Things to Do in Grasmere: Gingerbread, Wordsworth and the Easy Walks
A poet's cottage, a gingerbread queue and a lake you can walk round before lunch. Here's how to do Grasmere properly, including where to park and which day not to turn up.
The short answer
The best things to do in Grasmere are Dove Cottage and the Wordsworth Museum (adult £16, open Tuesday to Saturday), Allan Bank's house and grounds (National Trust), the Grasmere Gingerbread Shop by St Oswald's churchyard, and the 3.5 mile walk from White Moss past Rydal Water to Rydal Cave. For a bigger walk, Easedale Tarn is about 6 km there and back from the village, and the 555 and 599 buses save you fighting for a parking space.
The best things to do in Grasmere are Dove Cottage and the Wordsworth Museum, Allan Bank's woods above the lake, a slab of gingerbread from the tiny shop by St Oswald's churchyard, the Wordsworth graves, and the easy walk past Rydal Water to Rydal Cave. If the legs are willing, Easedale Tarn and Helm Crag are both straight out of the village. If it's chucking it down, the Heaton Cooper Studio and its cafe are across from the green.
I'll be straight with you about Grasmere. It's a small village with a big reputation, and on a sunny Saturday in August a fair chunk of the north of England tries to fit into it. But it earns the fuss. The lake is right there, the fells come down to the back gardens, and three of the things it's famous for (a poet, a gingerbread and a view) are all within a ten minute stroll of each other, which is about the limit of a six year old's patience for anything that isn't a playground.
Checked 4 October 2026; dates change, so the organiser link is the one to trust.
Is Grasmere worth visiting?
Yes, as long as you go early or out of season, and you don't expect a town. There's no big supermarket, no cinema and no soft play. What there is: a lake you can walk round, a chunk of Wordsworth history that is actually interesting to children if someone lets them try on a bonnet, good cafes, and walks for every level from flat gravel to a proper scramble.
It's also the easiest place in the Lakes to do without a car. The 555 between Lancaster, Kendal, Windermere, Ambleside, Grasmere and Keswick stops in the village, and so does the 599 from Bowness and Windermere, which Westmorland and Furness Council lists as running daily all year. Which matters, because the car parks fill up and none of them are cheap.
Grasmere is what happens when you put a lake, a poet and a gingerbread shop in a valley the size of a car park and invite everyone.
What is Grasmere famous for?
Three things, mostly. William Wordsworth lived here from 1799, first at Dove Cottage and later at Allan Bank, and he's buried in St Oswald's churchyard. Sarah Nelson invented Grasmere Gingerbread here in 1854, and the shop still sells it next to the church. And the lake itself has a single island which, when it was sold in 1893, so annoyed Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley that it helped push him into founding the National Trust. The island was finally left to the Trust in 2017, which is a very long time to hold a grudge.
It's also the home of the Grasmere Lakeland Sports and Show every August (the next one is Sunday 29 August 2027, free on the gate, with Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling and a fell race up and down the hill behind), and of the rushbearing, a summer procession where village children carry rushes to the church and get given gingerbread for their trouble. Excellent deal.
Wordsworth, gingerbread and the village itself
Dove Cottage and Wordsworth Museum
The little whitewashed cottage where William and Dorothy Wordsworth lived from 1799, run by Wordsworth Grasmere. Your ticket gets you an introductory tour of the cottage with one of their team, the garden and woodland, the museum and the special exhibition gallery. Entry to the cottage goes in slots every 40 minutes, so you can't just wander in and out.
The current exhibition is Ghost Story! Into the Gothic Imagination, about the night that gave us Frankenstein, with manuscripts and rare books from Byron, Shelley and friends. It runs until June 2027. For half term they're doing Twilight Tales on 21, 26 and 27 October from 4pm (hot chocolate, gingerbread, Georgian dressing up, then spooky Cumbrian stories in the cottage at dusk), and a Ghost Story! Halloween Late on 31 October from 5pm, which they say suits over 16s best. Christmas Spirits! follows on 28 November and 9 December.
Honest bit: £16 for an adult is a lot for a small house, and seven year olds don't care about poets. The tour and the dressing up events are where the value is for families.
- Price
- Adult £16, 65+ £15, child 6 to 16 £8, under 6 free; family of 5 (2 adults, 3 children) £39.50. Twilight Tales: children £10, adults £5
- Parking
- Own pay and display: £5 up to 4 hours, £8 all day; overflow at Stock Lane. Car park postcode LA22 9PP
- Toilets
- Yes; access guide on their website; three disabled parking bays
- Check first
- Open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm, so not Sunday or Monday; book special events in advance
Allan Bank
Wordsworth's later, bigger house on the hill above the village, now the National Trust's most relaxed property. It isn't dressed up as a museum. There's a second-hand bookshop, self-serve tea with an honesty box, and wooded grounds with lake and fell views that you can walk up through.
This autumn there are several small exhibitions on (Tracy Hill's (In)tangible about fungi and lichen, the Caravan Press about a printer who worked from a caravan in Langdale, and Wordsworth the Influencer with old photographs and a first edition of his Guide to the Lakes, written in this house). For kids, the Stranger Folk Digital Adventure runs Saturday to Wednesday until 1 November, and you download the app before you go because the signal is patchy. Half term pumpkin carving runs 25 to 28 October and on 31 October, £5 a child plus admission, booking needed.
- Price
- Adult £9, child (5 to 17) £4.50, family £22.50 without Gift Aid; National Trust members free
- Parking
- None on site except a Blue Badge space; use the village pay and display. Postcode LA22 9QB
- Toilets
- Accessible toilet on the ground floor; galleries are upstairs
- Check first
- Open 10am to 4pm; daily until 30 November, then Saturday to Wednesday in December
Grasmere Gingerbread Shop
The tiny shop beside St Oswald's churchyard, selling the gingerbread Sarah Nelson invented in 1854. It's chewy, gingery, crumbly round the edges and not really a cake or a biscuit, and you'll be eating it in the car before you've reached the next village.
The shop is so small they ask you to take your rucksack off before you go in. In summer the queue goes out of the door and along the lane. Go first thing, or go in October on a weekday, or send one adult in while everyone else looks at the graves next door.
- Price
- Shop prices on their site; card only, no cash
- Parking
- About four free short stay spaces outside; otherwise park in the village
- Buggy access
- Wheelchair access possible if it isn't busy; no dogs except guide dogs
- Check first
- Open all year except Good Friday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day; ring 015394 35428 in bad winter weather
St Oswald's Church and the Wordsworth graves
A squat old church dating from the 14th century, with a second nave added around 1500. Wordsworth is buried in the churchyard, in a railed group of twelve Wordsworth and Quillinan family graves in the south east corner, close to the River Rothay. It's free, it takes ten minutes, and it's oddly moving even if you only know the daffodil poem.
Right next to it, between the churchyard and the river, is the Wordsworth Daffodil Garden, opened in 2003 and free to walk round, with engraved slate stones sponsored by visitors. In March and April it does exactly what it says.
- Price
- Free; donations welcome
- Parking
- None; it's in the village centre, so park at Red Bank Road or Stock Lane
- Buggy access
- Not listed; the churchyard is in the village centre
- Check first
- Services happen, so be quiet inside on a Sunday morning
Heaton Cooper Studio and Mathilde's
Galleries showing the work of the Heaton Cooper family of artists, who've been painting these fells for generations, plus a well stocked art materials shop and the Archive Gallery for changing exhibitions. At the moment it's Blast Sheets, Max Boardman's photographs of old quarry landscapes, which closes on 25 October.
Mathilde's is the cafe, opposite the village green, doing Scandinavian food (breakfast, lunch, coffee and cake) on a menu that changes with the seasons. It's walk-in only. This is my rainy hour in Grasmere: look at paintings, buy the kids a sketchbook they'll use twice, eat something Scandinavian with a coffee.
- Price
- Not listed on the studio site; the cafe is walk-in
- Parking
- Village pay and display; Stock Lane is the nearest big one
- Toilets
- Not listed; ask the studio about step-free access to the Archive Gallery
- Check first
- Cafe closed 24 to 27 December; dogs welcome on the outside terrace only
The easy walks: lake, Rydal Water and the cave
The walk most people mean when they say 'the Grasmere lake walk' is a loop taking in Grasmere, Loughrigg Terrace, Rydal Water and Rydal Cave, usually from White Moss between Grasmere and Rydal. Lake District Tourism's version from White Moss is 3.5 miles and two to three hours, mostly on level, well kept paths, with one rocky, steep section. You can bring a pushchair for much of it, but they say that bit needs two adults to carry an all-terrain buggy, or you can skip it.
White Moss Common
The short version, and the one for very small legs or wheels. The National Park's Miles without Stiles route here is 1.1 km on a wide, smooth stone path, graded 'for all', through woods and down to meadows by the River Rothay with two benches. There's an optional extension through Penny Rock Wood.
It's the place to start the longer loop to Rydal Water and the cave too, and the toilets with baby changing are 40 metres from the car park, which in my experience is the single most important fact about any walk with children.
- Price
- Pay and display; cards accepted at the southern car park
- Parking
- Lower car park on the A591 about 4 km north of Ambleside, postcode LA22 9SD
- Toilets
- Yes, with baby changing, 40 m from the car park
- Check first
- A 140 mm step off the first small footbridge after the toilets was flagged for repair
Rydal Cave
An old quarry cavern on the slope above Rydal Water, big enough to echo in, with a pool across the floor where you can see small fish. Rydal Water itself is the small, reedy lake between Grasmere and Ambleside, and the path along its south side is one of the prettiest flat-ish bits of walking in the Lakes.
The guidance now is not to go right in, because there have been rockfalls. Look from the entrance, throw no stones, and keep a hand on anyone under eight near the water.
- Price
- Free
- Parking
- White Moss pay and display
- Buggy access
- Not to the cave itself; the last climb is rocky
- Check first
- Entering the cave is discouraged after rockfalls
Faeryland Grasmere
Rowing boats and a tea garden on the lake shore along Red Bank Road, a short walk from the village. No booking: you turn up, get a boat for up to four people (babies and children included), and row about badly while someone shouts advice from the back. The tea garden does loose leaf tea, coffee, scones with jam and cream and homemade soup.
It's weather dependent, which in Grasmere means 'don't promise anyone a boat'. The island in the middle is the one Rawnsley got so cross about.
- Price
- Boat hire prices not listed online; ask at the hut
- Parking
- Red Bank Road is narrow; walk from the village
- Toilets
- Not listed
- Check first
- Generally open 10.30am to 5pm, Friday to Tuesday, closed Wednesday and Thursday, weather permitting
The bigger walks straight from the village
Easedale Tarn and Sourmilk Gill
The classic 'proper walk' from Grasmere, starting on Easedale Road and climbing beside Sourmilk Gill, a waterfall that is excellent after rain and a bit of a trickle after a dry week. The tarn sits in a bowl of fells at the top. Car Free Walks puts the route at 6.2 km with about 207 m of climbing, roughly two and a quarter hours, graded leisurely.
Our two would do this with bribes and a picnic at the tarn. The path is rough and stony near the falls, so it's boots not trainers, and no buggies. Come back down the same way, or cross Stythwaite Steps for a slightly different return.
- Price
- Free
- Parking
- Village car parks; the lane up to the start has very little roadside space
- Buggy access
- No; rocky path beside the gill
- Check first
- Fords and stepping stones get tricky after heavy rain
Helm Crag
The craggy little fell north of the village, 405 m high, with the rock formation on top known as the Lion and the Lamb. Wainwright called it 'a brief essay in real mountaineering', which is about right: it's short, steep and has a summit that makes children feel like proper climbers.
It's a good first fell for kids of about seven who've already done Easedale Tarn without a meltdown. The standard way up starts in the village; come down the same way unless you've got a map and a plan.
- Price
- Free
- Parking
- Village car parks
- Buggy access
- No; steep and rocky near the top
- Check first
- Mountain forecast; the summit rocks are exposed in wind
Rydal Hall and the Grot
Between Grasmere and Ambleside, on the 555 and 599 routes. The Grot is a little stone summer house built in 1668 to frame Rydal Falls through its window, and it's free (donations welcome). The gardens and estate are open daily all year, and the Old School Tea Shop does soup, sandwiches and cake.
While you're in Rydal: Rydal Mount, Wordsworth's last home, is currently closed while the Wordsworth Trust carries out surveys and plans its future, so don't drive there expecting to get in.
- Price
- Grot and gardens free; donations welcome
- Parking
- Day parking at Rydal Hall, ask at reception for charges; not guaranteed
- Toilets
- Not listed; ask at reception
- Check first
- Dogs welcome on leads; the Grot is open in daylight only
Parking in Grasmere and the bus instead
Grasmere's car parks are small and they fill. Red Bank Road (77 spaces, run by Westmorland and Furness Council) was £2.60 an hour, £5.80 for three hours and £10.60 all day when we checked for our parking guide, and it takes cards and phone only, no cash. Stock Lane, near the village entrance, is pay and display every day from 8am to 8pm, with PayByPhone reference 7261. Dove Cottage has its own car park at £5 for up to four hours and £8 all day, which is the cheapest full day in the village if you're going to the cottage anyway.
The 555 and 599 buses
The 599 runs Grasmere, Rydal, Ambleside, Brockhole, Windermere and Bowness, daily all year according to the council's timetable page. The 555 links Keswick, Grasmere, Ambleside, Windermere, Kendal and Lancaster. Both are Stagecoach.
Park once in Windermere or Ambleside and get the bus to Grasmere, and you skip the circling. Or park in Grasmere, walk the lake and Rydal Water, and bus back from Rydal.
- Price
- Stagecoach single fares; check the current cap and day tickets with the operator
- Parking
- Not needed; that's the point
- Buggy access
- Not listed; ask the driver
- Check first
- Winter timetables run until the summer timetable starts in spring
Things to do in Grasmere with kids, by age
- Under 4: White Moss Common on the flat path, ducks at the lake edge, gingerbread, home before nap time.
- Ages 5 to 8: Rydal Cave from White Moss, a rowing boat at Faeryland if it's open, the Stranger Folk app at Allan Bank this autumn.
- Ages 8 and up: Easedale Tarn, then Helm Crag on another day, and Dove Cottage's Twilight Tales at half term.
- Teenagers: Helm Crag, and the Ghost Story! Halloween Late on 31 October if they're old enough.
Rainy day? Allan Bank, Dove Cottage and the Heaton Cooper Studio will fill a morning between them. After that, honestly, drive or bus to Ambleside or Keswick, where there's more under a roof.
Grasmere or Ambleside?
Ambleside is the town, with more shops, more places to eat and the Windermere boats at Waterhead. Grasmere is the village, quieter in the evening, closer to the fells, and better for walking straight out of the door. For a day trip I'd pick Grasmere for walks and Wordsworth, and Ambleside if it's wet. They're a short bus ride apart on the 555 or 599, so you don't really have to choose.
When to go
October is a good month for it. The bracken goes orange, the summer crowds have gone, and there's a half term programme at Allan Bank and Dove Cottage. December brings Christmas Spirits! at Dove Cottage and Regency Christmas and Dorothy's Birthday on 19 December (decorating gingerbread from Dorothy Wordsworth's own recipe, which is about as Grasmere as an event can get). Spring brings the daffodils at the Wordsworth Daffodil Garden. High summer is beautiful and rammed. If you only have a Sunday or a Monday, remember Dove Cottage is closed both days.
See what's on in The Cumbrian AlmanacGet the next edition free
Free, and you choose: the family weekend edition on Friday mornings, the grown-up Sunday edition on Sunday evenings, or both.
- The weather call for the weekend, made for you
- Every event checked against the organiser and linked
- One proper adventure each edition, with parking and toilets
No spam, no ads. Unsubscribe from any email with one click. Privacy
Questions people ask
Is Grasmere worth visiting?
Yes, if you go early or outside the summer holidays. In a small area you get Dove Cottage, Allan Bank, the gingerbread shop, Wordsworth's grave and easy lake walks, plus Easedale Tarn and Helm Crag for bigger legs.
What is Grasmere famous for?
William Wordsworth, who lived at Dove Cottage from 1799 and is buried at St Oswald's, and Grasmere Gingerbread, invented by Sarah Nelson in 1854. The lake's island also helped inspire the founding of the National Trust.
Does Grasmere have a lake?
Yes. Grasmere lake is about 1.5 km long and 640 m wide, with one island, and you can hire rowing boats at Faeryland on Red Bank Road. Powered boats aren't allowed.
Things to do in Grasmere with kids?
Try the flat Miles without Stiles path at White Moss Common, the walk to Rydal Cave, rowing boats at Faeryland, and the Stranger Folk app adventure at Allan Bank this autumn. Dove Cottage runs Twilight Tales for families on 21, 26 and 27 October 2026.
Where do you park in Grasmere?
Red Bank Road (cards and phone only, £10.60 all day when last checked) or Stock Lane near the village entrance (pay by phone code 7261). Dove Cottage's own car park is £8 all day.
Is Dove Cottage open on Sundays?
No. Wordsworth Grasmere lists Dove Cottage, the museum, shop and cafe as open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm.
Is Rydal Mount open?
Not at the moment. The Wordsworth Trust says Rydal Mount is closed while surveys, conservation assessments and planning are done, and points visitors to Dove Cottage instead.
Grasmere or Ambleside?
Grasmere for walks from the door, Wordsworth and a quieter evening; Ambleside for shops, places to eat and boats on Windermere. The 555 and 599 buses link them.
Sources and further reading
Facts checked against these pages on Sunday 4 October 2026. Opening times and prices change, so confirm with the venue.
- Wordsworth Grasmere: plan your visit
- Wordsworth Grasmere: Rydal Mount
- National Trust: Allan Bank and Grasmere
- Grasmere Gingerbread: our shop
- Heaton Cooper Studio
- Visit Lake District: Mathilde's Cafe
- Faeryland Grasmere
- Lake District National Park: White Moss Common Miles without Stiles
- Lake District Tourism: White Moss, Rydal Water and Caves to Grasmere
- Car Free Walks: Easedale Tarn from Grasmere
- Wikipedia: Helm Crag
- Wikipedia: Grasmere (lake)
- Wikipedia: St Oswald's Church, Grasmere
- Parks and Gardens: Wordsworth Daffodil Garden
- Rydal Hall: the Grot
- Visit Lake District: Old School Tea Shop at Rydal Hall
- Visit Lake District: Stock Lane car park
- Westmorland and Furness Council: bus 599
- Westmorland and Furness Council: bus 555
- Visit Cumbria: rushbearing
- Grasmere Lakeland Sports and Show
