With cool, crisp and clear days forecast, now’s a great time to enjoy some winter walking during your stay at Colwith. So, wrap up warm and get outdoors – there are many walks from the doorstep (see previous blogs), but here’s one that begins by the shore of the region’s most famous lake, and takes you to some majestic sights (the Langdale Pikes provide the dramatic backdrop to the view) as well as Scout Knott Tarn, and much, much more.
Bowness on Windermere
Area of walk: Bowness-on-Windermere
Distance: Five miles
Time to allow: 3 ½ hours
Map: OS Explorer OL7 The English Lakes South eastern area.
Refreshments: Endless choice in Bowness.
This walk starts at the longest and largest of the lakes, Windermere. It’s the most southerly and the most accessible. The most convenient place to leave the car for this walk is the Lake Cruises car park on the corner of Rectory Road. Turn left out of the car park and make your way along the promenade where the cruisers come in. The kiosks have been here since the early 1900s when the town was in its heyday.
Pass the Old England Hotel on the left, then take the next turning on the right, Brantfell Road and climb away from the bustling centre past the old schoolhouse. At the top of Brantfell Road a gate gives access to the fell and take the footpath signed ‘Dales Way’. Climb to the next gate and keep ahead to where the path divides. Go left, the right hand one leading to Brant Fell (great views)!
Keep left, go through another gate and at the next one keep forward to where a metal gate under a spreading sycamore is seen in the wall on the right. Follow a faint path slightly left and a further metal gate leads us to meet a lane. Go right for a few paces until a fingerpost on the left points the way to Cleabarrow and Matson Ground. At the next kissing-gate turn right along a stand of mature trees passing a duck-pond on the left and at the next kissing-gate you’ll come to a meeting of ways.
Cross over to yet another kissing-gate and follow an enclosed path, cross a lane and enter a field. Keep to the right of a fenced copse on a faint path marked by posts with Dales Way arrows on them. At a gate in the corner, ford a beck and keep ahead, the route well marked at this stage.
After a further two kissing-gates pass through a grove of young cherry trees and then keep along a left hand wall to a hand-gate at the top. Go through it to a lane and turn right until you meet the road with the gated entrance to East Cleabarrow on the left. In the stone wall on the left some steps lead to a path designed to keep walkers off the road, emerging at a lay-by where there are usually a few cars parked. Look for the ‘Dales Way’ sign pointing up a minor lane to the left and at the top of the brow (by a house called Parrock Cross) keep ahead on a stony track. Stay with this through several gates until you come to a path junction where the Dales Way turns sharply right. The path climbs gradually. Don’t go through the gateway as the Dales Way does (unless we want to go to Ilkley!), instead keep ahead along a right-hand wall as far as School Knott Tarn. At the tarn, branch off left on a faint path that goes through a gate then heads up to the top of School Knott, at 232m (761ft) a higher top than Brant Fell though less well known. Look down over the clustered houses below, across the expanse of Windermere to the panorama of hills on the skyline – and enjoy the view!
Descend towards the town and go through a tall, narrow hand-gate. Take the left hand ofthe two paths that go down through mixed scrubland. Cross the path and go through a second similar gate to emerge onto a quiet cul-de-sac. From here it is a case of weaving a way through the suburban streets to regain Lake Road back into the centre. Turn right on to Fairfield Road then left onto Limethwaite road to a crossroads with Heathwaite post office stores on the corner. Cross straight over into Oakthwaite Road and just before the T-junction take a footpath on the right that leads to Oldfield Road. The path cuts left along a stream and on reaching its end, turn left then immediate right onto Thornbarrow Road. At the bottom, turn left onto Lake Road and follow it all the way back into Bowness.
