Buttermere Things to Do

At the end of a walk, what better way to celebrate than with a flavoursome ice cream made on site using the output from the resident Ayrshire herd. Very good but no photo which is criminal. There is also a small tea room in the farm yard, very enjoyable. Buttermere is such a small village/hamlet that if you travel through you will come across it.

Buttermere is a very small village with about a dozen buildings, two of which are pubs, the Fish Inn and The Bridge Hotel.

The Bridge Hotel
Pictured at dusk appeared the more atmospheric of the two

The Fish Inn
A little walk away has a pleasant garden to sit in. Note the car park is where you find the public pay phone, essential for communication in these parts.

There is a lot of lake shore access at Buttermere, as there is for many of the lakes (with the sad exception of Windermere). You can bring a picnic along when the weather is suitable - or even if it is cold and wet if you are hardy enough - and sit by the waters edge to enjoy it. Even at this cold and misty time of year the water in Buttermere was crystal clear and I can only imagine that in summer it will be very tempting to swim there.

There are dozens of streams rushing down the hills around Buttermere. This one is at the far end of the lake from Sour Milk GIll and has no name that I know of. We climbed it once to see if it also comes from a tarn but it doesn't, it just springs from the moss on the hilltop.

The lake district's particular breed of sheep is the Herdwick. They're a hardy sheep with a dirty brown colour and have thicker, chunkier legs than most lowland and dales sheep. I think they're rather cute, some people think they're rather delicious ("kill it & grill it!") and Bigs made me laugh all day by saying "hello my good friend" to every sheep in a perfect English accent.

Eventually the Sun made an appearance and the middle part of our walk, down the far end of the lake, was made in some quite nice sunshine. Still bits of mist hung around the tops of the hills, like a warm fluffy blanket!

As we walked around the lake the mist gradually lifted, exposing more and more of the lake and the surrounding mountains. There was a new photo-opportunity around every corner, and we spent a lot of time stopped taking pictures.

The lakes are quite important wintering grounds for water birds. This flock of Tufted Ducks was on the lake when we walked past. They were just resting, waiting for the weather to improve I think before they started doing much.