Loweswater (pedalnorth.com)

Refreshments
It’s only a short ride with only rucksack-fodder on the trail but good places to go afterwards include Newhouse Farm tea rooms at NY156 240 or the Kirkstile Inn at NY141209.

Start Point: Maggie’s Bridge car park at NY135210

Character

Short, gentle, beautiful. There’s a tucked-away quality to Loweswater – you can afford a fleeting sense of smugness leaving the hordes in Borrowdale and Buttermere for the quiet delights of Loweswater and Lorton Vale. The route is a loop around Holme Wood, a beautiful bank of mixed planting on the lower slopes of Carling Knott and Burnbank Fell. If there are easily-impressed children in the party, show them the track of the route on the map and tell them they’ll have a whale of a time…

Route

1. Set off up the farm track to, and through, High Nook Farm. As you enter the National Trust access land, the track trifurcates and you take the right hand track, across the stream. If you end up by the tarn, you’ve gone too far.

2. Flank across to the right, heading for the top corner of the wood. Contour the good track along the top of the wood, with beautiful views back to Loweswater and Crummock Water. (See above)

3. Leave the treeline at the deeply incised gully of Holme Beck, then follow the wall-line, heading north-west.

4. Just before the road, with new prospects stretching into the Scottish hills, turn right, dropping to Iredale Place.

5. Turn right to Jenkinson Place and Hudson Place, then pick up the beautiful track back through the woods and along the lake shore.

6. Veer left at Watergate Farm and follow the track across the meadows back to Maggie’s Bridge.

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