Buttermere
Buttermere is a small, remarkably beautiful lake and the village that shares its name, nestled in the English Lake District within Cumbria. It is one of the most celebrated valleys in the region, beloved by walkers, artists, and naturalists alike for its unspoiled scenery and intimate scale. The lake itself stretches roughly a mile and a half in length and sits at an elevation of around 100 metres above sea level. Unlike some of the busier Lakeland destinations, Buttermere retains a genuine sense of remoteness and tranquillity, offering an experience that feels largely unchanged from the landscapes William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge wandered in the early nineteenth century. It is widely regarded as one of the most photogenic lakes in England, and that reputation is entirely deserved.
The valley has a long human history, though its character has always been shaped more by farming and the rhythms of the upland pastoral economy than by industry or commerce. The name Buttermere derives from the Old Norse meaning roughly "the lake by the pastures where butter is made," a reminder that Norse settlers colonised these valleys over a thousand years ago and left their linguistic stamp on virtually every hill, beck and tarn in the region. The small hamlet at the head of the lake has little more than a church, a farm, a pub, and a hotel, yet it has attracted disproportionate notoriety. In the early nineteenth century it became the centre of a remarkable scandal involving a local innkeeper's daughter named Mary Robinson, famously known as the Beauty of Buttermere. She was deceived into marriage by an impostor named John Hatfield, who posed as a wealthy member of Parliament. When his fraud was exposed, Hatfield was tried and hanged in 1803, and the case gripped public imagination across England. Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Charles Lamb all knew of the story, and Melvyn Bragg later fictionalised it in his novel The Maid of Buttermere.
In person, Buttermere exerts an almost immediate calming effect. The lake is cradled by steep fells that rise sharply from its shores: Haystacks and High Crag to the south, Red Pike and High Stile to the west, and the ridge of Robinson to the north. The water is exceptionally clear and shifts in colour depending on the weather, ranging from a deep slate blue under heavy cloud to a luminous turquoise when the sun breaks through. The shoreline path is largely flat, making a complete circuit of the lake accessible to most walkers, and at various points you pass through stands of mature oak and pine whose roots grip the rocky ground at the water's edge. The sounds are those of running water — several becks feed the lake — wind moving through the trees, and the occasional bleat of Herdwick sheep on the surrounding hillsides. Birdsong is prominent in spring and early summer, and red squirrels have been recorded in the surrounding woodland.
Haystacks, the fell that rises immediately to the south, holds a particular emotional significance in walking culture. Alfred Wainwright, whose pictorial guides to the Lakeland fells remain definitive companion texts for generations of walkers, declared Haystacks his favourite summit of all and requested that his ashes be scattered there. His wishes were carried out after his death in 1991, and the mountain has since become something of a pilgrimage site for those who grew up with his guides. The ascent from Buttermere is a steady and rewarding climb, and the summit is a wonderfully craggy, irregular place with its own small tarns and extraordinary views back down to the valley floor. The connection between Wainwright and this particular corner of the Lakes adds a layer of quiet pilgrimage to what is already a place of exceptional natural beauty.
The surrounding area encompasses the broader Buttermere Valley, which also contains two smaller lakes: Crummock Water, which lies immediately to the north and is actually larger than Buttermere itself, and Loweswater, a short distance further north and west. All three are managed in part by the National Trust, which owns much of the land in the valley. Together they form one of the quieter corners of the Lake District National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2017. The B5289 road connects Buttermere to Keswick in the north via the dramatic Honister Pass and to Cockermouth in the northwest via Lorton Vale. Honister Pass is one of the most exciting road passes in England, rising steeply and narrowing to a single track in places, with Honister Slate Mine at its summit — still a working mine and open to visitors.
Reaching Buttermere by public transport is possible but requires planning. The Honister Rambler bus service historically operated seasonal routes connecting Keswick to Buttermere via Borrowdale and Honister, though services and timetables change and should be checked locally before travel. By car, the most dramatic approach is via the B5289 from Keswick through Borrowdale and over Honister Pass. Parking is available at a National Trust car park on the edge of the village, though it fills quickly during summer weekends and bank holidays. The lake and its immediate surroundings are accessible year-round, with spring and autumn widely considered the best seasons: summer brings the most visitors and can make parking difficult, while the lower-lying paths remain walkable even in winter when the higher fells are snow-covered. There are no facilities beyond what the village pub and the small hotel provide, so visitors should come self-sufficient with appropriate walking gear, particularly if venturing onto the fells.
One enduring, slightly hidden quality of Buttermere is the short tunnel cut through solid rock on the western shore path, which allows walkers to pass beneath a rocky buttress right at the lake's edge. It is a small thing, but charming — a Victorian-era intervention that threads through the bedrock and emerges on the far side of a crag with the lake's surface immediately to one side. It reinforces the sense that the path itself is woven into the rock and water of the place rather than merely passing through it. The quality of light in the valley, particularly in the hour before sunset when the western fells catch the last of the day's colour while the lake surface holds the reflection in bronze and rose, is the kind of scene that explains why landscape painting flourished so vigorously in this part of England during the Romantic period and has never really stopped.