Buttermere, Lake District

 

I’d heard that Buttermere was supposed to look lovely in the autumn so we decided to head there a couple of weeks ago for a little break. I think we were slightly too early to see the autumn colours fully out, but instead we had lovely sunny weather which made for amazing reflections in the lake.

The first day we were in Buttermere we visited Scale Force and the weather couldn’t have been more different. The tops of the fells were hidden by the clouds as you can see in this post. 

The walk around Buttermere Lake took us just over 2 hours. We finished our walk and waited for the sunset (I love a sunset!) There was nobody else around as the moon appeared from behind one of the fells.  It was really beautiful; the pictures in this post are some of my favourites that I’ve taken, and Buttermere has become one of my favourites in the Lakes.

Main Points:

Distance – 4 ½ miles (circular)

Parking – car park at Buttermere

Climbing Cat Bells

Cat Bells is a fell in the Lake District overlooking Derwentwater. At 451m, I‘ve climbed higher fells than Cat Bells so I thought that this would be an easy one. I was wrong. 

We walked from Manesty not far from our hotel to the foot of the fell and ascended the steep steps. Parking is limited at Cat Bells and with it being one of the most popular fells in the Lake District, you want to get there early or walk from further away like we did. It was such a sunny day you could see for miles around from the top, over Derwentwater, towards Keswick and Bassenthwaite in the distance. Somebody had brought a cat up to the top of Cat Bells so now I want to do the same, but I don’t think Tom would appreciate it.

The descent was the hardest part. Most people seemed to be walking the other way so had to climb up the rock face but arguably climbing down was worse, especially with an audience. I slipped a couple of times; the rocks are so smooth from where everyone has climbed them. Once you’re at the bottom though, the walk back to the start is easy.

Main Points:

Distance – 4 miles (circular), steep ascent up the steps, steep climb down the other side.