Southern Lake District Self-Guided Walking Tour 2024/2025

You’re welcome to check in from 4pm onwards.

Accommodation: Monk Coniston (D)

Check out the Discovery Point Library at the country house – stocked with maps, walks and local area information. 

For stays of 3 nights, you will have 2 days at your choice.

For stays of 4 nights, you will have 3 days at your choice.

For stays of 7 nights, you will have 6 days at your choice.

Accommodation: Monk Coniston (B, L, D)

Enjoy a leisurely breakfast before making your way home. (B)

Our easiest routes, allowing plenty of time to savour the magnificent mountain landscapes. All our walk notes suggest the best places to stop, great pubs, and tea rooms.

Around Tarn Hows – 2 miles
Coniston village – 3 miles
Windermere & Wray Castle – 3 miles
Brantwood to Monk Coniston – 3 miles
Tarn Hows – 4 miles
Hawkshead & Latterbarrow – 4 miles
Rydal Water & Loughrigg Terrace – 4 miles

Some longer walks on valley and lakeside paths, plus a few of the easier, lower fells. Experience the true flavour of Lakeland as you follow these varied routes.

• Coniston & the Miner’s Bridge – 5 miles
• Tarn Hows & Yew Tree Farm – 6 miles
• Grasmere & Rydal Water – 6 miles
• Wansfell – 6 miles
• Hawkshead – 7 miles
• Latterbarrow, Windermere & Wray Castle – 8 miles

For those who love the high mountains. Expect some rough paths as you head to some of these famous summits, but there are plenty of rewards when you reach the top.

• Langdale Pikes – 4 miles
• Helm Crag – 8 miles
• Bow Fell – 8 miles
• Old Man of Coniston (out & back) – 8 miles
• Old Man of Coniston – 10 miles
• Wetherlam – 10 miles
• Fairfield Horseshoe – 11 miles
• Coniston Round – 11 miles

Monk Coniston is an imposing Gothic property leased from the National Trust and set in 8 acres of grounds, including a restored walled garden and the impressive arboretum. Some particularly impressive specimens, including a giant sequoia (the largest tree in the world) and the wollemi pine can be explored on the Monk Coniston Tree Trail.

Views from the property offer breathtaking glimpses of Coniston Water and the surrounding mountains.

Coniston village is about one mile away – there is a direct path from the house to the village. Here you’ll find a small supermarket, post office, newsagent, pubs and a Barclays Bank (open 3 times a week). A wider range of facilities is available in Ambleside, the nearest town, about 8 miles away. The Ruskin Museum is also well worth a visit – find out more about the lake’s connections to Donald Campbell and Swallows and Amazons author Arthur Ransome.

First cruising Coniston Water 150 years ago, the restored Steam Yacht Gondola is now operated by the National Trust, stopping at the Monk Coniston jetty at the bottom of the meadow below the house before gliding across the lake, calling at Coniston village and Brantwood House.

Ride ‘L’al Ratty’ a highly scenic narrow gauge railway which runs from the coast at Ravenglass along beautiful Eskdale. You could combine a visit with a walk over Muncaster Fell, or to Stanley Gill waterfall.

Blackwell is a stunning house, completed in 1901 in the Arts & Crafts style. Admire the remarkably preserved interiors, and soak up the beautiful views over Lake Windermere and the Coniston fells.

Just a couple of miles from Monk Coniston, Brantwood House – John Ruskin’s former home – commands superb views over the lake. The house’s 250-acre estate features 8 distinct gardens which were created by Ruskin with the help of his cousin Joan Severn and head gardener, Sally Beamish.

A short walk from the Country House, Tarn Hows is a man-made lake created by Monk Coniston’s resident owner, James Garth Marshall in 1865, as he continued to develop the estate and expand his pleasure grounds. He built a dam to flood the area, amalgamating several smaller tarns, before planting the shores and islands with new woodlands and specimen trees. There is an accessible 1.75 mile circular walk around the lake.

Nearby Grizedale Forest is ideal for walking and mountain biking and also has a popular sculpture trail. You can also experience the Go Ape high-ropes course and zip wire – a great option for active teenagers – or explore using a Segway.

Levens Hall is a beautiful, privately-owned Elizabethan stately home, famous for its magnificent formal garden and having the world’s oldest topiary gardens. Levens Hall is near Kendal and can be reached by car in about 50 minutes from Coniston.

Grasmere is about 30 minutes’ drive from Monk Coniston and is famous for its connections with William Wordsworth. The poet’s homes at Dove Cottage and Rydal Mount can be visited, the former of which includes the Wordsworth Museum. Grasmere’s famous traditional gingerbread shop is also well worth a visit.

Take a cruise along the length of Windermere – England’s largest lake. Ferries connect Ambleside in the north to Bowness and Lakeside in the south, where you can connect with the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway.