Lodore Falls

The walk to the falls

There's barely a walk — which is the appeal for a quick stop. From the Borrowdale road by the Lodore Falls Hotel, a short path leads into the wooded ravine and up to the fall over steps and rocky, rooty ground in a few minutes. It's an easy add-on to a day around Derwentwater, and it pairs beautifully with the nearby Ashness Bridge and Surprise View, or a walk along the lake's wooded southern shore. Note that access has traditionally been via the hotel grounds (often with a small honesty-box contribution), so check the current arrangement locally.

Swimming

Lodore isn't a swimming spot — it's a rocky woodland cascade dropping through boulders, not a pool to bathe in. For open-water swimming, Derwentwater itself is right below, with several shore access points (cold all year — get in slowly and know the signs of cold-water shock). Treat the beck and its rocks with care, especially after rain when the water is fast and the boulders slick.

When to go

More than almost any other Lakeland fall, Lodore is a creature of the weather: go after heavy rain and it's a genuine cataract, filling the woods with noise exactly as Southey described; go in a dry spell and you may wonder where it went. So time it with a wet spell — ideally the clearing day after one. It's a popular, easily-reached spot at the head of a busy lake, so an early or off-season visit is quieter.

The setting & its poem

The falls sit in oak woodland at the very head of Derwentwater, framed by the crags of Shepherd's Crag (a famous rock-climbing cliff) and King's How, where the Jaws of Borrowdale begin. Their fame is literary: the Keswick poet Robert Southey — a friend of Wordsworth and Coleridge — wrote ***"The Cataract of Lodore"* (1820)**, a cascade of rhyming, tumbling words written to describe the water to his children. That poem, and the Picturesque tourists who came to see the "cataract," made Lodore one of the most visited natural sights in Georgian and Victorian Lakeland.

The name & its story

The name Lodore is genuinely old and its origin uncertain — it likely predates the Norse names around it, and has been read as a "low door," the gateway into upper Borrowdale where the valley narrows at the Jaws. What's certain is its literary afterlife: for two centuries "Lodore" has been shorthand for a Lakeland waterfall in full, roaring spate, thanks to Southey's verse.

Family, dogs & accessibility

It's a short, family-friendly stop rather than a walk — children enjoy scrambling to the viewpoints among the boulders — but it is not pushchair- or wheelchair-friendly, with steps, rocks and tree roots underfoot. Dogs are welcome on leads in the enclosed woodland. There are hotel facilities close by and everything of Keswick and Borrowdale within easy reach, which makes it an easy add-on to a lake day rather than a destination in itself.

Nearby

Lodore sits at the heart of the classic Borrowdale round: the Surprise View and Ashness Bridge viewpoints are just up the hill, Derwentwater and its launch piers are on the doorstep, and King's How rises above the Jaws of Borrowdale for a short, view-packed fell. It's one of the easiest waterfalls in the Lakes to fold into a bigger day out.

Getting there & parking

Without a car: The nearest stations as the crow flies are Windermere (25 km away) and Aspatria (26 km away); the 78 stops at Borrowdale, outside Lodore Hotel, 0.2 km from here; the last bus back is 19:43 towards Seatoller Monday to Friday (Saturday and Sunday differ), signed off against the operator’s timetable on 7 September. The bus map has every stop we hold.

Lodore Falls is on the B5289 Borrowdale road about three miles south of Keswick, by the Lodore Falls Hotel; roadside and nearby parking is limited and busy, so arrive early. It's an easy car-free visit: the Keswick–Borrowdale (78) bus stops close by, and the Keswick Launch calls at the Lodore pier on Derwentwater, so you can arrive by boat and walk up.