Lake Windermere

Lake, town or Bowness? (the bit everyone gets confused by)

This trips up almost every first-time visitor, so here's the plain version:

• Lake Windermere is the water — the eleven-mile lake itself.
• Windermere is also a town, but it sits inland and uphill, about a mile and a half from the water — it grew up around the railway station.
• Bowness-on-Windermere is the lakeside resort — the promenade, the piers and where the cruise boats go. If someone says "we're going to Windermere" for the boats, they usually mean Bowness.

And no — the Lake District and Windermere are not the same thing. Windermere is one lake (and one town) within a National Park of sixteen major lakes and hundreds of fells. It's the busiest corner, but it's a small part of the whole.

The facts — size, depth, islands & "lake or mere?"

Windermere is a classic ribbon lake, gouged out by a glacier and filling a long, narrow valley. It's about eleven miles (18 km) long but rarely much more than a mile wide, covering roughly 14.7 km² (5.7 sq miles) and reaching about 67 m (219 ft) deep.

It is the largest natural lake in England — by length, area and volume. The common myth is that it's the UK's biggest; it isn't. Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland is the largest in the UK, and Loch Lomond the largest in Great Britain. (Kielder Water is a bigger reservoir, but Windermere is the biggest natural lake.) So "is Windermere the biggest lake in the UK?" — no; it's England's largest.

On "lake or mere?": mere is an old English word for a lake or pool, and Windermere means roughly "Winandr's lake" — so the name already says "lake". That's why purists drop the "Lake" and just say Windermere. (See our glossary on mere, water and tarn — the Lakes use all three, plus llyn further afield.) Don't worry about it: locals say "Lake Windermere" happily, and it does help separate the water from the town.

The lake has around eighteen islands. The largest is Belle Isle, a wooded, roughly mile-long island with a famous round house. The waters hold a special prize for naturalists — the Arctic char, an ice-age relict fish that survives in only a handful of deep, cold British lakes — alongside pike, perch and trout. And if you're wondering: yes, there's a local "monster" legend, the affectionately-named "Bownessie", fuelled by a few blurry photographs.

Boats, cruises & the ferry

Windermere has been a boating lake for nearly two centuries, and getting on the water is the classic thing to do.

• Windermere Lake Cruises run the historic steamers and launches up and down the lake, linking Bowness, Ambleside (Waterhead) at the head and Lakeside at the foot (where the Lakeside & Haverthwaite steam railway connects). Fares and timetables change with the season, so check their official site.
• The Windermere car ferry is a short, characterful crossing at Ferry Nab, carrying cars and foot passengers between Bowness and Far Sawrey on the west shore — a handy shortcut to Hawkshead and Beatrix Potter's Hill Top. The council runs it without a set timetable and does not guarantee a return crossing, so plan the way back.
• Bringing your own boat? You can — but all powered craft must be registered with the Lake District National Park Authority (an annual registration), and there's a 10-knot speed limit across the lake (6 knots in marked zones). That limit, brought in under the Windermere Navigation Byelaws and effective from 2005, ended the era of powerboating and water-skiing. Sailing, kayaking, paddleboarding and rowing are all popular and need no power registration.

By boat

The two scheduled crossings on Windermere as shapes: who runs each, where it lands and the season, read from the operator on the date shown. Times and fares live on the operators' pages and nowhere on this site.

Walks & fells around the lake

You can't easily walk the whole shore — much of the eastern side is road or private land, so there's no continuous lakeshore path. A full circuit is a long challenge of roughly 26–45 miles depending on the route (the "Windermere Way" stitches one together). Most people do shore sections and viewpoint fells instead:

• Orrest Head — the short, classic climb above Windermere town to the view that famously started Wainwright off; see our Orrest Head route Planned.
• Gummer's How — the easy little fell above the southern foot of the lake, a big view for modest effort.
• Wansfell Pike above Ambleside, and Loughrigg Fell to the north-west — two superb low-fell viewpoints over the head of the lake.
• Claife Heights and the wooded west shore — gentle walking from the ferry or Wray Castle; see our Wray Castle & west-shore route Planned.
• For families, the lakeside parks at Fell Foot and Brockhole and the Wray Castle shore are lovely, easy outings — all in our easy & family walks.

Check the live "Best Fells today" conditions before any of the surrounding tops. The Fells & walks nearby box below lists the closest summits with a full guide.

Swimming, fishing & wild camping

• Swimming — open-water swimming does happen in Windermere, but take it seriously: cold water year-round, boat traffic (stay near the shore and out of the boating lanes), and check current water quality before you get in (see below). It's not a supervised bathing lake.
• Fishing — you need an Environment Agency rod licence, and usually a local club permit or day ticket too, so it isn't "free". Pike, perch and trout are the mainstays (the Arctic char is a protected speciality, not a general catch).
• Wild camping — not permitted on Windermere's shores. The shoreline is busy and largely private; wild camping is only ever tolerated high on the open fells, not by the lake. Use one of the many campsites instead.

Water quality — the Save Windermere story

Windermere's water quality has become a live national issue, driven mainly by sewage pollution, and it's worth knowing the current picture before you swim:

• The problem: in 2024, the storm overflows around the lake discharged untreated sewage for about 6,327 hours — United Utilities' worst year on record, and part of tens of thousands of hours of spills since 2020.
• The response: the Save Windermere campaign has pushed the issue into the spotlight; in March 2025 the Government set out an ambition for "only rainwater" to enter the lake; and a coalition (United Utilities, the Environment Agency, Ofwat, Save Windermere, the National Park and the council) launched an "Only Rainwater" feasibility study due in summer 2026. United Utilities has committed around £200 million to upgrade the local treatment works and cut spills from all six overflows to a handful a year by 2030.
• Check it yourself: you can see the latest storm-overflow spill data on United Utilities' live map and the Environment Agency's bathing-water and water-quality data (linked in our sources). The situation is moving quickly, so treat any figures as a snapshot.

We've kept this factual and sourced rather than alarmist — but the honest advice is to check the current data before swimming.

Getting there & where to stay

Without a car: The nearest stations as the crow flies are Windermere (3 km away) and Staveley (8 km away); the 6 stops at Bowness on Windermere Ferney Green (near), 0.9 km from here in a straight line. The last bus from that stop: Towards Windermere Rail Stn (6): Monday to Saturday 22:56. Towards Kendal Blackhall Rd (6): Monday to Saturday 15:53; Sunday 22:11. Signed off against the operator’s timetable on 7 September; that is the day we checked, so check the operator’s timetable (opens in new tab) for your date. The bus map has every stop we hold.

The Windermere railway station is the easy car-free arrival, on a branch from Oxenholme on the West Coast Main Line. Note it's in Windermere town, about a mile and a half from the lake at Bowness, with a regular bus (or a 25-minute walk downhill) to the water and the piers. Buses and the lake cruises then link the shore.

For where to stay, it depends on what you want from the lake:

• Bowness — right on the lakefront, in the thick of the boats, restaurants and buzz; the busiest choice.
• Windermere town — quieter and better value, by the station, a short hop from the water.
• Ambleside — at the head of the lake, a good base if walking is your priority.
• The quieter foot and west shore (Newby Bridge, Lakeside, the Sawreys) for a calmer, more rural stay.

Getting there across the Lake District: Buses · Parking map · By train · By boat

Practical & nearby

The lake sits in the LA23 / LA12 area; Bowness and Windermere town have the full range of shops, cafés and facilities. Easy outings take in Bowness, Windermere and Ambleside, the ferry across to the west shore and Hawkshead and Beatrix Potter's Hill Top, and the visitor centre at Brockhole. Over the hills to the west, Coniston Water makes an easy day out.