Grasmere
Grasmere LA22 9SW
You can hardly come to the Lakes and not visit riverside Grasmere, the picturesque village home of William Wordsworth for 50 years – just don’t expect to have it to yourself. It’s a pretty spot, centred on a village green and ringed by glowering fells, but it’s busy for most of the year with tourists on the Wordsworth trail who fill the cafés between visits to nearby Dove Cottage and Rydal Mount and the Wordsworth family graves in the idyllic little churchyard. It’s better if you can stay the night, when something of the village’s 19th-century charm resurfaces, and in fact Grasmere is quite the boutique stopover these days, with several stylish hotels in the centre. For a good walk, follow the circular path around Grasmere and Rydal Water (4 miles), which passes the Wordsworth houses on the way.
