Windermere the town sits above Windermere the lake — a Victorian settlement that only grew once the railway arrived in 1847, giving the fells a station of their own. It’s the main arrival point for the southern Lakes, and the first walk most people do is the gentle climb to Orrest Head, twenty minutes up, for the view that famously gave a young Alfred Wainwright his first sight of the fells. Bowness-on-Windermere runs down to the water below.
