Eight Lakes Morning Tour

This half day tour will take you to the northern Lake District for spectacular scenery, fascinating sites and eight lakes, all in one morning.

Your morning starts with a drive past Rydal Water. The water here is often mirror-like still with beautiful reflections of the surrounding fells. We pass Wordsworth's last and favorite home which is situated off the road at Rydal.

We drive along the shores of Grasmere, your next lake. William Wordsworth lived here at Dove Cottage. We may call into the famous Grasmere Gingerbread Shop.

We then head along the mountain pass of Dunmail Raise. This is the flattest of the mountain passes in the Lake District running down toward Grasmere. Dunmail Raise is also the name of a large cairn which stands on the top of the pass, on the median between the two sides of the road. Legend has it that Dunmail, the last king of Cumberland, is buried beneath the cairn at Dunmail Raise after having been slain by the English in battle.

On our travels north you will pass Thirlmere, which was originally two smaller lakes, which were purchased by Manchester City Corporation Waterworks in 1889. The area was dammed with a dam whose greatest height is 104 feet, and the area became one vast reservoir. In the process, the settlements of Armboth and Wythburn were submerged.

Our journey now takes us along the eastern shores of Derwentwater, one of the principal bodies of water in the Lakes. Visitors have flocked here for generations to admire the beauty and climb the fells. Two of the favorite vacation homes of Beatrix Potter, Lingholm and Fawe Park, lie on the shores of Derwentwater and even scenes from Star Wars have been filmed here. Driving along the wooded eastern shore of the lake, our road suddenly forks off and we climb up a narrow, steep track into the wooded fell side. Suddenly, the trees clear and your next destination, Ashness Bridge appears.

Ashness Bridge is the most photographed bridge in the Lake District and once you see it, you will understand why. After taking your photos of the scenery, we will then take you further up the fell to another well-known beauty spot, the Surprise View where you can see how great ice sheets carved out this impressive landscape: you have an uninterrupted view across Derwentwater to Bassenthwaite and onto the Solway and the distant shores of Scotland.

We leave Derwentwater and head north and east toward Keswick and beyond. As we pass the impressive mountains and fells, looking up at Blencathra one cannot help but be moved by its sheer scale, and those slender fingers of rock running southward from its high ridge line must either frighten, or excite. Blencathra is one of the most northerly mountains in the Lakes with six separate fell tops, the highest standing at 868 meters. One of the famous features of Blencathra is the steep ridge called Sharp Edge. This is a walker's paradise and some of the fells in this area are challenging and difficult even on a mild summer's day. Your next stop is right in among these rugged mountains at one of the most spectacularly located Neolithic stone circles anywhere, Castlerigg.

Castlerigg Stone Circle stands on a superb natural plateau commanding a superb 360-degree view over the surrounding fells. Made up of 38 freestanding stones, some up to 3 meters (10 feet) high, it is one of Britain's earliest stone circles dating back to the Neolithic period 5,000 years ago. The spectacular and atmospheric location will take your breath away but we only have a short stop here before we head onward to the shores of Ullswater for your next destination.

As we descend into the Ullswater Valley you get your first glimpse of the National Park's second largest lake, Ullswater. We follow the road along the western shore of the vast and sparkling lake almost in the footsteps of William and Dorothy Wordsworth. It was here at Wordsworth Point that they saw the wild daffodils, the inspiration for one of Wordsworth's most famous poems. Your next stop is around here to allow you to access the lake shore for some splendid views of what the celebrated Lakeland writer Alfred Wainwright described as "that loveliest of lakes, curving gracefully into the far distance".

We now leave Ullswater and pass through the villages of Glenridding and Patterdale, both old mining villages. Our journey takes us past Brothers Water. This lake was one of the first places in the Lakes to be acquired by the National Trust.

We now climb, all the way up to the Kirkstone Inn, the highest inhabited building in the Lake District, for a stop to take in the views back down the valley as far as Lake Windermere and Ambleside. This once important coaching inn sits almost at the summit of the Lake District's highest pass that is open to motor traffic.

From here we begin our descent back to our starting points and the end of your exciting morning in the Lake District.