A southern sojourn

On a rare excursion south of the border, Richard Bath tried out a waterside Beech Hill hotel in the Lake District.

In late spring, Lake Windermere – and, more specifically, the small town of Bowness – was already hoaching. Although we at Scottish Field rarely review south of the border, my daughter Ailsa and I wanted to walk some new hills so had decided to explore pastures new. Three and a half hours south of Edinburgh, most if it motorway driving, it didn’t take much longer to get there than it would have done to drive to Fort William, even if the scenery was considerably less compelling.

The first thing we noticed when arriving in the Lake District was just how many people were around in its towns. Even in Portree in high summer, it is never this packed. I suppose that’s what happens when you’re within a couple of hours of major population centres like Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle. Tourists are funnelled into a handful of towns – the four major ones are Keswick, Windermere, Ambleside, and Bowness-on-Windermere, although there are also smaller, prettier settlements like Beatrix Potter’s home village of Hawkshead, Wordsworth’s beloved Grasmere and Cartmel, home to a racecourse and the two Michelin-starred L’Enclume. While there are in theory sixteen lakes, only ten are over a square kilometre in size, and only four are over five square kilometres.

ACTIVITIES: We only had two days to spare, so the plan was to split it up into one day on the lake and one hearty day marching around the hills. As the Victorian town of Bowness-on-Windermere was a ten minute drive from our hotel, that’s where we spent our first day out. It’s a beautiful little town in the local vernacular, which consists of hefty slate-built stone buildings, but it’s so popular that it’s perennially rammed full. We started by having a look around the shops, dodging the many outdoors shops and instead browsing a wonderful book shop before spending a couple of hours at the Beatrix Potter World and then having a lovely pub lunch.

The afternoon consisted of a trip down Lake Windermere, comfortably the largest lake in the Lake District, on a steamer from Bowness to Lakeside at the southern tip of the lake, which took about 45 minutes. In the spring sun it was a stunning journey, and once there most of the boat disgorged itself and went on the connecting steam train which takes 20 minutes to get to its destination at Haverthwaite. Another option is a shorter ferry which crosses the lake and goes to the picture-perfect village of Hawkshead.

WALKING: Our second day was set aside for a yomp up Scafell Pike, the highest hill in England. Things didn’t turn out as planned, however, with a torrential downpour putting paid to our plans. Still, we had a lovely drive down some entertainingly tight country roads, getting a real sense of the area as we headed out through Ambleside and then wound our way past villages like Skelwith Bridge and Little Langdale as we headed out for lunch at the famous Old Dungeon Ghyll pub. It was a real spit and sawdust no-frills walkers pub within spitting distance of the path up to Scafell Pike, and from where we had hoped that the rain would abate. But after it slowed briefly and we set out with as much hope as expectation, we only got a couple of miles down the road before it set in again and, utterly sodden, we finally gave up our quest.

ACCOMMODATION: As the area is hugely popular with walkers, there are still lots of relatively inexpensive and functional places to stay, but we instead went upmarket and stayed at Beech Hill (www.beechhillhotel.co.uk), a rambling four star spa hotel overlooking Lake Windemere. With incredible views right over the lake, a one AA rosette restaurant called Burlington’s (named after the local slate), and good parking, it was exactly what we needed. Our room was huge, and had a terrace straight out onto the lake, and when it came to the food we once again sat overlooking the lake and enjoyed solid country house fare like chestnut mushroom and truffled risotto to start, mains of lamb rump, chicken supreme and confit duck leg, and puddings cherry frangipane tart and pistachio crème brulee. If some bits of the hotel were beginning to look a little dated, the spa was modern and excellent, with a large pool, steam room, sauna and two outdoor plunge pools on the deck overlooking the lake.

Read more on our travel pages

Plus, don’t miss the July issue of Scottish Field magazine.