Walk the earthworks of the Roman fort at Waterhead

See Bridge House standing over Stock Ghyll

Walk up to Stock Ghyll Force behind the town

Catch a launch down Windermere from Waterhead pier

Ambleside stands at the head of Windermere, and on the flat ground at Waterhead the Romans built a fort, usually called Galava, first founded around AD 80 and rebuilt in stone under Hadrian, whose outlines are still visible in the grass by the lake. In the town, Bridge House stands over Stock Ghyll, built more than three hundred years ago, probably as a summer house and apple store for Ambleside Hall, and the beck drops through the woods behind in a series of falls.

Ambleside and the Roman Fort at Waterhead

Go through Dove Cottage and the Wordsworth Museum

Walk past Rydal Mount to Dora's Field and Rydal church

Find Wordsworth's grave in St Oswald's churchyard

Buy a slab of Grasmere gingerbread by the churchyard gate

William and Dorothy Wordsworth lived at Dove Cottage in Grasmere from December 1799 to May 1808 — 'plain living, but high thinking' — and Thomas De Quincey took the house after them. The family later moved to Rydal Mount down the valley, where Wordsworth lived until his death — the Wordsworth Trust bought it in 2026 and it is closed for conservation work; he is buried in Grasmere churchyard, and the gingerbread shop by the churchyard gate sells the gingerbread the village is known for.

Grasmere and Rydal: Wordsworth's Two Houses

Drive over Kirkstone Pass from Ambleside to Patterdale

Stop at the Kirkstone Pass Inn near the summit

Look down into Patterdale and Brothers Water from the top

Walk up Red Screes from the pass for the view over both valleys

The A592 crosses Kirkstone at 454m between Patterdale and Windermere, the highest pass in the Lake District with a road over it; the Kirkstone Pass Inn stands near the summit, and the steep climb up from Ambleside that joins it there is called The Struggle. From the top the view north drops into Patterdale with Brothers Water at its centre.

Kirkstone Pass: The Struggle to the Highest Road in the Lakes

Take a cruise on Windermere, the largest lake in England

Kayak or paddleboard on the lake from Bowness

Climb Orrest Head above Windermere, the first fell Wainwright ever climbed, for the view that started him

Work out why Windermere is not really a mere, despite its name

Windermere is the largest lake in England by length, area and volume — 10.5 miles from Lakeside, 11.23 if you count from Newby Bridge, a mile across at its widest and 64 metres deep. It was Winander Mere until at least the 19th century, and despite the 'mere' it is not one: a mere is broad and shallow, and Windermere is deep enough to have a thermocline. Above the town of Windermere is Orrest Head, the first fell Alfred Wainwright ever climbed — 'our first ascent in Lakeland, our first sight of mountains in tumultuous array across glittering waters, our awakening to beauty.'

Windermere: England's Longest Lake

Go through Hill Top at Near Sawrey, kept as Beatrix Potter left it

Browse Tabitha Twitchit's Bookshop in William Heelis's old solicitor's office in Hawkshead

Walk the alleys of Hawkshead and see the grammar school Wordsworth attended

Walk round Esthwaite Water between the two villages

Beatrix Potter owned the 17th-century farmhouse of Hill Top at Near Sawrey and left it to the National Trust; it is shown as she herself would have known it, with the garden kept in the style of her illustrations. Two miles north, Hawkshead is a village of whitewashed alleys where Wordsworth went to grammar school, and her husband William Heelis's old solicitor's office, the Beatrix Potter Gallery until 2022, is now Tabitha Twitchit's Bookshop.

Hawkshead and Hill Top: Beatrix Potter's Farm

Tour Brantwood and look out over the lake from Ruskin's study window

Ride the steam yacht Gondola on Coniston Water

See the Bluebird story and Ruskin's collection at the Ruskin Museum in Coniston

John Ruskin bought Brantwood above Coniston Water in 1871, reportedly without having seen it, and lived there for the rest of his life; the house is now a museum to him. On the lake below, the steam yacht Gondola, launched in 1859 for the Furness Railway's passengers and rebuilt by the National Trust, still runs under steam.

Coniston: Ruskin's Brantwood and the Steam Yacht Gondola

Go up onto Striding Edge and traverse the arête

Walk the summit plateau between Lower Man and the top of Striding Edge

Start and finish at Glenridding on Ullswater

Helvellyn is the third-highest point in England, and easier to reach than the two above it, which is why it was one of the earliest fells to become popular with walkers. The east face holds three deep glacial coves and two knife-edged ridges — Striding Edge and Swirral Edge — with Red Tarn in the cove between them. The artist Charles Gough died on Striding Edge in 1805 and is better remembered for that than for anything he painted.