Beatrix Potter Tours from Bowness

Beatrix Potter tours from Bowness

Bowness-on-Windermere sits right on the shore of England's largest lake, and many visitors stay here among the hotels and guesthouses that climb the hill from the water.

Our Beatrix Potter tours take you to the farmhouse, the village and the landscape behind Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck and the other little books, with a local guide who knows her story well.

Beatrix Potter's Lake District

Beatrix Potter bought Hill Top, a working farm in the village of Near Sawrey, in 1905 with money from her early books, and many of the scenes in her stories can still be recognized around it. She went on to farm, to breed Herdwick sheep and to buy land to protect it, and when she died in 1943 she left more than 4,000 acres and fourteen farms to the National Trust. Our half-day tours follow that story through Hill Top, Hawkshead, where her husband William Heelis had his office, and Tarn Hows, part of the estate she bought and saved.

What you'll see

• Hill Top, Beatrix Potter's farmhouse in Near Sawrey, with entry included
• Hawkshead, the village where William Heelis had his office
• Tarn Hows, part of the Monk Coniston estate she bought in 1930
• On the afternoon tour, a cruise on Windermere from Ambleside to Bowness

Meeting us in Bowness

We meet you at Pier 1 on the Bowness promenade, outside the Windermere Lake Cruises ticket office, the same piers the lake steamers leave from, so it is easy to find from anywhere in the village.

Every tour listed on this page picks up in Bowness. If the one you want isn't listed, it may start from Windermere instead.

A small group or a private tour

Our shared tours are small groups of no more than seven, priced per person, for ages 7 and up. A private tour is for your group alone, at one price for up to seven guests and with no age limit, and can collect you from your hotel in the Kendal, Windermere, Ambleside, Coniston or Grasmere areas.

Beatrix Potter tours from other places

These tours also start from Windermere, Ambleside and Coniston. See all our Beatrix Potter tours.

Why travel with English Lakes Tours

Since 2018 we have shown visitors from all over the world the Lake District we live in. Groups are small, the minivans are comfortable, and our guides are specialists, with Masters and PhD-level qualifications in the subjects they talk about.

Questions about these tours