View of Esthwaite Water – Hawkshead Village loop from Hawkshead

Hiking trails & Routes

View of Esthwaite Water – Hawkshead Village loop from Hawkshead

Moderate

4.0

(23)

hikers

View of Esthwaite Water – Hawkshead Village loop from Hawkshead

02:17

8.70km

70m

Hiking

Moderate hike. Good fitness required. Easily walkable paths. The starting point of the route is right next to a parking lot.

Last updated: August 7, 2026

Tips

Temporary access restrictions

Includes segments with temporary access restrictions.

After 3.73 km for 123 m

Customers only

Waypoints

Start point

Parking

Get Directions

3.58 km

Hill Top – Beatrix Potter's House and Garden

Highlight • Historical Site

Find out more about the life of Beatrix Potter, the mother of Peter Rabbit and many other beautifully illustrated tales. The 17th century farmhouse is filled with her favourite things, and really looks as if if she might just be around the corner, puttering about in her garden herself. You'll buy your tickets further down the road in the National Trust building, and as the house is quite small, visitors are let in as groups at predetermined times. So best don't set out too late. Also recommended: Taking the boat from Bowness and the Mountain Goat Bus Shuttle, available as a combine ticket. You can take the bus on to Hawkside from here and return with bus and boat.

nationaltrust.org.uk/hill-top

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5.29 km

View of Esthwaite Water

Highlight • Viewpoint

5.45 km

The Boathouse Café at Lake District National Park

Highlight • Cafe

Unfortunately I do not have any photos, but if you ever find yourself out this way, please go visit the cafe. It's a quiet lake making it a bird watchers paradise, we were lucky to stumble on to this after randomly exploring a little further than we planned.

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5.47 km

Esthwaite Trout Fishery Café

Highlight • Viewpoint

Fantastic quiet cafe by a fabulous location and views

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8.48 km

Hawkshead Village

Highlight • Settlement

Hawkshead is an ancient township that has flourished since Norse times, belonging to Furness Abbey until the 12th Century. The monks owned Hawkshead Hall, just outside the village, of which the National Trust owned Hawkshead Courthouse is all that remains. After the dissolution of the monasteries in 1537, Hawkshead grew as a market town, with many buildings dating from the 17th Century.

Hawkshead is still the same tiny village of higgledy-piggledy houses, archways, and squares beloved by William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter. Cars are banned from the village, there being a large car park on the outskirts of the village. Tourism is now the main industry of Hawkshead, with many pleasant inns, guest houses, teashops and gift shops.

Whilst at school in Hawkshead, William lodged with Ann Tyson and her husband, who were in their sixties, first in the village, then at Colthouse where they moved in 1783. Anne Tyson’s cottage is now used as a holiday cottage.

The Old Grammar School was founded in 1585 by the Archbishop of York, Edwin Sandys. The ground floor classroom retains many old desks covered in carving done by the boys, including the poet William Wordsworth and his brother John. The school closed in 1909. Upstairs in the headmaster’s study and a classroom containing an exhibition relating to the history of the school, the founder and William Wordsworth.

The Beatrix Potter Gallery, a 17th Century building, was once the office of the local solicitor William Heelis, who married Beatrix Potterin 1913, and has remained largely unaltered since his day. The Gallery, now owned byThe National Trust, houses an annually changing exhibition of a selection of Beatrix Potter’s original drawings and illustrations. The National Trust also own many other buildings in the village, thus preserving its almost museum like air.

About half a mile out of Hawkshead is the hamlet of Colthouse. Here is one of the oldest Quaker meeting houses in Cumbria.

The 17th Century Church of St Michael & All Angels stands high looking out over the village, and has fine views to Esthwaite Water, Claife Heights, Latterbarrow, Helvellyn and the Langdales.

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