Rydal and Dove Cottage

Just up the road is Rydal Mount, where Wordsworth spent the last 37 years of his life. If the house is closed to visitors, you can still admire the fine garden which was designed by Wordsworth.

The next section of the walk is on the 'coffin road', along which bodies were carried in funeral processions from Ambleside to be buried in consecrated ground in Grasmere. Magnificent trees, particularly oaks, grace the earlier part of the way.

Rydal Water sparkles down below to the left, and to the right an open bracken covered fellside sweeps up to a high planting of Scots Pine. Further on, a loaf shaped block of stone by the wall on the right provides a welcome seat with a splendid view. It was once used for very different purposes. This is the 'coffin rest stone'. The pallbearers customarily took regular liquid refreshment and by this point were usually in need of a sobering rest.

Soon, you enter a wood where a mighty oak leans through a gap in the stone wall on the left. Among the healthy trees are the white skeletal trunks of once magnificent elms, which succumbed to Dutch Elm Disease in the 1970's. The ground now rises steeply to the right, and steep scree tumbles from the rocky buttresses of Nab Scar. Ravens nest up here.

When the track splits take the lower path as the upper path is a false line leading along the top of the retaining wall of the Victorian aqueduct from Thirlmere Reservoir to Manchester. The tree lined path leads down to Brockstone House. Just beyond an overgrown lane on the left, is a thorn tree growing out of an ash. This is an example of a 'witch tree', revered by the Celts as magical because it has no root in the earth, no place in the sky, and therefore occupies a kind of middle world. Rowan trees are more commonly found growing in this way, and it was from such trees that Druids would cut their magic wands.

Just after the stone track becomes surfaced, where rhododendrons hide the wall opposite, a gate on the left leads to a fine viewpoint overlooking the end of Rydal Water. Return to the road and continue for a short way until you come to a wet area on the right, choked with an invading rat tail like reeds. Though to day it looks little more than a mire, this is White Moss Pond. In Wordsworth's day the pond froze over more quickly than any of the neighbouring lakes or tarns, and was therefore popular with skaters.

When you reach a road junction, Dove Cottage lies a short distance to your right. Wordsworth lived here from 1799 to 18O8, during which time he wrote much of his most admired poetry.

The walk heads left, taking the path down towards Rydal Water and White Moss Common. The area was once an extensive slate quarry, but has now been landscaped to provide a large car park.

Another footbridge takes you across the River Rothay, which runs through Grasmere to Rydal Water and then Windermere to the south. As you walk through the deciduous woods, you may be lucky enough to spot a red squirrel. Loughrigg Terrace, the path that hugs the edge of the hillside here, is famed for its breathtaking views stretching across Rydal Water to Nab Cottage and up to Nab Scar.

The writer Thomas de Quincey lodged for a time at Nab Cottage and married the landlord's daughter. Wordsworth disapproved, but the union proved to be a long and happy one nevertheless.

At the other end of the terrace is the great cavern of Rydal Cave. It is safe to enter, the floor being flattened without danger. The cathedral like scale of this old slate quarry is quite awesome. Part of the floor is flooded, and shoals of minnows can sometimes be seen swimming in the pools.

A walk through woodland leads you back to the River Rothay. Look out for the dark brown, white chested dipper here. As this bird hops from stone to stone, it appears quite ordinary. But from the bridge you can sometimes see it walking underwater on the bed of the river. This extraordinary bird does this with ease, even against the swift current, as it looks for caddis fly larva and other small insects to eat. From here, a short walk through Rydal brings you back to the starting point of the walk.