Autumn Breaks in the Lakes
They call the Lake District the Adventure Capital of the UK. And there’s plenty to get excited about if you’re after an adrenaline rush.
But what if you fancy a quiet autumn break, with some gentle exercise thrown in? Is the Lake District still the place for you?
Absolutely sure, it is, and that’s why we’re promoting our autumn breaks which help you to enjoy a holiday at a more leisurely pace and get back in touch with nature. We have the prize location, the best breakfasts in Bowness, and a host of activities to suit your needs.
You might be looking to de-stress from work, you might be getting over illness or an accident, you might be slowing down as you get older. Or you might just want a slower pace that helps you to appreciate everything that this beautiful corner of England has to offer.
Gorgeous gardens
Let’s start with gardens. You don’t even need to leave the grounds of the Burn How Garden Room Hotel to experience the peace and tranquility of the Lake District in autumn. Just sit in the garden and do nothing for a few days.
We’re very proud that our garden was designed by Thomas Mawson, the most prolific garden, park and landscape maker of Edwardian times. He designed, among many others, the magnificent gardens at Holehird, the headquarters of the Lakeland Horticultural Society; the splendid grounds of Holker Hall; and the geometrically-precise formal gardens at Rydal Hall.
And all of those are nearby to visit if you wish, and we can help you find your way there; just ask at reception. But this green-fingered landscape architect, who designed parks and gardens for royal families in Europe, and lectured on garden design in the USA and Canada, was also responsible for the foundations of our small, hidden-away garden in the heart of Bowness. We’ve been working to create something exceptional for the 21st century, while perhaps restoring a little of what was lost from the past.
And we reckon our garden is a secret gem in this busy, buzzing tourist mecca on the shores of Windermere. It’s just one block back from the lake, and two minutes’ walk from the lively centre with its many bars and restaurants, but it’s another world away, quietly hidden away among glorious mature trees. Just check in…and breathe.
Easy walks
Once you’ve unpacked and unwound, maybe you want to go for a walk. Yes, you can hike up Helvellyn or scale Scafell, but if you want to experience something gentler, then we are in the best place for you. Mini mountains? Just across the road is the path to beautiful Brant Fell; at 629 ft it’s one of the jewels in Wainwright’s Outlying Fells of Lakeland. It’s an easy walk, with just a few steep sections, which only takes about 30 minutes with a couple of nice places to stop, and the views at the top are glorious.
Just a little further along the road is the footpath to Orrest Head, another little gem of a hill. It was here that Wainwright himself first climbed on his first visit to the Lakes, and the view that he saw from the summit was to change his life – and the lives of millions. He said: “…quite suddenly, we emerged from the trees and were on a bare headland, and, as though a curtain had dramatically been torn aside, beheld a truly magnificent view.” It was at that moment that he vowed to explore all the hills he could see, and subsequently wrote about all 214 of them in seven beautiful handwritten guidebooks.
But if you don’t want to climb a hill, you can still enjoy the best of Lakeland. Take the ferry across the lake from Bowness, and follow the lovely footpath up the west shore of Windermere. You can walk all the way to Wray Castle (with a cafe and the beginning and at the end), then catch the “green launch” back to Waterhead, and the bus back to Bowness.
On your bike
Cyclists love the Lake District and we are very proud to host the UK’s toughest cycle sportive, the Fred Whitton challenge, which takes in all the major Lakeland passes in a rollercoaster 112 mile route. But your autumn break doesn’t want to turn into an ordeal on wheels.
There are wonderful off road lanes and tracks all around the Windermere area, minor roads, and cycle routes through the magnificent Grizedale Forest. And with electric bikes now readily available, you can let your legs do as much or as little of the work as you wish.
You can hire mountain bikes, road bikes, gravel bikes, or hybrid versions, and our friends at E-Bike Safaris will supply all you need. You can also arrange to have a guided cycle ride. Forget about the hassle of route planning, the frustration of stopping to read maps, running out of battery on your phone or getting lost. The expert guides know the area inside out and will take you on routes that only locals know about.
Take to the water on a paddleboard. This is surely one of the loveliest and most gentle ways of moving around on our local lake, Windermere. You can have a lesson to learn how to balance, and how to paddle, and then you can hire a board and go in and out of little coves, cross adventurously to islands, or just paddle about by the shoreline. Our great friend Jo Moseley is the ultimate expert to paddleboarding in the Lakes, and she’s written a book all about it. https://www.adventurebooks.com/products/stand-up-paddleboarding-in-the-lake-district There’s plenty of places here where you can learn, and hire boards; just ask our staff at reception.
All aboard a launch. Windermere Lake Cruises operate out of Bowness Bay just a couple of minutes’ walk from our front door. You can take a day long cruise all around England’s biggest lake, you can do a hop-off hop-on journey with walks in between, you can sail north to Waterhead or south to Lakeside, and somebody else is doing all the navigating. Of course, it’s possible to hire a self-drive electric motor boat for a couple of hours, or a rowing boat.
And a little further north at Grasmere, which is a much more shallow lake, you’ll find the easiest boats to row at the delightful little bay known as Faeryland. The boats here have character names and are painted in lovely pastels. There’s also a lakeside tea-garden if you just want to sit and admire the view.
There’s also heritage boat trips from one of our favourite places, the Windermere Jetty Museum (which also has a lovely tea-room. You can see how WE like to wind down in the Lakes.)
Over at Coniston, one of the launches there operates a Swallows and Amazon cruise for fans of the Arthur Ransome books. Ransome used many places around Windermere and Coniston to populate the imaginary lake of his books. And there’s a 90-minute cruise to discover some of these places including Wild Cat Island. Of course, there is no lake exactly similar to the one that Ransome used for his children’s adventures, but he did use real locations for the places that he worked into his stories. If you want to know more about Ransome and his world, just ask at reception.
We hope you now have some ideas about how to spend a relaxing autumn break here in Bowness. Call us to arrange your stay, to get the best rates, and we promise you’ll have a wonderful few days.
Photos: Cumbria Tourism
