The Buttermere Valley is a classic Lakelands postcard: the blue ribbon lakes of Buttermere, Crummock Water and Loweswater knotted together at the impossibly charming villages of Buttermere and Loweswater – like ‘a string of pearls each connected to the next.’
Between the pearls the flat green fields radiate outward and are enveloped by the encircling buttresses of Red Pike, High Stile, Fleetwith Pike, Robinson, Whiteless Pike, Grasmoor and Melbreak. It’s almost impossible not to get poetic about it.
Tiny Buttermere village – from the ‘lake by two pastures’ is made up of a few farms, some isolated houses, a chapel and, critically, two inns. Loweswater is similar, a scattering of farms and houses form a community held together by the twin magnets of its church and next-door hostelry.
These traditional villages owe their continued existence to the National Trust, which owns much of the land and applies strict preservation orders to it. The only way into the valley by car is from the north via Cockermouth or through the snaking passes over Honister and Newlands Hause.
