water in Northern Ireland and Scotland.) Although there are cruises available on several other lakes, it also offers by far the most frequent and comfortable cruise schedules in Lakeland.
The first commercial passenger ferry service started in 1845 and the cruise industry has developed from that time into the busy service run by Windermere Lake Cruises today. The company operates 3 year-round routes - and a variety of additional summer-only routes - from departure points in Bowness-On-Windermere, Waterhead (Ambleside,) Lakeside (at the southern tip of the lake, near Newby Bridge) and Brockhole.
The majority of their boats are custom-designed motor cruisers with an open top-deck and a glass-encased lower "wide-view" deck (as in the photo below) although they still run some vessels they call 'steamers' and dating back as far as the 1930s as part of their regular schedule. [Actually these vessels - like the MV Teal and MV Swan - are no longer driven by steam - so they're not really steamers at all. They are powered by diesel motors. Older and true steamers, dating back to the 1850s, can, however, be found in the collection of what was the Windermere Steamboat Museum. This was closed at the time we wrote this and was being reincarnated as Windermere Jetty, Museum of Boats, Steam and Stories in a new, custom-designed building on Rayrigg Road LA23 1BN. It's due to open in 2017. Check their website for details.]
Windermere "Red" cruises can be on a steamer or on launches. We took the MV Cumbria.How you personally rate Windermere (as a whole) will really depends on your interests and your family status. People with young kids will almost certainly find Windermere a more desirable destination than (for example) hard-core fell walkers. There are a variety of family-friendly attractions and easy walks around or close to the lake, which are less evident in the the rougher mountain landscapes to the north and west of the National Park.
Our relatively modest three-dot rating is not in any way an indication of either Windermere or the cruise being in any way unattractive or "bad value" - we had fun and we met some interesting people on board the boat. It's just that we consider other areas of the Lake District to be closer to our tastes for beautiful and rugged mountain scenery than the Windermere area. The peaks around Windermere are relatively modest in scale, with more appealing peaks like the craggy Langdale Pikes still somewhat distant.
That's not to say that there aren't nice walks and interesting locations around Windermere. It's may be that we just haven't sampled them yet. (Our trip to the Lakes was an impromptu one, and less well researched than usual, so we missed a variety of places that we would normally want to visit.)
To give a "fuller" and more rounded perspective on what's available in the vicinity than we have been able to experience so far, and to help you plan your trip, our Other Attractions and Walks Around Lake Windermere section (below) gives a variety of information (and links to other websites) on the following places and walks:
Orrest Head Walk World Of Beatrix Potter Rayrigg Meadow and the Adelaide Hill Walk Brockhole Stagshaw Gardens Jenkin Crag Walk Wansfell Pike Walk Galava Roman Fort Bridge House (Ambleside) Armitt Museum (Ambleside) Loughrigg Fell Walk Wray Castle
These are also shown as "brown spot" locators on our map. We hope to give a more personal evaluation of many of these after our next visit!
Windermere: Background
Windermere (the lake) once formed part of the border between Lancashire and Westmorland, although it is now entirely within the county of Cumbria and the Lake District National Park. Estimates of length go up to 18 kilometers (depending where you take the southern part to end.) Estimates of maximum width is more consistently put at about 1.5 kilometers and depth at about 67 metres - much less than many Scottish lochs, although the deepest points of the lake are still below sea-level.
Windermere is a "ribbon lake" formed in a glacial valley about 13,000 years ago. The River Leven flows out of the lake at the southern (Newby Bridge) end. It's fed by small waterways like River Rothay, Trout Beck, Cunsey Beck and a number of yet tinier streams. The lake contains 18 islands, of which the (privately owned) Belle Isle is by far the largest. The smaller islands (called "holmes") range from the largish ones (like Bee Holme, Blake Holme and Crow Holme ) down to Maiden Holme, which has just one tree!
Supported by the lake's rich habitat for fish like trout, char, pike and perch - as well as habitats for migrating wildfowl and good agricultural land - there have been settlements around the shore from at least the Anglo-Saxon era, although population around the lake didn't start a large-scale growth until Victorian times.
Inspired by fashionable Romantic poets and painters like Wordsworth and Turner - whose works encouraged 19th Century gentry to get away from the grit and smut of newly industrialised cities and "back to Nature," the area around the lake started to find a new purpose as a tourist destination. The arrival of the Kendal and Windermere Railway in 1847 greatly accelerated this process - as did the area's later association with popular Victorian and Edwardian children's writer Beatrix Potter. The arrival of tourists may have precipitated the use of the name "Windermere," since the name "Winandermere" was still in local use, during the Victorian era.
Windermere cruise boats also date back to the time of the railways and were at one time operated by British Rail. After privatisation, four of the old railway boats were bought by Windermere Lake Cruises Ltd. Three of them are still running. There is also a vehicle-carrying cable ferry, which crosses from the eastern side of the lake, south of Bowness, to Far Sawrey - and two summer only passenger ferries that cross the lake (one from Lakeside station to Fell Foot Park in the south, and another from Bowness with Far Sawrey.) There has been some sort of ferry across the neck of the lake for over 500 years. Initially these were rowed, but were later steam and diesel driven. The current ferry ("Mallard") is the largest so far - carrying 18 cars and 100 passengers.
It has been said that there is "only one town or village directly on the lakeshore" (Bowness-on-Windermere) although this is open to interpretation, since settlements like Waterhead and Lakeside now also have many buildings close to the water's edge.
Windermere become part of water-speed-record history in 1930 when Sir Henry Segrave broke the record on Windermere in Miss England II at an average speed of 158.94 kilometres per hour (not quite 100 mph.). Segrave's mechanic drowned on the third run, but Segrave was rescued by support boats - only to die a short time later of his injuries. Norman Buckley also set several world water speed records on Windermere in the 1950s. These were not the only men to have died in the Lake District attempting speed records. Donald Campbell died in Bluebird K7 on Coniston Water in 1967. The wreckage and his body were not recovered from the depths of the water until 2001. Depending on your perspective these were either evidence of a kind of "driven" madness or the insuppressible aspiration of Man. As with artists, the two are perhaps quite close.
William Wordsworth lived most of his life in the area - initially in Grasmere, but then at Rydal, just north of Ambleside. The area is also associated with Arthur Ransome of Swallows and Amazons fame. His 1930s school holiday boating adventures are set on a fictional Lake District lake, which is said to have been a cross between Windermere and (nearby) Coniston Water.
The timetables and prices for each cruise can be found by clicking the relevant button on that master-page.
Despite the number of boats and routes, you would be well advised to book ahead during peak months like August - to make sure you can take a trip at the time you want.
The company also offers a number of "self-drive" motor and rowing boats for the more independent/energetic, although - from the reviews we have seen posted by those who have tried them - these tend to be less-well rated than trips on the bigger boats.
We chose the 75-minute "Red" cruise, which runs from Bowness to Waterhead and back, with the option of stopping at Waterhead (Ambleside) and taking a later boat for the return. To us, the mountains at the head of the lake, in an arc north of Ambleside, were more interesting than the south of the lake, which seems to be surrounded by hills which are lower in altitude and more continuously wooded. But, of course, it's a matter of your taste in natural beauty and the time you have available.
The cost was £10.30 per person and the duration (if you don't disembark at Waterhead or Brockhole) is 75 minutes.
You could also embark at Waterhead (where the parking is probably a bit easier) and spend some time in Bowness-On-Windermere, if you prefer.
Windermere is a "ribbon lake" formed in a glacial valley about 13,000 years ago. The River Leven flows out of the lake at the southern (Newby Bridge) end. It's fed by small waterways like River Rothay, Trout Beck, Cunsey Beck and a number of yet tinier streams. The lake contains 18 islands, of which the (privately owned) Belle Isle is by far the largest. The smaller islands (called "holmes") range from the largish ones (like Bee Holme, Blake Holme and Crow Holme ) down to Maiden Holme, which has just one tree!
Supported by the lake's rich habitat for fish like trout, char, pike and perch - as well as habitats for migrating wildfowl and good agricultural land - there have been settlements around the shore from at least the Anglo-Saxon era, although population around the lake didn't start a large-scale growth until Victorian times.
Inspired by fashionable Romantic poets and painters like Wordsworth and Turner - whose works encouraged 19th Century gentry to get away from the grit and smut of newly industrialised cities and "back to Nature," the area around the lake started to find a new purpose as a tourist destination. The arrival of the Kendal and Windermere Railway in 1847 greatly accelerated this process - as did the area's later association with popular Victorian and Edwardian children's writer Beatrix Potter. The arrival of tourists may have precipitated the use of the name "Windermere," since the name "Winandermere" was still in local use, during the Victorian era.
Windermere cruise boats also date back to the time of the railways and were at one time operated by British Rail. After privatisation, four of the old railway boats were bought by Windermere Lake Cruises Ltd. Three of them are still running. There is also a vehicle-carrying cable ferry, which crosses from the eastern side of the lake, south of Bowness, to Far Sawrey - and two summer only passenger ferries that cross the lake (one from Lakeside station to Fell Foot Park in the south, and another from Bowness with Far Sawrey.) There has been some sort of ferry across the neck of the lake for over 500 years. Initially these were rowed, but were later steam and diesel driven. The current ferry ("Mallard") is the largest so far - carrying 18 cars and 100 passengers.
It has been said that there is "only one town or village directly on the lakeshore" (Bowness-on-Windermere) although this is open to interpretation, since settlements like Waterhead and Lakeside now also have many buildings close to the water's edge.
Windermere become part of water-speed-record history in 1930 when Sir Henry Segrave broke the record on Windermere in Miss England II at an average speed of 158.94 kilometres per hour (not quite 100 mph.). Segrave's mechanic drowned on the third run, but Segrave was rescued by support boats - only to die a short time later of his injuries. Norman Buckley also set several world water speed records on Windermere in the 1950s. These were not the only men to have died in the Lake District attempting speed records. Donald Campbell died in Bluebird K7 on Coniston Water in 1967. The wreckage and his body were not recovered from the depths of the water until 2001. Depending on your perspective these were either evidence of a kind of "driven" madness or the insuppressible aspiration of Man. As with artists, the two are perhaps quite close.
William Wordsworth lived most of his life in the area - initially in Grasmere, but then at Rydal, just north of Ambleside. The area is also associated with Arthur Ransome of Swallows and Amazons fame. His 1930s school holiday boating adventures are set on a fictional Lake District lake, which is said to have been a cross between Windermere and (nearby) Coniston Water.
Windermere: The Cruise
Route(s) and Timing(s)
Windermere Lake Cruises offers a variety of cruises, with a variety of starting points around the lake. Some of these run year round, although there is more choice in the summer, when there are also "bundle" deals with other attractions, walker's cruises, buffet cruises, sunset cruises and so on. The bewildering variety is too large to detail here, but the alternatives a clearly laid out on the company's website - with the routes detailed on a map that will pop up when you click the yellow "View Route Map" button, near the top of the linked page.The timetables and prices for each cruise can be found by clicking the relevant button on that master-page.
Despite the number of boats and routes, you would be well advised to book ahead during peak months like August - to make sure you can take a trip at the time you want.
The company also offers a number of "self-drive" motor and rowing boats for the more independent/energetic, although - from the reviews we have seen posted by those who have tried them - these tend to be less-well rated than trips on the bigger boats.
We chose the 75-minute "Red" cruise, which runs from Bowness to Waterhead and back, with the option of stopping at Waterhead (Ambleside) and taking a later boat for the return. To us, the mountains at the head of the lake, in an arc north of Ambleside, were more interesting than the south of the lake, which seems to be surrounded by hills which are lower in altitude and more continuously wooded. But, of course, it's a matter of your taste in natural beauty and the time you have available.
The cost was £10.30 per person and the duration (if you don't disembark at Waterhead or Brockhole) is 75 minutes.
You could also embark at Waterhead (where the parking is probably a bit easier) and spend some time in Bowness-On-Windermere, if you prefer.
The open seats at the front of the boat are obviously the ones with the widest choice of views, so get on the boat early! Or keep your eye on them when people disembark at the mid-point of the trip, if you are not disembarking yourself....
There is free 2 hour parking along the side of Glebe Road, if that's long enough for your cruise (and if you can find a space!) - but note that Glebe Road is one-way, so if you can't find a space you'll have to loop back around to look again. There are public toilets opposite the piers (20p charge.)
Small beach near piers on Glebe Road - closest place for street/pay 'n' display parking
There's also a large pay and display car-park in town on Rayrigg Road [LA23 3BZ] which is almost as close, and an overflow car-park near the end of (one-way) Glebe Road, should you prefer.
The Rayrigg Road car park may be a touch cheaper than the nearest Glebe Road one.
All car parks can become choked at peak season, so you're advised to arrive early to be sure of a space (or avoid school-holidays and go off-peak...) Even at the end of September, when we visited, it was not possible to find a parking slot along Glebe Road and the pay and display car-park was already well stocked. You have been warned!
More detail about parking at Bowness-On-Windermere on websites like Parkopedia's.
Bowness is considerably older - as witnessed by its name, which comes from Old English Bulnes, meaning "the headland where the bull grazes." The -on-Windermere part was added at the end of the 19th century - presumably to distinguish it from similarly named villages in the region. Locally, it's still mostly called Bowness.
The current parish church of St Martin was built in 1483, but there was an earlier church or chapel on the same site dating from at least 1203. That church burnt down in 1480, although the font, the base of the tower and its low external door survived and were incorporated into the later church which has a low-pitched, lead covered roof (unlike most Lake District churches which have slate rooves.) Oddly, the use of lead made for a lighter roof than the use of slate, enabling the parishioners to build a larger church than in other villages.
The Bowness-On-Windermere cruise piers are very busy during the peak tourism season
Bowness was just a small fishing village until the coming of the railway, when it turned into a tourist centre and the centre for boat-building industry - providing the yachts, rowing boats and steam launches used on the lake. Today - as with Windermere (the town) - the economy is also entirely derived from tourism and holiday homes.
Although the Bowness Bay piers are geographically away from the town centre, they are actually the heart of the modern economy and the large paved area in front of them is usually full of people.
The piers are almost exclusively used by the Windermere Lake Cruises boats and water taxis. Private yachts are found mostly in the marina that is backed by Glebe Road, to the south-west of the cruise jetties. There's also a slipway next to the main jetties for the self-drive motor boats that are available for hire.
The photo above shows the variety of boats that you can find docked at the piers - including the slim lines of one of the older "steamers" that are still very popular with visitors.
Bowness town's cafés and attractions are just a short walk from the Bowness Bay piers
The town centre can be said to start at the bell-tower of St Martin's, which is less than 200 metres from the cruise jetties. On the Bay side is a Macdonald hotel, and on the other side you can find Costa, Tesco and (a bit further north) the Beatrix Potter World attraction.
The main road (A592) running to the right of St Martin's splits between Tesco and Beatrix Potter world. The A592 stays close to the lakeside as Rayrigg Road, which has marinas and other lakeside attractions, while the A5074 - Crag Brow - forms the main street that runs up to Windermere (the town) and contains the majority of the pubs, restaurants and takeaways.
Looking up the lake: steamer (left) about to dock at a Windermere Bowness jetty
The Bowness piers themselves look deceptively rural, since they are surrounded by green. The low-rise Falbarrow Park development is screened from Bowness Bay by a thick belt of trees (top right in the photograph above) and development opposite the piers has been stopped by the 6 acre gardens of the Grand Victorian Belsfield Hote.
The shops along Glebe Road have also been stopped from expanding very far by another protected green area called "The Glebe," which acts as a broad 200m buffer between the Bowness Bay marinas and the line of suburbs running between The Belsfield and two more marinas at the Parson and Sourpool Wykes
It's a pretty setting that is a relaxing starting-point for the lake cruises.
The (very pleasant) B&B (that we booked the day before) was in Bowness-on-Windermere and, of course, the first thing we wanted to see was the lake, so we arrived at the Bowness piers around 3pm - wanting to do something rather more leisurely than stare at the weft and weave of M6 traffic.
The weather was a mix of rearing clouds and clear, sunny skies, so a 75 minute cruise seemed a good way of achieving mental detox and getting a relaxing introduction to the local area, as we floated over the shining waters.
The view north up Lake Windermere from the Bowness-on-Windermere steamer piers
Of course, there was still the small matter of finding somewhere to park, which wasted the best part of another half and hour before we could walk back to find the booking office.
Since we also wanted to take a look at the area around Coniston Water, we took the first available "Red" cruise, at 4pm. This was on a modern motor vessel. Actually we would have preferred to take one of the 1930s "steamers", but this would have put our return too close - so off we went on the (almost full) top deck of the MV Cumbria (obviously post-1974, since the name was not current until the merger of the counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland at that time...)
1 - Shoreline north-east of Bowness-on-Windermere, with small wooded island (left)
At a speed that was probably not much above walking pace, the shoreline north of Bowness slowly unfolded, as if it was on a steadily running background roller.
The bulge of land immediately abutting Bowness Bay (above) is actually a holiday park full of lodges and caravans, although you would hardly notice this, since a line of trees has been left along the shore to sympathetically screen them from view.
It's at this point also that the small wooded islands, or holmes, are most obvious - with several of them clustered around the much larger (and inhabited) Belle Isle.
2 - Yachts anchored near the protective cove of Rayrigg Wyke, near Windermere town
Windermere is popular with yachtsmen (shouldn't that be "yachtspeople" now?) and there are several anchorages and marinas in the central-eastern part of the lake.
The boats above are anchored near the mouth a Rayrigg Wyke - a small cove that looks like it's in the countryside, although actually it's still further south than the centre of Windermere (the town - which is about a kilometer inland from there.)
3 - Yachts, wooded shoreline and foothills north-east of the Rayrigg Wyke harbour
The shoreline is still mostly wooded at this point - as it is in the south of "Lake Windermere" - but the line of high ground that rises around Troutbeck and leads up to peaks like Wansfell Pike is already in evidence, shouldering above the woodlands of the first ridges that border the valley floor.
3- Closer view of the wooded shore and foothills north-east of Rayrigg Wyke harbour
The apparent density and continuity of the trees is deceptive. From the photographs it looks like they run without a break from the lakeshore right up over the first ridge. But if you look at a satellite photograph, you can see that the lakeshore is actually bordered by a level 200-300m wide meadow, before the land starts to rise.
A thin line of trees at the water's edge was hiding the meadows at this point, making it look from water-level as if they don't exist!
Further up the lake there is sometimes fewer trees at the edge of the beaches and he extent of the meadows can be appreciated (q.v. photographic location 6 below.)
3 - Billowing clouds dominate the view north up Lake Windermere towards Ambleside
Despite the fact that some of the distant mountains reach over 700m they were easily dwarfed by vast and effulgent clouds on the day we took the cruise.
On a practical level, this made for a lot or problems with photographic exposure, since the light sweeping across the land and water was contrasty and constantly changing. The unlit mountains were a dark hazy blue, while the lens had to be stopped down to prevent ugly digital burn-out on the darkest part of the clouds.
On balance, however, we'd rather have had exposure problems than lose the magnificent cumulus clouds in the vast panorama of the sky!
4 - To the North-West, the distant Langdale Pikes were blue and hazy (even in the sun)
The Langdale Pikes were the most identifiable peaks in the North-Western part of the scene - as we looked up the length of the lake. Most of the time the cloud-cover was high enough to leave these clear, although at other times the cloud poured over them like a viscous liquid.
The gathering wind made the water look a lot choppier than it actually was. There was hardly any roll on our boat - nd, anyway, a totally calm lake wouldn't have been much appreciated by the many yachtspeople and sail-boarders!
5 - Canoeists watch the swans on the ever-shifting sand-bar at the mouth of Trout Beck
Trout Beck (or Trout Stream in less dialectical parlance) is one of a number of streams and small rivers that feed down into Windermere from the surrounding highlands. If you followed its erratic course 3-4 km upstream you would reach the village of Troutbeck, which is a popular stop or starting point for walks up Wansfell Pike (among others.) [There's more detail about this walk in our Other Attractions and Walks section - below.]
Curiously, despite its flow - or perhaps because of it - the stream has created a small island of beach-pebbles like a sand-bar at its mouth, which sometimes appears to block it. If you compare satellite pictures to the way it looks now, you can see that the shape of this "pebble-bar" is continually morphing its shape - despite the plants that grow on it and which you'd think would stabilise it.
6 - Open meadows border Lake Windermere/Trout Beck, just south of White Cross Bay
The area of shore between Trout Beck and the marina in White Cross Bay has fewer trees and the extent of the meadows that border the north-eastern side of the lake becomes readily apparent, changing the character of the shore and making it more open/ less clastrophobic.
It's difficult to recognise the mountain ridge in the picture, but it's probably the tongue of a ridge that leads up to Sour Howes.
7 -Yachts at White Cross Bay Marine and Leisure Park, with ridges around Troutbeck
The White Cross Bay Holiday Park is well packed with holiday lodges and caravans. It's also - like the one close to Bowness Bay - well screened by trees, with only the busy marina jetties giving any hint of the number of people who are staying there.
The area around Troutbeck (beyond the holiday park) is actually a gateway to some quite rugged walks across the fells and peaks such as Troutbeck Tongue, Wansfell, Sallows, Sour Howes and Yoke. But you would hardly know that from the water, where the uplands to the east of the lake all seemed rather green and unchallenging
It was still only the north-west that betrayed the kind of cragginess that exists in the Lake District and the dangers that exist for walkers in old sneakers and without compasses, who are unprepared for sudden shifts in the weather.
8 - The Langdale Pikes and other crags from the south-east, across Lake Windermere
By this time the limitations of taking photographs from a cruise boat were beginning to manifest themselves. Besides the problem of the constantly shifting perpective on shore-based buildings and objects (that may give you only a few seconds to compensate for exposure hot-spots and get the framing you want,) there was also a marked absence of foreground that frequently left an ugly and featureless band of grey lake, as a kind of off-centre border along the picture-bottom.
Docking at the Brockhole jetty provided only a short relief from this, as it provided a bit of foreground only long enough to pick up three passengers, before moving again into open water.
The cruise boats also seemed to follow the same anti-clockwise path, so there wasn't even a chance of another boat "filling in" the bland grey-blue band with something more interesting.
Brockhole jetty: lake entrance to Brockhole House, Gardens and adventure playgrounds
Brockhole Jetty was the only place we docked during our cruise "loop," other than at Waterhead (Ambleside.) Having no knowedge, at that time, as to what was on shore, it looked to us that the jetty was in the middle of the countyside and that you just got off here to perambulate amongst the trees.
But in fact, Brockhole has a large late Victorian mansion which now houses the National Park Visitor Centre and its 30 acre grounds were landscaped by the famous (and, in terms of the large houses around the lake, almost omnipresent) Thomas Mawson into a mixture of formal garden and natural woodland that still provide an attractive place to relax.
There are also a wide variety of places - including the most recent "Tree-top" adventure playground attraction - where kids can burn off spare energy and youthful valour.
A more extensive description of Brockhole can be found in our Other Attractions and Walks section at the bottom of this article.
9 - Wooded shoreline with the Langdale mountain ridge - from near the Brockhole jetty
The sparse commentary that had been coming from the boats crackly loudspeakers during the early part of the cruise became more empassioned around this point, as the commentator expounded the wonders of Brockhole and (shortly afterwards) the Langdale Chase Hotel (which also has a Mawson garden, of course, although I'm not sure if he mentioned that.)
Unfortunately the commentator was from the Spanish part of Cumbria and spoke in a strange, rather sing-song manner, so it was rather hard to get much in the way of useful content from what he said!
10 - View of Langdale Chase (built in 1890, a hotel since 1930) from Lake Windermere
More than any other building we saw on the lake, Langdale Chase was build close to the shoreline, in a haughty attempt to dominate it.
It has been a hotel since 1930, although the hotel website is quick to fling visitors about in time with it's brief history of the house: "the foundation stone for the building itself was laid in 1890, and the house took some five years to complete. However, there are artifacts in the hotel which date back as far as 1664."
Presumably 1890 didn't sound old enough so they quickly conjured up some Charles II antiques to satisfy the spin-doctors ;-)
Unabashed, the site continues with: "Blessed with so many architectural and decorative examples of our heritage, not to mention hidden treasures..." [does this mean you can't actually see them?] "...such as the original mosaic floors in the porch, laid by craftsman brought over from Italy, the house is listed as one of national and historic interest. The Hotel's outstanding interior and location, made it a natural choice for the classic English country house in Alfred Hitchcock's production of TheParadine Case, starring Gregory Peck..." [1947] "...and more recently..." [66 years later!] "...in the BBC's portrayal of the life of Donald Campbell."
How could anyone possibly resist staying there once they've read that??
Actually, the building and gardens really don't need the hype - they are probably the most imposing on the east side of the lake.
11 - Small wooded point and meadows on the waterfront near Stagshaw Garden (NT)
After sweeping smoothly yet by another marina and watersports centre (at Low Wood Bay,) the boat passes a tiny wooded peninsula to reveal our first view of the Waterhead jetty.
Close to here are the National Trust's Stagshaw Gardens and the viewpoint of Jenkin Crag - which we also cover in our Other Attractions and Walks section, below.
12 - First view of Waterhead jetty, with mounts like Red Screes/Fairfield Peak beyond
Waterhead is, unsurprisingly, at the head (north) of Windermere (the lake) and is backed by an arc of famous mountains - from Red Screes, Fairfield Park and Helvellyn (between the Kirkstone Pass, which links Troutbeck to Ullswater, and the Grasmere valley) through to High Raise and the Pike of Bisco - "to name but a few."
At the time, this was all new to us and we had little idea as to what the countryside was like beyond this arc - although we would now say that the mountains from that point north and west are more like the kind of full-blooded Wordsworthian landscape that we had expected (compared to the cuddlier landscape around Windermere, which provides a only as feint, tantalising taste of that wildness at the tip of your searching tongue.)
That's not to say that Ambleside is devoid of attraction. Windermere as a whole is family-friendly and we have heard parents trying to interest their kids in the epic neolithic stone circle at Castlerigg tiredly promising to take them "for a walk in Ambleside" as a possible panacea to the boring old rocks....
12 - Closer to Waterhead outskirts - dwarfed by Red Screes and screened by woodland
Waterhead can actually be considered to be the underbelly of Ambleside. It's only about a kilometer's walk through the pleasantly dark dry-stone buldings to attractions like the iconic Bridge House and the Armitt Museum and Library.
The kid-boring foundations of the roman fort of Galava are even closer to the jetty and there are several family friendly walks which can be started in or around Ambleside as well.
Waterhead pier booking-office - the sun between clouds changes the peak's character
Suggestions and details about all of these can be found in our Other Attractions and Walks section, at the base of this article.
With this number of alternatives, Ambleside is probably a better base for exploring this part of the Lake District than Windermere (the town) or Bowness - although accomodation is harder to find and less competitive here than in those two centres.
Zoomed-in view of the Waterhead pier booking office, with mountain looming larger
Ambleside is a much older settlement than Windermere (the town) and probably Bowness as well. The remains of the Galava roman fort shows that the place was recognised from very early times as a strategic point that needed to have a military presence to protect this trading crossroads. Ambleside's current name dates from Anglo-Saxon times - or possibly the era of the Viking invasions, since it is said to be derived from the Old Norse Á-mel-sǽtr which translates (rather badly!) as river-sandbank-summer pasture.
By 1650 the town had been granted a charter to hold a market, so it became a centre for buying and selling agricultural products - primarily wool, which was the most valuable commodity of the time.
In the reign of James II, a charter was also granted for the town to collect tolls from routes like the old packhorse trail to and from Grasmere. Revenues no doubt increased when a new turnpike road was completed in 1770, leading to the packhorse convoys being superseded by horse-drawn carts - and by stagecoaches running on a regular schedule between the larger towns of Keswick and Kendal.
The Waterhead pier is less than a kilometer's walk from Ambleside's main attractions
The poet William Wordsworth also worked in Ambleside. Curiously, even the royalties he gained from the successful publication of his poetry in later life never really gave adequate financial security to his family and - from the time he moved from Grasmere to the nearby village of Rydal in 1813 - he took employment as the government's "Distributor of Stamps for Westmorland" - much to the disgust of the more Bohemian poet Shelley, who expressed his distaste for such a prosaic activity in his sonnet "To Wordsworth."
It was not until 1842, when he gained another income from his new post as poet laureate, that Wordsworth finally resigned his local government job.
Thinking of this today, Shelley was probably right in his intimation that the image of Wordsworth sitting at a desk in front of a large, bureaucratic ledger is hard to reconcile with the more familiar sense of that giant of wild Romanticism, clothes blowing, striding through the rain across boggy moorland, bracketed by bare grey rockfaces and rushing waterfalls!
Waterhead pier: the cruise boats stop here - so you can get off, then catch the next one
Those on one of the norther-running Windermere Cruises who want to spend time exploring the attractions in and around Ambleside can disembark at Waterhead and take a later boat for the return, without any additional charge or penalty. Just make sure to keep your ticket and make sure you're there for the last sailing!
We chose not to do this since it was already too late to get to key attractions like the Bridge House - and also because we wanted to drive round to Coniston before dark
The couple from Northern California, to whom we'd been chatted during the ride about their recent visit to Scotland, had started their cruise in Waterhead and left the boat with our warm wishes for their continued journey at this point.
Since they had been in the seats right at the front of the boat, it also enabled us to shimmy forward for the optimum view (or so we thought!)
13 - The Langdale Pikes are closer from the Western shore, but still need a zoom-lens
Once departed from the Waterhead pier the boat headed closer to the western shore, which gave some slightly better views of the Langdale Pikes, with less blue haze and with a more attractive tree and meadow foreground.
We soon found, however, that being at the front of the boat when the sun was getting low over the western horizon was of little advantage. Anything of interest to the south-west, off the closer starboard shoreline, was so strongly backlit that we just gave up trying to photograph interesting buildings like Wray Castle. The contrast between the sky and the shadows was just too great - even to be succesfully resurrected by Camera Raw manipulation and denoise filters!
This was a matter of strong regret! Wray Castle is actually a mock-gothic edifice built in Victorian times, but it has several interesting stories behind it, so we would have liked to have our own photo to show here.
As it is, we've had to draw an image of Wray Castle as a "Scrapbook" thumbnail from Wikimedia and tell the stories as part of our Other Attractions and Walks Around Windermere section. (Look for the Brown Dot locator marked a "G" - below!)
Frustrated by the lack of photographic potential over the bow of the boat I soon found myself kneeling down and bending myself into strangely contorted positions, in order to shoot back down the lake.
The results were not impressive ... although they no doubt provided light entertainment for other people on the deck ...
14 - Distant view of Waterhead pier and its sun-striped backdrop of low mountains
It was not until we got closer to Bowness, and the largest island in the lake that screens Bowness Bay from the north-west, that I took a shot that I didn't later delete - and even then the shot sticks out like a sore thumb in its appearance!
Post-production attempts to raise blacks while stopping highlights from burning entirely failed and I was left with a sort've half-acceptible silhouette of the island - and the many yachts that congregate near the island's shore.
15 - Backlit yachts anchored to the north of Belle Isle, the largest island in the Lake
Belle Isle is by far the largest of the islands in Windermere (the lake) and the only one to bear a name that doesn't end in the word "Holme." It's roughly a kilometer in length and 40 acres in area (sorry to mix measurements - we don't speak hectares!) It's the only island in Windermere ever to have been settled - although its settlement has given it a delightfully colourful and eccentric history!
The Roman governor at Ambleside is thought to have built a villa on the island not long after the time of Jesus. From that time and the Anglo-Saxon era little is known about it, although it was important enough to gain the name Lang (Great) Holme ("holme" being derived from Old Norse, and meaning small island.)
In Norman times it was the centre of the manor of Windermere, which - from 1247 - became a de facto moiety of the Barony of Kendal (that also included Bowness, Troutbeck and Ambleside!) Then during the English Civil War it was used as a highly defensible Royalist stronghold.
In 1774 the island's old manor house was replaced by the unusually circular Belle Isle House. It was built of brick, was three floors high and had a four column portico - yet was sold (along with the island) only 9 years later.
The new buyers were the wealthy Curwen family, who paid a princely £1,720 and renamed the island - calling it "Bella Island" after daughter Isabella. The Curwens retained ownership until 1993, by which time the name "Bella Island" had become shortened by use into the less cumbersome "Bell Isle." This was wrongly marked on a 1925 Ordnance Survey map as "Belle Isle" - which name it has retained until today.
Unhappily, the circular Belle Isle House was rendered unihabitable by a large fire in 1996 and needed substantial repairs before it could be occupied again. The house and island are still privately owned (currently by millionaires Harold and Janet Lefton, who hit the headlines in 2007, when they were jailed for 6 weeks for trying toto help their son avoid a speeding conviction by "lying" to the authorities ... )
Bowness pier in flat, overcast light - the end of our cruise
Passing the silhouetted Belle Isle and two, by now sunless, "holmes" near Felbarrow Park, the MV Cumbria nosed its way into the overcast Bowness pier - which from this angle looks like a private jetty extending from the lawns and gardens of the Belsfield Hotel.
It was a gentle introduction to the Lakes for my wife and a gentle re-introduction to one of the gentlest areas of the park for me. I hadn't visited the National Park since my early student days, when my father and I made a spontaneous decision to pop up there from Oxfordshire. I remember it being overcast and cold, making Coniston Water look bleak, choppy and foreboding - a suitable place for the ghost of Donald Campbell, who'd died attempting the water speed record only a few years earlier. For some reason - I can't remember why - we also found ourself sleeping in the car ... and that was really cold..!
It was a long way from my expections of Westmoreland, which I'd long known through the warm prism of Wordsworth and the striking images of National Geographic...
Evening light returns to the beach by the Bowness piers, to warm the basking swans
The evening shadows were already long when we disembarked the boat, although the air was still warm.
Walking back along Glebe Road to pick up the car, we passed a small beach where a healthy population of swans, wild geese and ducks were luxuriating in the evening light of early autumn.
It was a vivid lesson in how the weather can change the look and atmosphere of a landscape - and with it our very perception and psychology of the moment.
Wordsworth always credited Nature as his greatest teacher - although Nature can teach deeply sombre lessons as well as the euphoric ones.
Many of the lakeshores in the Lake District have populations of swans, geese and ducks
Yet tonight we were like the basking swans - peaceful and content ... and ready to swim deeper into pax natura.
Recklessly we decided to take a drive around the bottom of Windermere and on to Coniston. If we'd stopped to think more, it was obvious that it was too late for to complete this before nightfall. But we didn't stop to think and we rewarded for our spontaneity by one of the most beautiful sunsets we've ever seen...
The waterfowl population seems un-phased by people and traffic passing on Glebe Road
But that's another story - which you can pick up in our article about our- although it your main focus is Windermere, please read on and find out all the things around the lake that we have - so far - missed!
Orrest Head Walk
Orrest Head is a viewpoint that gives good views of the Windermere (the Lake) from a walk that has its start point near Windermere Railway Station, that is high on our list for our next visit.
According to the sign that announces it on the ground, it is reached by a "20 minute" (most commentators say it's usually more than that) walk.
The walk is uphill, but is said to be suitable for small children and so can probably be rated as Easy-Moderate. It's said to return an excellent panorama for a relatively small input.
Good descriptions of the walk, with photos, can be found on the Walks In The Lake District website and on the Where2Walk website. Or if you don't like those, try Googling "Orrest Head Walk" - there's bound to be others!
One of those websites gives the start point as being close to LA23 1WY - which is near the Windermere Tourist Information Centre [.] That website continues: "There is a lot of parking nearby in Windermere, then just walk back up
the road to the start of the walk at the junction of the A591 and A5074, just opposite the entrance to the station."
The other website sets the start of the walk at the station (which Parkopedia says has Pay 'n' Display parking,) with the additional comment that "There is some free parking on the main road above the Windermere hotel but you have to return in 2 hours..."
2 hours sounds possible, but...
The World Of Beatrix Potter
Beatrix Potter, and her little books of children's fables featuring animal characters like Peter Rabbit, Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, Squirrel Nutkin, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Samuel Whiskers, Johnny Town-Mouse and many more, has strong associations with the area around Windermere, and there are many "attractions" which are devoted to various aspects of her legacy and talent.
The World of Beatrix Potter is probably the most commercial of these and is firmly aimed at children - or adults who still have strong childhood memories of her stories (which she both wrote and beautifully illustrated.)
The attraction can be found near the centre of Bowness-on-Windermere, at postcode LA23 3BX. This is not far from the Rayrigg Road car park at LA23 3BZ.
It features rooms and full-size dioramas with models of many of the favourite Beatrix Potter characters, which (from what we've seen on the web) children can enter for photos. Parents on TripAdvisor give it a pretty good rating and say that their kids really liked it, although comments like "overpriced" and "too small" are also quite common.
Admission is £6.95 for adults and £3.65 for kids or there's a family pass (2 adults and 2 kids) for £18.50 [so if you have 1 or 3 kids you'll have to either quickly create another one or temporarily lose one..!] There's also a shop selling toys and memorabilia, so you'll need to add a few pounds more to the budget if your kids notice it ;-)
Details about the attraction can be found on their own World of Beatrix Potter website, although there are surprisingly few photographs of the dioramas, so you may also want to check out independent sites like kiddieholidays and theexhibitionlist as well.
Of course, it's good to remember Beatrix Potter for her celebrated childen's books, but to isolate the books as her only achievement would be to unjustly limit the admiration we should have for her. She was also a talented natural scientist, natural history illustrator, farmer and conservationist, who is largely responsible for the large tracts of beautiful scenery that are protected by the Natural Trust on behalf of the Nation - for us and generations yet to come.
In many ways, it's the Lake District itself that is Beatrix Potter's gift to our children, and not her little books (although it was probably the little books that made it all possible.)
This "other side" of Beatrix Potter is better represented at other sites around the area, such as the Armitt Museum in Ambleside (mentioned in more detail below) and Beatix's home - Hill Top - on the other side of the Lake at Near Sawrey [LA22 0LF,] which has been frozen as a "time-capsule of her life" by the National Trust (and which we cover in our Windermere and Coniston Drive article.)
Rayrigg Meadow Picnic Ground and (Queen) Adelaide Hill Walk
A bit further up Rayrigg Road from the World of Beatrix Potter is another family friendly location, with the option of a short family walk up to a viewpoint on Adelaide Hill.
The picnic site has its own council-run Pay 'n' Display car park [satnav: LA23 1BP] and has a variety of activities for burning off energy: like a water sports centre, full size football pitch, children's play area and lake frontage with piers for short-term mooring - as well as picnic and barbecue areas.
From the picnic ground you can also take a short walk (estimated at between 20 minutes to an hour for the round-trip) via Millerground Cottage to Adelaide Hill. The viewpoint was named after Queen Victoria's aunt Adelaide, who is supposed to have landed on the shore below it during her visit in 1840.
Despite being only a small climb, the viewpoint gives good views over the lake.
More detail about the walk can be found on websites like windermere-walks and lakedistrictgems. (The photograph above is a thumbnail version of one by Richard Ainsworth on found on picturesofengland.com, which - as the name suggests - is a nice site that has a lot of pretty images from around England. Click the thumbnail to go to the original, large version.)
Brockhole
Accessible by road (it has its own car park at satnav LA23 1LJ: £2 for the first hour then 40p for every 20 minutes - pay on exit) or from the jetty served by some of the Windermere cruises, Brockhole is the National Park Visitor centre and has a wide range of facilities which will appeal to everyone from small children to garden- and scenery-loving pernsioners.
For kids and families there are adventure and sports activities like the Treetop Trek, Treetop Nets, watersports, mini-golf, bike-hire, boat-hire, orienteering, exhibitions, indoor soft play and creativity space, adventure playground ... and so on.
For non-families there are walks around the house, the extensive gardens and the lakeshore ... and to other scenic viewpoints in the grounds.
Entry is free, although you can expect to shed some money for the car park (up to £8 for the whole day,) or for the shop and restaurant/tea room (which has terraced seating outside.)
The house itself is of architectural interest, since it was built in 1895 by wealthy Manchester silk merchant William Henry Aldolphus Gaddum,
who bought four plots of farm land and had the house constructed according to plans designed by architect Dan Gibson. Beatrix Potter was a cousin of Mrs Gaddum's and was a frequent visitor to the house (as she records in her journals.)
The remaining 30 acres were designed by the local and internationally famous landscape gardener Thomas Mawson. Five acres were made into magnificent terraced gardens stretching down to the shore of Windermere, while the rest was adapted to provide spectacular views of the lake and fells.
Thomas Mawson designed most of the gardens for the large houses around Windermere including Rydal Hall, Langdale Chase and Blackwell. He later became known internationally as a key influence in the design of gardens in the so-called Arts and Crafts movement and went on to design gardens in other countries - including the Peace Palace Gardens of the Hague as well as sites in Athens and North American.
Mawson was a teetotaller workaholic with a passion for detail and had firm opinions about garden design. He recorded his design philosophies and some examples of his work in his book The Art and Craft of Garden Making.
The Brockhole garden was built as a series of South and West facing terraces, sloping gently down to the shores of Lake Windermere, moving from formal to informal planting through flowerbeds, meadow and woodland to the lakeshore. A system of underground water tanks collected rainwater from gutters to irrigate the flower beds. The terrace was created for the mountain view at the Northern end, towards the Langdale Pikes, Bowfell and Crinkle Crags. There are also views of the Pike of Stickle and Harrison Stickle.
Shrubs include Rhododendrons, Wisteria and Magnolias and the wide variety of herbaceous plantings mean that there's something colourful at most times of year. There is also a busy schedule of events and concerts (which are available at additional cost.) Full details about Brockhole can be found on the brockhole.co.uk website.
Stagshaw Gardens (NT - near Waterhead)
400 meters' walk southwards down the A591, from the Pay 'n' Display car park at the Waterhead pier [LA22 0EY,] are the National Trust's Stagshaw Gardens [LA22 0HE.] Or there is a small car park at the gardens themselves (presumably free to members, although the National Trust site doesn't say what charges are for non-members, if any.]
Entry to the gardens for a non-member adult is £2.50, or £1 for a child.
The gardens are described by the Trust as "an informal woodland garden which in the spring and summer bursts into life with an absolute blaze of colour and wonderful scents. The rambling paths and unusual combination of shrubs, trees and plants give this garden an enchanted feel, with a different delight around each corner."
There are also many native woodland flowers, such as native daffodils and bluebells, which form a colourful carpet amongst the trees in springtime.
Jenkin Crag Walk
A few hundred metres inland from Windermere (the lake) - and on a hillside above Stagshaw Gardens (described above) - is a much-vaunted viewpoint called Jenkin Crag. According to the Ordnance Survey map there seems to be a fairly direct path between the two along the gloriously named Stencher Beck - although we haven't seen this path described on walks published by local ramblers.
Several people have published other walks to the Jenkin viewpoint on their websites, although most of them "bundle" the viewpoint with a longer walk to Wansfell (below.)
The nearest I've seen to a Stagshaw-Jenkin (or sometimes "Jenkin's") Crag loop is a walk described on the lakedistrictcottage site. This has a walk that passes through both of them, although it actually starts in Ambleside, incorporates other local sites (like the Galava Roman Fort - see below) and descends in a wide loop from the Crag down to the Gardens, rather than being a simple walk up and back. However, with a little ingenuity you may be able to deconstruct the description and map of the walk on the lakedistrictcottage pdf file to make it a straight "up and back" from the Gardens, if that's what you wish.
The website starts its walk at the Low Fold Pay 'n' Display car park in Ambleside [LA22 0DN - it has toilets and is roughly opposite the Garden Centre] and describes it as a "short but quite energetic walk" - although I didn't notice any estimated disances or durations in their text.
From their pdf map I would guess about 4 km for their whole loop, or about 1.5 km if you go up from Stagshaw and then back the same way. Longer walks, which pass through Jenkin Crag on the way to or from Wansfell Pike are covered immediately below.
Wansfell Pike Walk
From the number of people on the net who refer to it, this is a very popular walk - although it's uphill over rough terrain for a lot of the way, so you'll need to be reasonable fit and used to fell-walking (if the weather is threatening) in order to attempt it safely.
The Ambleside-Wansfell-Troutbeck-Skelgyll-Jenkin Crag walk described by the excellently detailed and organised www.walklakes.co.uk website is 11 kilometers and about "3 hours 6 mins" (we said they were detailed!)- so it should clearly be treated seriously, although the payoffs in natural beauty promise to amply repay the effort.
The National Trust has a similar walk, which they put at 9.5 km and 4-5 hours. Presumably the are catering to people who are less fit that the walklakes folks ;-)
Walkingbritain put start their Wansfell Pike-Skelgyll Force-Troutbeck walk at LA22 9BW and put the distance at over 12 km. There seems to be no mention of Jenkin Crag here, so it looks like they believe the view from the Wansfell Summit to make it unnecessary.
There are also good Ambleside-Skelgyll-Wansfell-Jenkin walk descriptions (with maps) available from where2walk.co.uk, golakes.co.uk and ambleside-walks (who have two different length choices,) as well as a walk up Wansfell Pike from Troutbeck (they say in less than two hours!) by wainwrightroutes (also has a map.)
With that level of guidance, there's really no need for us to "gild the lily" any further!
Galava Roman Fort, Waterhead
Less than 200 metres from the Pay 'n' Display car park by the Waterhead jetty [LA22 0EY] are the remains of the Roman Fort of Galava. From the car park follow Borrans Road (A5095) north-east. The road is the nearest one to the lakeshore, from which it is separated from it by the lawns of Borrans Park, which leads on to the site of the fort.
The fort exists only as low foundations, which make a poor photographic subject, although they are important archeologically.
The visitcumbria website says that "The fort is on land owned by the National Trust, and maintained by English Heritage" while the English Heritage website lists the fort on their website, but says it's "managed" by National Trust. But in any case entry to the site is free, so ho cares whose membership cards you are carrying ;-)
A small timber fort was built in AD79 to house a
garrison of 200 men protecting vital trade routes during the Roman army’s conquest of Northern Britain towards the end of the first Century. It was later abandoned, but was redeveloped early in the 2nd Century AD to house an even larger garrison of 500 infantrymen. The location was chosen because it's protected on two sides by water.
Archaeological excavations fromn 1914 to 1920 uncovered the remains of the fort’s defences including the main gate, the south gate - as well as parts of the internal building arrangement, such as the commanding officer’s house, the headquarters building and the granaries. These lines of foundations can still be seen today.
Ambleside Bridge House (NT)
At the northern edge of Ambleside, on Rydal Road [LA22 9AN,] you can find the so-called "Bridge House," which is arguably the most iconic and photographed building in the Lake District. According to the www.historicbritain.com website there is both free and charged parking nearby, although there is nothing more specific than this. The website also says "Free admission" and "Admission prices apply" so it can't be trusted entirely! From the Waterhead pier, it's a bit over a kilometr's walk each way, if you want to see it in the middle of a cruise.
Bridge House was built more than 300 years ago over the Stock Beck (stream.) The building was purchased by local people in 1926 and given to the National Trust, who have used it as their first information and recruitment centre and, more recently, as a shop.
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The National Trust webpage on the house gives a more complete history: the influential Braithwaite family originally built Bridge House in the 17th century to
access their lands on the other side of Stock Beck and also to store apples from their orchards, which surrounded the river on bothsides.
Since that time it has been used as a counting house for the mills of Rattle Ghyll, a tea-room, a weaving shop, a cobbler's, a chair maker's and, at one time, a two-room home for a family of two parents and six children.
During the tourist boom of the 1850s, the building became a well-known attraction. Guidebooks made the building famous as the most "curious relic in Ambleside of the olden time ... which every artist sketches as he [should that not be "they" now] passes by." A lot of oil and watercolour paintings of the Bridge House can still be found in local museums and galleries.
The house's purchase by local residents in 1926 was triggered by the need to make repairs to a building that was recognised to be a valuable tourist asset. The cost of the purchase and refurbishment was a little over £1,244.
Rough Opening Times: March to September, 11.00am-4.00pm. (Check the National Trust webpage for any changes.)
The Armitt Museum, Ambleside
Quite close to the Bridge House, and also in Rydal Road [satnav: LA22 9BL] is the Armitt Museum and Library (open 10am - 5pm Monday - Saturday: last admission 4.30pm.) There is a charge for entry, although the Armitt museum website does not specify how much, which is incredibly remiss!
The museum obviously has a great deal of valuable material relating to a variety of famous figures associated with the Lake District, but it's unclear from the website what is on permanent display and what is only available in transient exhibitions. It's pretty clear that there is a lot more in their vaults than can be shown at any one time, so it seems to be pot luck as to what you can see at any particular visit.
The website does give some information about parking, which is stated to be "a public (pay and display) car park adjacent to the Armitt and another immediately over the road."
The introduction to the museum on their own website states that: "For over a century it has been the aim of the Armitt, through its combination of Gallery, Museum and Library, holding a diverse collection of art, photographs, documents and objects to encapsulate and articulate this great heritage [of the Lake District's natural beauty and its vibrant cultural history.]
The Armitt was founded in 1912 and in many respects is a typical local museum, quirky, unruly, chaotic and surprising, the product of the rapacious Victorian passion for collecting the eclectic and eccentric, from the mundane to the marvellous with everything in between ... Later came the intriguing Ruskin letters address to Dr. Parsons, and Beatrix Potter’s watercolours of fungi, mosses and lichens, which incorporate her artistic and intellectual passions to create scientific studies of exquisite beauty. In more recent years the list has included ... a 17th century child’s leather boot found concealed within a cottage wall to ward off witches, and 17,000 portraits in the form of glass plate photographic negatives, the remarkable life’s work of one man."
Collections also include painting by the Dada artist Kurt Schwitters, and many of his papers - although its the Beatrix Potter collection that will probably interest to most people.
Born in London to wealthy parents in 1866, Beatrix had interests in natural history, mycology, archaeology, fossils and farming - all of which she liked to draw from an early age. She and her brother kept animals in their nursery - from newts, frogs, bats and a snake to a rabbit called Peter Piper. As Beatrix grew older, her early interest in the natural world were widened to include plants and creatures in their natural settings, which she sketched during family holidays.
From 1882 these holidays were mainly the Lake District, although her long-running interest in fungi started earlier - in Scotland, from a knowledgable local postman! She went on to study obscure species of fungi and their propagation - making 250 highly accurate drawings of fungi, over 40 of different mosses and many microscope studies of the process of germination. Some of these were presented as a paper to the prestigious Linnean Society and her knowledge was seen by later scientists to be well ahead of its time. She also drew animals, archeological artifacts and fossils.
It was not until the turn of the century that her knowledge of natural history was turned to the anthropomorphic children's tales that brought her an income from royalties and which enabled her to buy Hilltop Farm in Near Sawrey in 1905. This purchase was followed by the acquisition of more Lake District farms, land and cottages as time progressed. Many of these were left to the National Trust.
Her husband William Heelis introduced her to the Armitt Library (of which he was a member) during her lifetime. Then, on her death, her fungi paintings, drawings of Roman artefacts and many papers and photographs from her own and her father's past were bequeathed to the Library for the benefit of the Public.
The Armitt has also cquired early editions of Beatrix's own books, including a first edition of "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" - although this is not to say that you will be able to see them when you visit...
Loughrigg Fell Walk
Another walk within range of Ambleside that has received a lot of "wow" reviews (people on TripAdvisor have given it 5 stars) is the walk up Loughrigg Fell, which one TripAdvisor contributor described as a "steep but rewarding walk up mainly stone steps to incredible views of surrounding mountains and lakes."
The well-presented walklakes, golakes, where2walk, wainwrightroutes, walkingenglishman, trekkingbritain and walkthefells websites all have good walk descriptions - most with maps and photos - so it's just a case of choosing which one you want to follow. Start points vary between Ambleside, Grasmere and Rydal.
For sure there will be other walks from the towns and villages around Windermere as well, but the ones above are the walks that we've found to be well-rated by a lot of people and which range from easy to moderate, but which repay the effort with breath-taking beauty - and, in good weather, stunning photographs!
Wray Castle (NT)
"Wray Castle" is not actually a castle at all, although with its well-maintained castellations and profusion of arrow-slits, it looks more like a Norman castle than most genuine Norman castle ruins do!
It's located on a hillside, above the shore on the western side of Windermere and roughly opposite the Brockhole jetty, which makes it clearly visible to cruise boats returning to Bowness from Waterhead. [Take the trip in the morning if you want to photograph it!]
Getting to it, however, is much harder than just seeing it (although when you do get to it, there's a small National Trust car park [satnav: LA22 0JA] which is free for NT members and Pay 'n' Display for non-members.)
Wray Castle has some fascinating stories behind it - which can be found in our separate Wray Castle article...
Enjoy!
-dikb
Getting There and Parking
You can park near any of the main piers run by the cruise company, although some places are easier and closer than others. The Waterhead car-park is right next to the pier [satnav: ,] whereas the Bowness long-term (hourly) pay and display car park in Glebe Road [satnav: LA23 3HB] is about a 1/2 kilometer walk from the pier.There is free 2 hour parking along the side of Glebe Road, if that's long enough for your cruise (and if you can find a space!) - but note that Glebe Road is one-way, so if you can't find a space you'll have to loop back around to look again. There are public toilets opposite the piers (20p charge.)
Small beach near piers on Glebe Road - closest place for street/pay 'n' display parkingThe Rayrigg Road car park may be a touch cheaper than the nearest Glebe Road one.
All car parks can become choked at peak season, so you're advised to arrive early to be sure of a space (or avoid school-holidays and go off-peak...) Even at the end of September, when we visited, it was not possible to find a parking slot along Glebe Road and the pay and display car-park was already well stocked. You have been warned!
More detail about parking at Bowness-On-Windermere on websites like Parkopedia's.
Windermere and Bowness-On-Windermere
Although these two settlements now form a continuous built-up area, the village of Windermere is about 20 minutes walk from the lakeshore and did not exist at all before the arrival of the railway in 1847. According to Wikipedia: "the station was built in an area of open fell and farmland in the township of Applethwaite. The nearest farm was Birthwaite, which gave its name to the station and the village that began to grow up near it. In about 1859, the residents began to call their new village by the name of Windermere, much to the chagrin of the people of Bowness, which had been the centre of the parish of Windermere for many centuries."Bowness is considerably older - as witnessed by its name, which comes from Old English Bulnes, meaning "the headland where the bull grazes." The -on-Windermere part was added at the end of the 19th century - presumably to distinguish it from similarly named villages in the region. Locally, it's still mostly called Bowness.
The current parish church of St Martin was built in 1483, but there was an earlier church or chapel on the same site dating from at least 1203. That church burnt down in 1480, although the font, the base of the tower and its low external door survived and were incorporated into the later church which has a low-pitched, lead covered roof (unlike most Lake District churches which have slate rooves.) Oddly, the use of lead made for a lighter roof than the use of slate, enabling the parishioners to build a larger church than in other villages.
The Bowness-On-Windermere cruise piers are very busy during the peak tourism seasonAlthough the Bowness Bay piers are geographically away from the town centre, they are actually the heart of the modern economy and the large paved area in front of them is usually full of people.
The piers are almost exclusively used by the Windermere Lake Cruises boats and water taxis. Private yachts are found mostly in the marina that is backed by Glebe Road, to the south-west of the cruise jetties. There's also a slipway next to the main jetties for the self-drive motor boats that are available for hire.
The photo above shows the variety of boats that you can find docked at the piers - including the slim lines of one of the older "steamers" that are still very popular with visitors.
Bowness town's cafés and attractions are just a short walk from the Bowness Bay piersThe main road (A592) running to the right of St Martin's splits between Tesco and Beatrix Potter world. The A592 stays close to the lakeside as Rayrigg Road, which has marinas and other lakeside attractions, while the A5074 - Crag Brow - forms the main street that runs up to Windermere (the town) and contains the majority of the pubs, restaurants and takeaways.
Looking up the lake: steamer (left) about to dock at a Windermere Bowness jettyThe shops along Glebe Road have also been stopped from expanding very far by another protected green area called "The Glebe," which acts as a broad 200m buffer between the Bowness Bay marinas and the line of suburbs running between The Belsfield and two more marinas at the Parson and Sourpool Wykes
It's a pretty setting that is a relaxing starting-point for the lake cruises.
The Cruise Itself
Our September trip to the Lake District was a last minute decision, with the Lakes acting as a pleasant stopping-point on the way to and from a longer trip to the north-west of Scotland.The (very pleasant) B&B (that we booked the day before) was in Bowness-on-Windermere and, of course, the first thing we wanted to see was the lake, so we arrived at the Bowness piers around 3pm - wanting to do something rather more leisurely than stare at the weft and weave of M6 traffic.
The weather was a mix of rearing clouds and clear, sunny skies, so a 75 minute cruise seemed a good way of achieving mental detox and getting a relaxing introduction to the local area, as we floated over the shining waters.
The view north up Lake Windermere from the Bowness-on-Windermere steamer piersSince we also wanted to take a look at the area around Coniston Water, we took the first available "Red" cruise, at 4pm. This was on a modern motor vessel. Actually we would have preferred to take one of the 1930s "steamers", but this would have put our return too close - so off we went on the (almost full) top deck of the MV Cumbria (obviously post-1974, since the name was not current until the merger of the counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland at that time...)
1 - Shoreline north-east of Bowness-on-Windermere, with small wooded island (left)The bulge of land immediately abutting Bowness Bay (above) is actually a holiday park full of lodges and caravans, although you would hardly notice this, since a line of trees has been left along the shore to sympathetically screen them from view.
It's at this point also that the small wooded islands, or holmes, are most obvious - with several of them clustered around the much larger (and inhabited) Belle Isle.
2 - Yachts anchored near the protective cove of Rayrigg Wyke, near Windermere townThe boats above are anchored near the mouth a Rayrigg Wyke - a small cove that looks like it's in the countryside, although actually it's still further south than the centre of Windermere (the town - which is about a kilometer inland from there.)
3 - Yachts, wooded shoreline and foothills north-east of the Rayrigg Wyke harbour
3- Closer view of the wooded shore and foothills north-east of Rayrigg Wyke harbourA thin line of trees at the water's edge was hiding the meadows at this point, making it look from water-level as if they don't exist!
Further up the lake there is sometimes fewer trees at the edge of the beaches and he extent of the meadows can be appreciated (q.v. photographic location 6 below.)
3 - Billowing clouds dominate the view north up Lake Windermere towards AmblesideOn a practical level, this made for a lot or problems with photographic exposure, since the light sweeping across the land and water was contrasty and constantly changing. The unlit mountains were a dark hazy blue, while the lens had to be stopped down to prevent ugly digital burn-out on the darkest part of the clouds.
On balance, however, we'd rather have had exposure problems than lose the magnificent cumulus clouds in the vast panorama of the sky!
4 - To the North-West, the distant Langdale Pikes were blue and hazy (even in the sun)The gathering wind made the water look a lot choppier than it actually was. There was hardly any roll on our boat - nd, anyway, a totally calm lake wouldn't have been much appreciated by the many yachtspeople and sail-boarders!
5 - Canoeists watch the swans on the ever-shifting sand-bar at the mouth of Trout BeckCuriously, despite its flow - or perhaps because of it - the stream has created a small island of beach-pebbles like a sand-bar at its mouth, which sometimes appears to block it. If you compare satellite pictures to the way it looks now, you can see that the shape of this "pebble-bar" is continually morphing its shape - despite the plants that grow on it and which you'd think would stabilise it.
6 - Open meadows border Lake Windermere/Trout Beck, just south of White Cross BayIt's difficult to recognise the mountain ridge in the picture, but it's probably the tongue of a ridge that leads up to Sour Howes.
7 -Yachts at White Cross Bay Marine and Leisure Park, with ridges around Troutbeck The area around Troutbeck (beyond the holiday park) is actually a gateway to some quite rugged walks across the fells and peaks such as Troutbeck Tongue, Wansfell, Sallows, Sour Howes and Yoke. But you would hardly know that from the water, where the uplands to the east of the lake all seemed rather green and unchallenging
It was still only the north-west that betrayed the kind of cragginess that exists in the Lake District and the dangers that exist for walkers in old sneakers and without compasses, who are unprepared for sudden shifts in the weather.
8 - The Langdale Pikes and other crags from the south-east, across Lake WindermereDocking at the Brockhole jetty provided only a short relief from this, as it provided a bit of foreground only long enough to pick up three passengers, before moving again into open water.
The cruise boats also seemed to follow the same anti-clockwise path, so there wasn't even a chance of another boat "filling in" the bland grey-blue band with something more interesting.
Brockhole jetty: lake entrance to Brockhole House, Gardens and adventure playgroundsBut in fact, Brockhole has a large late Victorian mansion which now houses the National Park Visitor Centre and its 30 acre grounds were landscaped by the famous (and, in terms of the large houses around the lake, almost omnipresent) Thomas Mawson into a mixture of formal garden and natural woodland that still provide an attractive place to relax.
There are also a wide variety of places - including the most recent "Tree-top" adventure playground attraction - where kids can burn off spare energy and youthful valour.
A more extensive description of Brockhole can be found in our Other Attractions and Walks section at the bottom of this article.
9 - Wooded shoreline with the Langdale mountain ridge - from near the Brockhole jettyUnfortunately the commentator was from the Spanish part of Cumbria and spoke in a strange, rather sing-song manner, so it was rather hard to get much in the way of useful content from what he said!
10 - View of Langdale Chase (built in 1890, a hotel since 1930) from Lake WindermereIt has been a hotel since 1930, although the hotel website is quick to fling visitors about in time with it's brief history of the house: "the foundation stone for the building itself was laid in 1890, and the house took some five years to complete. However, there are artifacts in the hotel which date back as far as 1664."
Presumably 1890 didn't sound old enough so they quickly conjured up some Charles II antiques to satisfy the spin-doctors ;-)
Unabashed, the site continues with: "Blessed with so many architectural and decorative examples of our heritage, not to mention hidden treasures..." [does this mean you can't actually see them?] "...such as the original mosaic floors in the porch, laid by craftsman brought over from Italy, the house is listed as one of national and historic interest. The Hotel's outstanding interior and location, made it a natural choice for the classic English country house in Alfred Hitchcock's production of TheParadine Case, starring Gregory Peck..." [1947] "...and more recently..." [66 years later!] "...in the BBC's portrayal of the life of Donald Campbell."
How could anyone possibly resist staying there once they've read that??
Actually, the building and gardens really don't need the hype - they are probably the most imposing on the east side of the lake.
11 - Small wooded point and meadows on the waterfront near Stagshaw Garden (NT)Close to here are the National Trust's Stagshaw Gardens and the viewpoint of Jenkin Crag - which we also cover in our Other Attractions and Walks section, below.
12 - First view of Waterhead jetty, with mounts like Red Screes/Fairfield Peak beyondAt the time, this was all new to us and we had little idea as to what the countryside was like beyond this arc - although we would now say that the mountains from that point north and west are more like the kind of full-blooded Wordsworthian landscape that we had expected (compared to the cuddlier landscape around Windermere, which provides a only as feint, tantalising taste of that wildness at the tip of your searching tongue.)
That's not to say that Ambleside is devoid of attraction. Windermere as a whole is family-friendly and we have heard parents trying to interest their kids in the epic neolithic stone circle at Castlerigg tiredly promising to take them "for a walk in Ambleside" as a possible panacea to the boring old rocks....
12 - Closer to Waterhead outskirts - dwarfed by Red Screes and screened by woodlandThe kid-boring foundations of the roman fort of Galava are even closer to the jetty and there are several family friendly walks which can be started in or around Ambleside as well.
Waterhead pier booking-office - the sun between clouds changes the peak's character With this number of alternatives, Ambleside is probably a better base for exploring this part of the Lake District than Windermere (the town) or Bowness - although accomodation is harder to find and less competitive here than in those two centres.
Zoomed-in view of the Waterhead pier booking office, with mountain looming largerBy 1650 the town had been granted a charter to hold a market, so it became a centre for buying and selling agricultural products - primarily wool, which was the most valuable commodity of the time.
In the reign of James II, a charter was also granted for the town to collect tolls from routes like the old packhorse trail to and from Grasmere. Revenues no doubt increased when a new turnpike road was completed in 1770, leading to the packhorse convoys being superseded by horse-drawn carts - and by stagecoaches running on a regular schedule between the larger towns of Keswick and Kendal.
The Waterhead pier is less than a kilometer's walk from Ambleside's main attractionsIt was not until 1842, when he gained another income from his new post as poet laureate, that Wordsworth finally resigned his local government job.
Thinking of this today, Shelley was probably right in his intimation that the image of Wordsworth sitting at a desk in front of a large, bureaucratic ledger is hard to reconcile with the more familiar sense of that giant of wild Romanticism, clothes blowing, striding through the rain across boggy moorland, bracketed by bare grey rockfaces and rushing waterfalls!
Waterhead pier: the cruise boats stop here - so you can get off, then catch the next oneWe chose not to do this since it was already too late to get to key attractions like the Bridge House - and also because we wanted to drive round to Coniston before dark
The couple from Northern California, to whom we'd been chatted during the ride about their recent visit to Scotland, had started their cruise in Waterhead and left the boat with our warm wishes for their continued journey at this point.
Since they had been in the seats right at the front of the boat, it also enabled us to shimmy forward for the optimum view (or so we thought!)
13 - The Langdale Pikes are closer from the Western shore, but still need a zoom-lensWe soon found, however, that being at the front of the boat when the sun was getting low over the western horizon was of little advantage. Anything of interest to the south-west, off the closer starboard shoreline, was so strongly backlit that we just gave up trying to photograph interesting buildings like Wray Castle. The contrast between the sky and the shadows was just too great - even to be succesfully resurrected by Camera Raw manipulation and denoise filters!
This was a matter of strong regret! Wray Castle is actually a mock-gothic edifice built in Victorian times, but it has several interesting stories behind it, so we would have liked to have our own photo to show here.
As it is, we've had to draw an image of Wray Castle as a "Scrapbook" thumbnail from Wikimedia and tell the stories as part of our Other Attractions and Walks Around Windermere section. (Look for the Brown Dot locator marked a "G" - below!)
Frustrated by the lack of photographic potential over the bow of the boat I soon found myself kneeling down and bending myself into strangely contorted positions, in order to shoot back down the lake.
The results were not impressive ... although they no doubt provided light entertainment for other people on the deck ...
14 - Distant view of Waterhead pier and its sun-striped backdrop of low mountainsPost-production attempts to raise blacks while stopping highlights from burning entirely failed and I was left with a sort've half-acceptible silhouette of the island - and the many yachts that congregate near the island's shore.
15 - Backlit yachts anchored to the north of Belle Isle, the largest island in the LakeThe Roman governor at Ambleside is thought to have built a villa on the island not long after the time of Jesus. From that time and the Anglo-Saxon era little is known about it, although it was important enough to gain the name Lang (Great) Holme ("holme" being derived from Old Norse, and meaning small island.)
In Norman times it was the centre of the manor of Windermere, which - from 1247 - became a de facto moiety of the Barony of Kendal (that also included Bowness, Troutbeck and Ambleside!) Then during the English Civil War it was used as a highly defensible Royalist stronghold.
In 1774 the island's old manor house was replaced by the unusually circular Belle Isle House. It was built of brick, was three floors high and had a four column portico - yet was sold (along with the island) only 9 years later.
The new buyers were the wealthy Curwen family, who paid a princely £1,720 and renamed the island - calling it "Bella Island" after daughter Isabella. The Curwens retained ownership until 1993, by which time the name "Bella Island" had become shortened by use into the less cumbersome "Bell Isle." This was wrongly marked on a 1925 Ordnance Survey map as "Belle Isle" - which name it has retained until today.
Unhappily, the circular Belle Isle House was rendered unihabitable by a large fire in 1996 and needed substantial repairs before it could be occupied again. The house and island are still privately owned (currently by millionaires Harold and Janet Lefton, who hit the headlines in 2007, when they were jailed for 6 weeks for trying toto help their son avoid a speeding conviction by "lying" to the authorities ... )
Bowness pier in flat, overcast light - the end of our cruiseIt was a gentle introduction to the Lakes for my wife and a gentle re-introduction to one of the gentlest areas of the park for me. I hadn't visited the National Park since my early student days, when my father and I made a spontaneous decision to pop up there from Oxfordshire. I remember it being overcast and cold, making Coniston Water look bleak, choppy and foreboding - a suitable place for the ghost of Donald Campbell, who'd died attempting the water speed record only a few years earlier. For some reason - I can't remember why - we also found ourself sleeping in the car ... and that was really cold..!
It was a long way from my expections of Westmoreland, which I'd long known through the warm prism of Wordsworth and the striking images of National Geographic...
Evening light returns to the beach by the Bowness piers, to warm the basking swansThe evening shadows were already long when we disembarked the boat, although the air was still warm.
Walking back along Glebe Road to pick up the car, we passed a small beach where a healthy population of swans, wild geese and ducks were luxuriating in the evening light of early autumn.
It was a vivid lesson in how the weather can change the look and atmosphere of a landscape - and with it our very perception and psychology of the moment.
Wordsworth always credited Nature as his greatest teacher - although Nature can teach deeply sombre lessons as well as the euphoric ones.
Many of the lakeshores in the Lake District have populations of swans, geese and ducksYet tonight we were like the basking swans - peaceful and content ... and ready to swim deeper into pax natura.
Recklessly we decided to take a drive around the bottom of Windermere and on to Coniston. If we'd stopped to think more, it was obvious that it was too late for to complete this before nightfall. But we didn't stop to think and we rewarded for our spontaneity by one of the most beautiful sunsets we've ever seen...
The waterfowl population seems un-phased by people and traffic passing on Glebe RoadBut that's another story - which you can pick up in our article about our- although it your main focus is Windermere, please read on and find out all the things around the lake that we have - so far - missed!
Other Attractions and Walks Around Lake Windermere
Please Note:Photographs with overlaid "album page corners" are not our images. They are shown in reduced size only and do not enlarge when clicked. The images provide a visual link only. Clicking the image will take you to the full-sized original version on their owner's website - often with other photos from their portfolio.
Orrest Head WalkOrrest Head is a viewpoint that gives good views of the Windermere (the Lake) from a walk that has its start point near Windermere Railway Station, that is high on our list for our next visit.
According to the sign that announces it on the ground, it is reached by a "20 minute" (most commentators say it's usually more than that) walk.
The walk is uphill, but is said to be suitable for small children and so can probably be rated as Easy-Moderate. It's said to return an excellent panorama for a relatively small input.
Good descriptions of the walk, with photos, can be found on the Walks In The Lake District website and on the Where2Walk website. Or if you don't like those, try Googling "Orrest Head Walk" - there's bound to be others!
The other website sets the start of the walk at the station (which Parkopedia says has Pay 'n' Display parking,) with the additional comment that "There is some free parking on the main road above the Windermere hotel but you have to return in 2 hours..."
2 hours sounds possible, but...
The World Of Beatrix PotterBeatrix Potter, and her little books of children's fables featuring animal characters like Peter Rabbit, Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, Squirrel Nutkin, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Samuel Whiskers, Johnny Town-Mouse and many more, has strong associations with the area around Windermere, and there are many "attractions" which are devoted to various aspects of her legacy and talent.
The World of Beatrix Potter is probably the most commercial of these and is firmly aimed at children - or adults who still have strong childhood memories of her stories (which she both wrote and beautifully illustrated.)
The attraction can be found near the centre of Bowness-on-Windermere, at postcode LA23 3BX. This is not far from the Rayrigg Road car park at LA23 3BZ.
It features rooms and full-size dioramas with models of many of the favourite Beatrix Potter characters, which (from what we've seen on the web) children can enter for photos. Parents on TripAdvisor give it a pretty good rating and say that their kids really liked it, although comments like "overpriced" and "too small" are also quite common.
Admission is £6.95 for adults and £3.65 for kids or there's a family pass (2 adults and 2 kids) for £18.50 [so if you have 1 or 3 kids you'll have to either quickly create another one or temporarily lose one..!] There's also a shop selling toys and memorabilia, so you'll need to add a few pounds more to the budget if your kids notice it ;-)
Details about the attraction can be found on their own World of Beatrix Potter website, although there are surprisingly few photographs of the dioramas, so you may also want to check out independent sites like kiddieholidays and theexhibitionlist as well.
In many ways, it's the Lake District itself that is Beatrix Potter's gift to our children, and not her little books (although it was probably the little books that made it all possible.)
This "other side" of Beatrix Potter is better represented at other sites around the area, such as the Armitt Museum in Ambleside (mentioned in more detail below) and Beatix's home - Hill Top - on the other side of the Lake at Near Sawrey [LA22 0LF,] which has been frozen as a "time-capsule of her life" by the National Trust (and which we cover in our Windermere and Coniston Drive article.)
Rayrigg Meadow Picnic Ground and (Queen) Adelaide Hill WalkA bit further up Rayrigg Road from the World of Beatrix Potter is another family friendly location, with the option of a short family walk up to a viewpoint on Adelaide Hill.
The picnic site has its own council-run Pay 'n' Display car park [satnav: LA23 1BP] and has a variety of activities for burning off energy: like a water sports centre, full size football pitch, children's play area and lake frontage with piers for short-term mooring - as well as picnic and barbecue areas.
From the picnic ground you can also take a short walk (estimated at between 20 minutes to an hour for the round-trip) via Millerground Cottage to Adelaide Hill. The viewpoint was named after Queen Victoria's aunt Adelaide, who is supposed to have landed on the shore below it during her visit in 1840.
More detail about the walk can be found on websites like windermere-walks and lakedistrictgems. (The photograph above is a thumbnail version of one by Richard Ainsworth on found on picturesofengland.com, which - as the name suggests - is a nice site that has a lot of pretty images from around England. Click the thumbnail to go to the original, large version.)
BrockholeAccessible by road (it has its own car park at satnav LA23 1LJ: £2 for the first hour then 40p for every 20 minutes - pay on exit) or from the jetty served by some of the Windermere cruises, Brockhole is the National Park Visitor centre and has a wide range of facilities which will appeal to everyone from small children to garden- and scenery-loving pernsioners.
For kids and families there are adventure and sports activities like the Treetop Trek, Treetop Nets, watersports, mini-golf, bike-hire, boat-hire, orienteering, exhibitions, indoor soft play and creativity space, adventure playground ... and so on.
For non-families there are walks around the house, the extensive gardens and the lakeshore ... and to other scenic viewpoints in the grounds.
Entry is free, although you can expect to shed some money for the car park (up to £8 for the whole day,) or for the shop and restaurant/tea room (which has terraced seating outside.)
The remaining 30 acres were designed by the local and internationally famous landscape gardener Thomas Mawson. Five acres were made into magnificent terraced gardens stretching down to the shore of Windermere, while the rest was adapted to provide spectacular views of the lake and fells.
Thomas Mawson designed most of the gardens for the large houses around Windermere including Rydal Hall, Langdale Chase and Blackwell. He later became known internationally as a key influence in the design of gardens in the so-called Arts and Crafts movement and went on to design gardens in other countries - including the Peace Palace Gardens of the Hague as well as sites in Athens and North American.
Mawson was a teetotaller workaholic with a passion for detail and had firm opinions about garden design. He recorded his design philosophies and some examples of his work in his book The Art and Craft of Garden Making.
The Brockhole garden was built as a series of South and West facing terraces, sloping gently down to the shores of Lake Windermere, moving from formal to informal planting through flowerbeds, meadow and woodland to the lakeshore. A system of underground water tanks collected rainwater from gutters to irrigate the flower beds. The terrace was created for the mountain view at the Northern end, towards the Langdale Pikes, Bowfell and Crinkle Crags. There are also views of the Pike of Stickle and Harrison Stickle.
Shrubs include Rhododendrons, Wisteria and Magnolias and the wide variety of herbaceous plantings mean that there's something colourful at most times of year. There is also a busy schedule of events and concerts (which are available at additional cost.) Full details about Brockhole can be found on the brockhole.co.uk website.
Stagshaw Gardens (NT - near Waterhead)400 meters' walk southwards down the A591, from the Pay 'n' Display car park at the Waterhead pier [LA22 0EY,] are the National Trust's Stagshaw Gardens [LA22 0HE.] Or there is a small car park at the gardens themselves (presumably free to members, although the National Trust site doesn't say what charges are for non-members, if any.]
Entry to the gardens for a non-member adult is £2.50, or £1 for a child.
The gardens are described by the Trust as "an informal woodland garden which in the spring and summer bursts into life with an absolute blaze of colour and wonderful scents. The rambling paths and unusual combination of shrubs, trees and plants give this garden an enchanted feel, with a different delight around each corner."
Jenkin Crag WalkA few hundred metres inland from Windermere (the lake) - and on a hillside above Stagshaw Gardens (described above) - is a much-vaunted viewpoint called Jenkin Crag. According to the Ordnance Survey map there seems to be a fairly direct path between the two along the gloriously named Stencher Beck - although we haven't seen this path described on walks published by local ramblers.
Several people have published other walks to the Jenkin viewpoint on their websites, although most of them "bundle" the viewpoint with a longer walk to Wansfell (below.)
The website starts its walk at the Low Fold Pay 'n' Display car park in Ambleside [LA22 0DN - it has toilets and is roughly opposite the Garden Centre] and describes it as a "short but quite energetic walk" - although I didn't notice any estimated disances or durations in their text.
From their pdf map I would guess about 4 km for their whole loop, or about 1.5 km if you go up from Stagshaw and then back the same way. Longer walks, which pass through Jenkin Crag on the way to or from Wansfell Pike are covered immediately below.
Wansfell Pike WalkFrom the number of people on the net who refer to it, this is a very popular walk - although it's uphill over rough terrain for a lot of the way, so you'll need to be reasonable fit and used to fell-walking (if the weather is threatening) in order to attempt it safely.
The Ambleside-Wansfell-Troutbeck-Skelgyll-Jenkin Crag walk described by the excellently detailed and organised www.walklakes.co.uk website is 11 kilometers and about "3 hours 6 mins" (we said they were detailed!)- so it should clearly be treated seriously, although the payoffs in natural beauty promise to amply repay the effort.
The National Trust has a similar walk, which they put at 9.5 km and 4-5 hours. Presumably the are catering to people who are less fit that the walklakes folks ;-)
Walkingbritain put start their Wansfell Pike-Skelgyll Force-Troutbeck walk at LA22 9BW and put the distance at over 12 km. There seems to be no mention of Jenkin Crag here, so it looks like they believe the view from the Wansfell Summit to make it unnecessary.
With that level of guidance, there's really no need for us to "gild the lily" any further!
Galava Roman Fort, WaterheadLess than 200 metres from the Pay 'n' Display car park by the Waterhead jetty [LA22 0EY] are the remains of the Roman Fort of Galava. From the car park follow Borrans Road (A5095) north-east. The road is the nearest one to the lakeshore, from which it is separated from it by the lawns of Borrans Park, which leads on to the site of the fort.
The fort exists only as low foundations, which make a poor photographic subject, although they are important archeologically.
The visitcumbria website says that "The fort is on land owned by the National Trust, and maintained by English Heritage" while the English Heritage website lists the fort on their website, but says it's "managed" by National Trust. But in any case entry to the site is free, so ho cares whose membership cards you are carrying ;-)
Archaeological excavations fromn 1914 to 1920 uncovered the remains of the fort’s defences including the main gate, the south gate - as well as parts of the internal building arrangement, such as the commanding officer’s house, the headquarters building and the granaries. These lines of foundations can still be seen today.
Ambleside Bridge House (NT)At the northern edge of Ambleside, on Rydal Road [LA22 9AN,] you can find the so-called "Bridge House," which is arguably the most iconic and photographed building in the Lake District. According to the www.historicbritain.com website there is both free and charged parking nearby, although there is nothing more specific than this. The website also says "Free admission" and "Admission prices apply" so it can't be trusted entirely! From the Waterhead pier, it's a bit over a kilometr's walk each way, if you want to see it in the middle of a cruise.
Bridge House was built more than 300 years ago over the Stock Beck (stream.) The building was purchased by local people in 1926 and given to the National Trust, who have used it as their first information and recruitment centre and, more recently, as a shop.
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Since that time it has been used as a counting house for the mills of Rattle Ghyll, a tea-room, a weaving shop, a cobbler's, a chair maker's and, at one time, a two-room home for a family of two parents and six children.
During the tourist boom of the 1850s, the building became a well-known attraction. Guidebooks made the building famous as the most "curious relic in Ambleside of the olden time ... which every artist sketches as he [should that not be "they" now] passes by." A lot of oil and watercolour paintings of the Bridge House can still be found in local museums and galleries.
The house's purchase by local residents in 1926 was triggered by the need to make repairs to a building that was recognised to be a valuable tourist asset. The cost of the purchase and refurbishment was a little over £1,244.
Rough Opening Times: March to September, 11.00am-4.00pm. (Check the National Trust webpage for any changes.)
The Armitt Museum, AmblesideQuite close to the Bridge House, and also in Rydal Road [satnav: LA22 9BL] is the Armitt Museum and Library (open 10am - 5pm Monday - Saturday: last admission 4.30pm.) There is a charge for entry, although the Armitt museum website does not specify how much, which is incredibly remiss!
The museum obviously has a great deal of valuable material relating to a variety of famous figures associated with the Lake District, but it's unclear from the website what is on permanent display and what is only available in transient exhibitions. It's pretty clear that there is a lot more in their vaults than can be shown at any one time, so it seems to be pot luck as to what you can see at any particular visit.
The website does give some information about parking, which is stated to be "a public (pay and display) car park adjacent to the Armitt and another immediately over the road."
The introduction to the museum on their own website states that: "For over a century it has been the aim of the Armitt, through its combination of Gallery, Museum and Library, holding a diverse collection of art, photographs, documents and objects to encapsulate and articulate this great heritage [of the Lake District's natural beauty and its vibrant cultural history.]
The Armitt was founded in 1912 and in many respects is a typical local museum, quirky, unruly, chaotic and surprising, the product of the rapacious Victorian passion for collecting the eclectic and eccentric, from the mundane to the marvellous with everything in between ... Later came the intriguing Ruskin letters address to Dr. Parsons, and Beatrix Potter’s watercolours of fungi, mosses and lichens, which incorporate her artistic and intellectual passions to create scientific studies of exquisite beauty. In more recent years the list has included ... a 17th century child’s leather boot found concealed within a cottage wall to ward off witches, and 17,000 portraits in the form of glass plate photographic negatives, the remarkable life’s work of one man."
Collections also include painting by the Dada artist Kurt Schwitters, and many of his papers - although its the Beatrix Potter collection that will probably interest to most people.
From 1882 these holidays were mainly the Lake District, although her long-running interest in fungi started earlier - in Scotland, from a knowledgable local postman! She went on to study obscure species of fungi and their propagation - making 250 highly accurate drawings of fungi, over 40 of different mosses and many microscope studies of the process of germination. Some of these were presented as a paper to the prestigious Linnean Society and her knowledge was seen by later scientists to be well ahead of its time. She also drew animals, archeological artifacts and fossils.
It was not until the turn of the century that her knowledge of natural history was turned to the anthropomorphic children's tales that brought her an income from royalties and which enabled her to buy Hilltop Farm in Near Sawrey in 1905. This purchase was followed by the acquisition of more Lake District farms, land and cottages as time progressed. Many of these were left to the National Trust.
Her husband William Heelis introduced her to the Armitt Library (of which he was a member) during her lifetime. Then, on her death, her fungi paintings, drawings of Roman artefacts and many papers and photographs from her own and her father's past were bequeathed to the Library for the benefit of the Public.
The Armitt has also cquired early editions of Beatrix's own books, including a first edition of "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" - although this is not to say that you will be able to see them when you visit...
Loughrigg Fell WalkAnother walk within range of Ambleside that has received a lot of "wow" reviews (people on TripAdvisor have given it 5 stars) is the walk up Loughrigg Fell, which one TripAdvisor contributor described as a "steep but rewarding walk up mainly stone steps to incredible views of surrounding mountains and lakes."
The well-presented walklakes, golakes, where2walk, wainwrightroutes, walkingenglishman, trekkingbritain and walkthefells websites all have good walk descriptions - most with maps and photos - so it's just a case of choosing which one you want to follow. Start points vary between Ambleside, Grasmere and Rydal.
Wray Castle (NT)"Wray Castle" is not actually a castle at all, although with its well-maintained castellations and profusion of arrow-slits, it looks more like a Norman castle than most genuine Norman castle ruins do!
It's located on a hillside, above the shore on the western side of Windermere and roughly opposite the Brockhole jetty, which makes it clearly visible to cruise boats returning to Bowness from Waterhead. [Take the trip in the morning if you want to photograph it!]
Getting to it, however, is much harder than just seeing it (although when you do get to it, there's a small National Trust car park [satnav: LA22 0JA] which is free for NT members and Pay 'n' Display for non-members.)
Wray Castle has some fascinating stories behind it - which can be found in our separate Wray Castle article...
Enjoy!
-dikb
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