Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Waterhead Hotel
This townhouse hotel has a prized position beside Lake
Windermere, and is a good base for exploring the lakes on foot or by car. The
restau-
rant,
bar, and guest rooms are contemporary and meticulously styled. Guest rooms
are spacious, some with lake views. On sunny days you can relax outside on the
waterfront lawns or sink into a sofa inside, beside the open fire. Guests can also use
the watersports center and spa facilities at sister hotel Low Wood, just a mile along
the lake.
Lake Rd., Waterhead, Ambleside, Cumbria LA22 0EP. www.elh.co.uk.
&
01539/432566.
Fax
01539/431255. 41 units. £113-£308 double. Rates include English breakfast. AE, MC, V. Free parking.
Amenities:
Restaurant; bar; nearby health club and watersports center.
In room:
TV, hair dryer.
16
GRASMERE & RYDAL
282 miles NW of London; 18 miles NW of Kendal; 43 miles S of Carlisle
Rydal
is just a hamlet, a few houses including Rydal Mount, home to the poet Word-
sworth for several years. From the gardens you can spy the nearest lake, Rydal Water,
where it is said that the poet used to sit and contemplate the view from a point on
the western shore now called Wordsworth's Seat.
Farther along the A591 is
Grasmere,
a pretty village set beside a lake of the same
name. Also home to Wordsworth, he called the area “the loveliest spot that man hath
ever known.” Today visitors pour into the village at any opportunity to visit locations
associated with the poet—including his grave in the cemetery of St. Oswald's—and
to buy bags of Grasmere gingerbread. The village is also a popular place for walks to
the Langdale Pikes to the southwest and Helvellyn to the north. One of the most
popular fells in the Lake District, the closest access route from here is straight up and
down from the eastern shore of Thirlmere. For a longer, more spectacular hike, drive
via Ambleside and Kirkstone Pass to Glenridding (a worthwhile drive in itself for its
panoramic lake and fell views). From here you can hike across Striding Edge, a steep
and dramatic ridge that leads westwards to the peak of Helvellyn. You can return to
Thirlmere if you have transport from there or circle back round Red Tarn and back to
Glenridding.
Essentials
GETTING THERE
Take a train to Windermere (see “Windermere & Bowness,”
earlier in this chapter) and continue the rest of the way by bus.
Stagecoach
runs an hourly bus service to Grasmere from Keswick and Winder-
mere. Buses in either direction are marked no. 555 or 556.
If you're driving from Windermere, continue northwest along the A591.
VISITOR INFORMATION
Grasmere Tourist Information Centre,
Town
Hall, Highgate (
&
01539/797516;
www.golakes.co.uk), is open March through
October, Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm, and November through February, Mon-
day to Saturday 10am to 4pm.
Exploring the Area
Dove Cottage, the Wordsworth Museum
HISTORIC HOME If you're
on the Wordsworth “trail,” then Dove Cottage is a good place to start. A small, white
cottage with a tangle of pink roses clinging to the walls, it was the Dove and Olive
pub years before it became Wordsworth's home in 1799. He spent a few happy years
living here with his writer and diarist sister, Dorothy, and later his wife, Mary. A
