Windermere

The quiet town of Windermere lies a short distance uphill to the north east of Bowness. It is smaller than its neighbour and offers the visitor a more tranquil atmosphere, set back from the lake by about a mile.

Windermere changed beyond recognition once the railway link to the town was completed in 1847. The railway provided a direct link to the Lake District for Victorian holiday-makers, and the tourist industry was formed. Once a small hamlet called Birthwaite, the newly-created town of Windermere grew at a great rate to cater for the hordes of tourists who began to arrive, with shops and hotels extending downhill to join with Bowness at the lake's edge.

The reason that Windermere, rather than Bowness at the water's edge, took its name from the lake was simply to provide the railway station with a more appealing name, emphasising the link with Lake Windermere. The great Lakeland poet William Wordsorth was quite opposed to this exploding industry, as he feared the beauty of the Lake District would be destroyed by the thousands of tourists. Ironically, much of the interest directed towards Lakeland was generated by Wordsworth himself, who penned a Guide to the Lakes many years before the railway arrived. Most of the guest houses that were built for the Victorian visitors still stand, and there are many fine places to stay and eat in Windermere.

Opposite the railway station, alongside the Windermere Hotel, a footpath climbs through woodland to the glorious heights of Orrest Head, a flat, grassy summit with a stunning all-round panoramic view that takes in the Yorkshire Fells, Morecambe Bay, the Langdale Pikes, the Troutbeck Valley and everything in between. Orrest Head was the first Lakeland height scaled by Alfred Wainwright when he first visited the Lake District in 1930. For Wainwright the view was love at first sight, and the experience cast a spell which shaped the rest of his life.