Buttermere

Buttermere is about two kilometres long, ringed by high fells including Haystacks, Fleetwith Pike and the High Stile ridge, and the path around it is roughly six and a half kilometres and almost level, which makes it one of the few complete lake circuits in the district that anyone can walk. On the western shore the path passes through a short tunnel blasted through a rock spur in the nineteenth century, cut so that a local landowner's guests could walk the full circuit without a detour. Alfred Wainwright asked for his ashes to be scattered on Haystacks above, and they were. The Lone Tree, a Scots pine on a rock at the northern end, is among the most photographed trees in Britain, to the point that the shore around it has needed repair from footfall.

What you actually see

• The level circuit - six and a half kilometres round the lake, nearly flat.
• The rock tunnel - a passage blasted through a spur to complete the shore path.
• The Lone Tree - a Scots pine on a rock at the northern shore.
• Haystacks - the fell above where Wainwright's ashes were scattered.

When to go

April to October; the circuit is walkable year-round but the passes in are treacherous in ice and snow. Autumn gives the best reflections in still conditions, and early morning avoids both crowds and wind on the water.

Honest expectations

Parking in the village is very limited, charged, and full by mid-morning most of the year, with verge parking now enforced against. Honister and Newlands passes are steep, narrow and unsuitable for nervous drivers. The tunnel is low and dark.

Nearby

Crummock Water adjoins to the north; Honister Pass and Borrowdale lie east.