Buttermere Lake
Buttermere is one of the smaller and more perfectly formed lakes in the English Lake District, a ribbon of dark, clear water set in a valley enclosed by some of the most impressive fells in the district, including Red Pike, High Stile and Haystacks rising steeply from the southern shore and the lower but significant Mellbreak on the western side. The lake is fed by two valley streams and drains northward into Crummock Water, the larger lake downstream, and the combination of the two lakes in their mountain setting makes the valley one of the most consistently beautiful in the Lake District.
Buttermere's most famous devotee was Alfred Wainwright, whose seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells devoted loving attention to the mountains surrounding the valley and who left instructions that his ashes be scattered on the summit of Haystacks, the fell he described as his favourite in all the Lake District. Wainwright's ashes were duly scattered at Innominate Tarn on the Haystacks summit, and the walk from Buttermere to Haystacks has become a pilgrimage for Wainwright enthusiasts, combining genuinely excellent fell walking with the emotional resonance of the landscape's association with one of the most beloved writers on the British countryside.
The village of Buttermere, at the northern end of the lake between Buttermere and Crummock Water, consists of two pubs, a church and a farm, which collective modesty gives the settlement a character entirely appropriate to the landscape it inhabits. The Fish Hotel, now a pub and restaurant, was at the centre of one of the more extraordinary human interest stories of the early nineteenth century when its landlord's daughter, Mary Robinson, attracted national attention through her beauty and was deceived into a bigamous marriage by the impostor John Hatfield, whose subsequent prosecution and hanging attracted enormous public interest.
The circular walk around Buttermere lake, approximately five miles and entirely manageable for most walkers, is one of the finest low-level lakeshore walks in the Lake District.