A weekend away in the Lake District

(Head over to my Instagram page to watch some highlight snippets of this trip so you can truly see it in all its beauty @katiesweeney24)

Day 1-2: West Sussex to Eskdale (Boot)

Accommodation: Bridge End Farm Cottages

Food and Drink: The boot inn Pub

After dodging many cows in the pitch black on the winding roads through the mountains, we arrived at Bridge End Farm Cottages late in the evening. I couldn’t recommend staying here enough. We were woken to a magical frosty back garden that backed onto Whillan Beck. Situated beside a beautiful 17th Century packhorse bridge and Eskdale mill that dates back to 1578, we felt luckier than ever to have such an opportunity to explore such a tiny yet enchanting village.

Once we had our morning cup of coffee perched on the back doorstep, we drove down the road to grab a quick bite to take with us on our day hike to the base of Scafell Pike. It was instantly easy to understand why Eskdale is known as the ‘Gateway to Paradise’. I’ll let the pictures show you why…

(Leaving Boot)

(Following some kinda path)

Completely winging it as per, we slowly made our way to Burnmoor Tarn which was the perfect location for a lil pick me up coffee and snack whilst perched on the wooden walkway over the water.

(Burnmoor Tarn)

We made it to Wasdale approx 2 hours after leaving Boot. The plan was to climb Scafell Pike which at 978 metres is Englands highest mountain, however we didn’t actually plan past the wing it part.

Given that it was already 1pm and it would be dark by around 4pm we made the decision to climb as far as we could before 2pm (don't ask how we worked this out... i feel like we just picked a number to make ourselves feel falsely reassured lol). It was around 2 we picked the perfect spot to munch our lunch before climbing back down towards Wasdale Lake (Wast Water). By this point we had completely lost any sort of path and I was pretty much on my bum the whole way down. This is where things started to get a tat dodgy as we lost daylight but alas we made it back after many wrong turns.

(Lunch spot over looking Burnmoor Tarn)

(Just before i fell pretty much all the way down the hill - Overlooking Wast Water)

The boot inn Pub was where we went for dinner and had some BANGING food which i highly recommend. A roast did the trick and we finished the day by drinking some red wine in the cosy cottage.

Day 2-3: Eskdale to Ullswater (Glenridding)

Accommodation: Cherry Holme

Food and drink: Glenridding Hotel & Brackenrigg Inn

Our next stop was Glenridding in Ullswater. We stayed at Cherry Holme which was a stunning spot for one night along the lake. There was a short walk to be had here where we got some of these stunning shots.

(Ullswater Lake)

Just down the road was where we ate at Glenridding Hotel. Again, they did a great variety of food and of course a crackerlacking selection of alcoholic bevys.

From here we also visited a lil village called Keswick. There is quite a bit to see in Keswick if you have more time than us so go for it! On our way back to our accommodation we also stumbled accross Brackenrigg Inn pub that overlooked Ullswater lake where we took some time to take in all the scenes.

Day 4: Windermere to Home

Before we headed home we stopped at Windermere. We walked around miller ground which is an area popular for swimming (wasn’t for us in this temp, no thank youuuuuu) but a great location to take some shots on the pontoons.

(Windermere Lake)

Before hopping back in the car we made a quick stop in Folk Cafe where we had some heart warming soup and well needed coffee for the journey home.

So that was about it to be honest! It was the perfect amount of chilling and exploring for the weekend and for sure there is still so much more to be explored. Have you been to the Lake District? If so, where would you recommend?