Our original plan for today had been to walk down to Beatrix Potter’s house at the south end of Lake Windermere, but when we were looking on the National Trust website last night it quickly became apparent that it was completely booked out for the whole week. Instead we decided to still do a big walk down and get the ferry across to Bowness and then a ‘steamboat’ ferry back to Ambleside, something recommended by a friend of ours. Unfortunately in the morning Peter wasn’t feeling very well in the tummy – we suspected he’d maybe eaten too much lactose or something, so we took it pretty slow as we got started on the walk.

The first part of the walk was on footpaths along main roads leading through Ambleside and south. Just outside of town we heard the ear-splitting noise of a fighter jet, and were surprised to see two military planes screaming across the sky. They formed the soundtrack of the first portion of our walk, flying back and forth in what must have been drills from a nearby base. Luckily the scenery made up for the noise, with wooded areas and a pretty stream surrounding the roads. About five kilometres in, we followed a sign leading to Wray Castle, which took us on a walking trail through the woods – past a deer! The walking path was mostly just flat, which was a nice change from our last walk up the Cobbler. We emerged from the woods into fields of sunshine with a view of the castle in the distance. The path looped back up to the road and not long later we emerged at the castle. 

We stopped for a little break at Wray Castle, which was actually a ‘fake’ castle built in the 1840s as a lake house for a couple rich people from Liverpool. We had a little look around the ground floor of the castle, which was all that was open, refilled our water bottles and then kept walking. It was about 4 miles between Wray Castle and the ferry to Bowness and Peter had quite a sore stomach but we kept plodding on. It was a very peaceful walking trail along the edge of the lake, with lots of views of people paddling, sailing or chugging by on various rental water vehicles. We stopped for a sandwich at some point, enjoying the shade in the trees and the water in front of us. We finally arrived in Bowness just as the ferry was about to arrive, so had perfect timing to hop on and ride across Lake Windermere. 

Bowness was insanely busy, which was very disconcerting after the quiet of Loch Lomond. Luckily, we got to the port at 2:15 and there was a boat leaving for Ambleside at 2:30, so we quickly got our tickets and hopped in the queue. Once we’d all filed onto the boat, it was much more spaced out and the windows were all open so we had a lovely breeze as well. The views from the boat were beautiful, and it was nice to rest our tired legs after walking 16 kilometres. At the Windermere pier, we hopped off and dodged the people on the waterfront to wind our way up a side street, stopping over to check out the Ambleside Roman Fort. This wasn’t very well preserved but the remains of the outlines of the buildings were still there. Then it was just a quick walk through town to get back to the room and have a rest.

After we’d had a shower and a lie down we headed back into town for dinner at a cute little local restaurant called Sheila’s Cottage. We ordered a sharing platter with whitebait and smoked mackerel, and then a salmon dish and a liver and bacon dish to share, which were both delicious. To celebrate both the impending house sale and the end of a great holiday, we also ordered a half bottle of bubbly, which made it all feel very special. Our tired legs dragged all the way back to the bnb after dinner, and we were definitely ready for an early night after a total of more than 35,000 steps!