Best Woodland Walks to Experience an Amazing Lake District Autumn

Autumn is simply an incredible time to visit the Lake District National Park. During the autumnal months your days can be spent crunching through freshly fallen leaves. You can enjoy the excitement at finding a big shiny conker. You can admire wondrously colourful displays of mushrooms, toadstools and other fascinating fungi. You can wander amongst ancient trees ablaze with golden, red and orange hues. And you can gaze at spectacular fellsides swathed in crisp & curling bronzed bracken.

And after a day spent experiencing the magnificence of the season you can go on to enjoy a cosy evening in front of a roaring log fire in your own, cosy Lake District cottage.

In this blog we’ve put together a list of some of our favourite autumn walks so you know where to head to truly experience the wonders of this most glorious of seasons on your Lake District break.

Tarn Hows circular via Tom Gill Waterfalls

This route is the perfect introduction to autumnal walking in the Lake District for visitors staying in Coniston. It really does have it all, ancient woodland, waterfalls, spectacular mountain vistas, forests and of course, gorgeous views of the picturesque Tarn Hows.

The walk starts at the Glen Mary Bridge Car Park near Beatrix Potter’s Yew Tree Farm just outside Coniston village.

Leave the car park through the gate and cross the wood footbridge. The path, which can be steep in places, climbs through the woods alongside the gill and passes a serious of pretty waterfalls. Continue up hill with the river on your right. After around 20 minutes you emerge at Tarn Hows – here you can either turn left to walk around the tarn in a clockside direction or right to walk around anti-clockwise. For the best views we recommend turning left – but the choice is yours!

The views around Tarn Hows really are some of the best, and most photographed in the Lakes, and they are at their very best during the autumn months.

A circuit of the Tarn takes approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour (depending on how often you stop to take photos of the incredible views). After which you will eventually end up back at the footpath which takes you back down, past the waterfalls to the car park.

For those with accessibility needs or walkers simply looking for a shorter and more level version of this walk then there is parking at Tarn Hows itself.

High Dam Circular

This relatively short circular starts at the High Dam Car Park, Stott Park, near Lakeside,Windermere. The walk takes in beautiful ancient woodland and incredibly picturesque views through the trees of the tarn. Watch out for all manner of colours, fungi and wildlife as you enjoy a stroll around this little Lakeland gem.

From the car park take the signposted path heading up through the woodland and follow the yellow markers on the obvious footpath making its way uphill. At a fork in the track a wider path takes a more gentle route uphill while a rougher one sticks closer to the beck on your left. Both paths lead up to Low Dam. Continue past Low Dam until you emerge at High Dam – with tarn in front of you and a wooden bridge over the beck on your right. Here you have a choice – to walk the path which runs around the dam either clockwise or anticlockwise. Once you have circled the tarn you will once again return to the path next to the bridge to make your way back down the woodland path to the car park.

Rydal and Grasmere Round

Not only does this 6 mile walk take in some classic Lake District scenery including, lakes, rivers,  mountains and woodland, it also takes the walker into Grasmere village at its half-way point. Perfect timing for tea & cakes or a beer & a burger – whatever takes your fancy!

We started the walk at Rydal village, just outside Ambleside. From the A591, a stone bridge on the left, just before entering Rydal, leads to a small car park. From the car park a lane heads north towards Rydal Water. Following the lane you shortly emerge from the woods with Rydal Water in front of you. You can either take the lower, level path which runs along the lake as we did or detour to take the higher path which climbs up to Rydal Cave. Both higher and lower paths converge further along where a gate leads into woodland. With the ruin of a barn on your right, take the path through the woods towards White Moss. Before you reach White Moss, at a footbridge turn left to continue through the woods with the river on your right. The river eventually widens to become Grasmere and you’ll find yourself on the lake shore with incredible views across to Helm Crag (the Lion and the Lamb). The path follows the pebbled beach before entering the woods on the western shore of the lake. Follow the path at it meanders along the lake shore before leaving it to head uphill and towards the minor road leading into Grasmere village.

Once Grasmere village has been thoroughly explored and suitable refreshments consumed, head out of the village towards the A591. Cross the road and take the lane alongside the Wordsworth Museum which takes you right past Wordsworth’s Dove Cottage. Continue up the hill. The road comes to the signposted Coffin Route, named so as it was the final journey of residents of Rydal to the church in Grasmere.

The Coffin Route offers stunning scenery along its ellevated length with incredible views across Grasmere to Silver How. Watch out for red squirrels in the woods stocking up on nuts for winter! The route ends in Rydal where you can cross the road and return to the car park.

Bogle Crag Circular, Grizedale Forest

This circular walk starting and ending at Bogle Crag Car Park, Grizedale Forest, takes in some ancient woodland as well as more recent plantations. At around 3 miles long the walk also features some fascinating sculptures along the way, making this a good choice for families or those looking for a little extra added interested on their autumnal walk.

From the car park, take the forest track leading from the rear of the car park and follow the purple markers. After the track curves to the right, take the waymarked footpath on your right. After a time you’ll reach a fork in the path, both marked purple. Here you have a choice. You can take the path on your left and complete a shorted circular walk or you can carry on straight ahead and do the full length circular. As the longer walk takes in more of the beautiful woodland we have chosen to carry on straight ahead for the full length version of the walk for this guide.

At a cottage on your right, turn left to take the path uphill through the woods. The path gently climbs and after a while you leave the ancient woodland and emerge in a more recent plantation. At a forest track, cross the track to continue on the purple marked route. You emerge on a wide forest track turn left onto the track, follow it for a short period before turning left again off the track to stay with the lilac route. After a while on this path you’ll see the other, shorter route rejoin your route at a path on your left. Ignore this path to continue ahead. Cross a final forest track before finally joining a wide track through the forest back down to the car park.

A route map can be found here:

Windermere West Shore Walk

This walk starts at the Harrowslack National Trust car park, grid ref: SD388959

1 Turn left as you exit the car park and follow the road through the farm land with the lake on your right. After around half a mile cross a cattle grid and continue along the track past the caravan site. At a wicket gate at a junction with a walled bridleway turn left (signed to Sawrey) through the woodland and pasture. The track divides with a stony path to Hawkshead, marked with white-topped posts. Follow this, veering right at the ridge top.

2 Continue straight ahead along the track through the woodland, eventually passing Bark Barn (on your right and then Belle Grange House on your left. Continue along the gravel track until you reach the road, with Red Nab car park just to the right.

3 Bear right through the car park and continue along the lakeshore, passing a low wooden barrier. Continue along this track, passing two small boathouses on the way, until you come to two field gates crossing the track – one with a stone squeeze-through stile next to it, the second with a gate.

4  Along the route keep your eyes peeled for both red and roe deer. Look uphill into the wood when walking along the lakeshore track and you may get lucky!

Just after the second gate, turn right through the footpath gate in the wall and walk through the parkland, past the third boathouse in High Wray Bay, keeping the lake on your right.

5 Follow the lakeshore path through the parkland towards Wray Castle, a Gothic style folly dating back to 1840. After the short steep section of path, turn right at the brow of the hill and head towards the metal gate into Watbarrow Wood.

6 Keeping the lake on your right, follow the path through the wood until you reach a large boathouse. At this point you can follow the path by the railings up to the castle, or along to the wooden jetty at the second large Gothic boathouse. At the junction turn right, walking along the road signed to Wray Castle and Ambleside, through the village of High Wray. Pass the village hall and after about 100 yards the road veers left. Turn right here and follow the footpath to the lake, then through the squeeze stile and little gate in the wall, down some steps and walk down the field keeping the wall to your left. Go through another wicket gate and follow the field edge down to a step stile in front of a boathouse on the lakeshore. Between Easter and 31 October you can collect the Windermere Lake Cruises Launch to Brockhole and Waterhead, where there are bus connections back to Windermere and Bowness. Alternatively retrace your steps back along the lakeshore to Harrowslack car park.