This Photographic walk will guide you round a 3 hour walk which takes you all the way around the lake of Buttermere with a great lunch stop in the village. The route can of course be started from any point, but I recomend doing it the way we have shown, as it gives a great place to stop for lunch, and should avoid the busier car park.

Click here to download a movie of the walk descrbed below ( please note that this may take a while if not on a broadband connection )

The Walkk

Start at Gatesgarth Farm ( Park in the pay and display car par here) Grid ref NY 195150. From the Car Park cross the road and go through the signed gates which take you past the farm ( not through it) and onto the long gravel track that takes you accross the end of Buttermere

At the end of the gravel track you go through a gate and turn right ( straight on will take you into the fells towards Haystacks)

You are now walking along the Western shore of the lake, but at the moment not directly on the shore line looking back you gain fantastic views of Fleetwith pike

After a while the path opens out with a good surface just above the level of the lake itself

Again from here you still get fantastic views behind you!

Looking forward towards Crummock the views great as well

From here the path begins to get into the woods but still remains along the lake shore itself

And eventualy the walk changes from a purely lakeside one to a woodland stroll, keep an eye out for the red squirrels

As you approach the Buttermere village end of the lake, the path gets steadily wider and easier under foot

At the very end of the lake on the Western side it is worth having a quick detour to view the fantastic water falls

before crossing the Northern end of the lake and making your way towards the village

The path brings you out at the Fish Inn and then onto the bridge both of which ofer food as well as the cafe, our path leaves onto the road very briefly and turning right we walk into Sykes farm as shown below where, teas and Ice cream are plentiful!

Once refreshed the path continues thourgh the farm and is well sign posted taking you through some great sceneray before edropping you back on the lake shore, this time on the Eastern side

Once back on the lakeland path you are once again in woodland but this time not a conifor wood

Again the path is a gravel track and very easy under foot

Making a brief trip into a field the path approaches a gate which bars the way from the surpirse of the walk

A Tunnel !!

This short tunnel takes you past the only section of the walk where without it you would be forced to get your feet wet.

Emerging from the tunnel there is a nice gravel beach which has plenty of skimming stones and give a great spot for a break

leaving the beach you follow the track which now follows directly on the waters edge

On a good day the views here are hard to beat

After this section the path heads up towards the road

And a short section on the road leads you back to your start point and a cup of tea !