Revisiting Derwentwater

Lodore Falls

Two weeks ago, David and I embarked on the 10 mile circular walk around Derwentwater. The weather forecast for the weekend, though being cold with winds blown from Siberia, was meant to be fair. So after an early rise, we headed up the M6 towards Keswick, (fast becoming our second home), to parking by the Theatre by The Lake. I paid £9 for 12 hours parking, a little excessive but we didn’t know how long it would take us to walk the circumference of the lake. Some estimates were between 3-6 hours. So I paid more just for the peace of mind. In reality our walk took 4.5h, stopping to take photos, visiting the trickle that was Lodore Falls and having lunch.

We began our walk from the Keswick Launch and followed the path past the much snapped view from Friar’s Crag. (Here’s some pictures I took on an earlier visit!)

Boats at Derwent Water

View from Friar’s Crag

The path meandered through woodland, past Calfclose Bay where the NT Hundred Year Stones lie. It was from here that I undertook a wonderful early morning swim, in 2016. However, I’ve not seen the stones in higher waters.

NT Centenary Stones

Along the route we followed a few short stretches of roadside. We passed the Lodore Hotel and continued right, through a gate, following a sign for Manesty.

Chinese Bridge

Derwentwater

The route continued across delicate wetlands protected by a meandering plastic boardwalk. We crossed the River Derwent by the quaint Chinese Bridge. I snapped my favourite picture of the day from this angle. I turned to the jaws of Borrowdale and snapped a hazy looking Castle Crag.

Castle Crag and Borrowdale

Along our walk on the east side of Derwentwater we spied numerous rope swings, so we had to try at least one. 🙂

Rope swing at Derwentwater

Rope swing at Derwentwater

We took in Low Brandelhow and the NT Entrust sculpture before heading to Portinscale.

Low Brandelhow

Entrust

From Portinscale we followed a pathway from the main road and over a bridge across the River Greta. This pathway took us back towards Keswick. At this point in the walk we were both tiring, with feet complaining. I broke out the Kendal Mint Cake which helped us walk those final steps back to the car.

I hope you have enjoyed our little tour around Derwentwater. Thank you to Sharon who inspired this walk, she visited Derwentwater in a snowy January.

Thanks for reading,

Christine x