Cottages · Grasmere
Staying in a Grasmere Cottage —
A Local Guide
From the people who drive these roads every day
Cottages · Grasmere
From the people who drive these roads every day
Dove Cottage
A walkfrom the village
Rydal Water
4 milesthe circuit from the village
Nearest pickup
Amblesidelibrary, 10 min
Private tour
£459per group, collected
Dogs
Welcomein many cottages
Small groups
7guests at most
A private tour from your Grasmere cottage
Book any of our tours as a private tour, collected from your cottage, for your party alone — or have a bespoke tour planned around your stay.
Book a private tour Plan a bespoke tourPrivate from £459 per group · small-group tours from £79 per person
Grasmere has no holiday park, no lodge estate and no resort — its self-catering is a scatter of stone cottages and converted barns in and around the village, and that is exactly the appeal. Stay here and you are living in the middle of the most literary square mile in England, with Dove Cottage, the gingerbread shop and Wordsworth's grave all within a few minutes' walk of wherever you've booked. This guide is for anyone with a Grasmere cottage key in hand.
This is the thing cottage guests get and day visitors never do. Grasmere takes a great deal of daytime traffic — it is one of the most visited villages in the national park — and then, some time after four, it empties. The light goes long across the churchyard, the gingerbread queue disappears, and the village belongs to the people staying in it. If you take nothing else from this guide: do your sightseeing early or late, and spend the middle of the day somewhere else.
St Oswald's churchyard holds the Wordsworth family graves beneath the yews the poet himself planted — a really moving few minutes, and best before nine. The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop, in the tiny former village school beside the church gate, has been working from the same secret recipe since 1854. Dove Cottage is a short stroll on, where Wordsworth wrote most of his best work in his most productive years. And the lake itself is twenty minutes out of the village, with a level circuit that takes a comfortable hour and a half.
Grasmere has a village store, a butcher, a couple of very good delis and the gingerbread shop, which will cover a lot of a week — but not a full shop. Do the big one in Ambleside or Windermere on your way in. The village car parks fill by mid-morning in season, so if your cottage comes with a space, use it and walk everywhere.
The walk from Grasmere to Rydal Water and back is the finest low-level circuit in the central Lakes: about four miles, no serious climbing, two lakes, a cave, and Wordsworth's later home at Rydal Mount along the way (closed since March 2026 for conservation work). Do it in the early evening in summer and you will have long stretches of it to yourselves.
Grasmere is small, which is its charm and its limit — a week here wants two or three days that go further. Your nearest small-group pickup is Ambleside library, about ten minutes down the valley; private days collect you at your cottage.
Any of these can run privately, collected from your cottage, for your party alone. Our nearest small-group pickup is Ambleside library, about ten minutes down the valley.
For a cottage week with no fixed changeover-day plans, a private day is the easy option — collected at the cottage door, no departure time to work around, and a route shaped to your party. Well-behaved dogs are welcome aboard our private tours by prior arrangement, travelling safely in our vehicle crates, which suits the many dog-friendly cottages in and around the village.
Not sure which route suits your plans, or want a day built entirely from scratch — a family reunion, a wedding anniversary, scattering ashes somewhere that mattered? Tell us what you have in mind and we'll design a day around it — see our guide to celebrating a special occasion for ideas, or get in touch directly.
Car-free: the village needs none. For the wider Lakes, the 555 bus is really useful and tour days cover the rest.
Parking: village car parks fill early in season. If your cottage has a space, treat it as the whole answer.
Timing: book tour days when your cottage dates are confirmed — seven seats, and summer fills two to three weeks ahead.
Ages: our tours suit adults and older children, about seven and up.
No — Grasmere's self-catering is almost entirely individual cottages and apartments in and around the village, let privately or through agencies, rather than a single large park.
In the village itself, easily — everything is walkable. For the wider national park you'll want the 555 bus, or a guided tour day, since Grasmere sits about fifteen minutes north of Windermere station.
On private tours, yes: we collect you from your cottage and bring you back, from £459 for the group. For a small-group seat, our nearest pickup is Ambleside library, about ten minutes down the valley; each tour page lists the pickups that tour uses.
Quiet evenings. The coaches leave by late afternoon and the village returns to the people staying in it — which, if you have a cottage here, is you.
Any of our tours, run privately: your own guide and vehicle, collected from your cottage, on the date that suits you, with nobody aboard you did not bring. We don’t run every tour every day, so reserve your day when you book your stay. Already here? Call us on 015394 55507.
Arriving by train? We can collect your party at the station, go straight out on tour, and bring you to your cottage at the end of the day.
With six or seven of you, a private tour costs less per person than the small-group tour.
Book a private tourTailor-made for each booking: an anniversary, a proposal, the places and the people you most want to see.
Plan a bespoke tourSources: Wordsworth Grasmere (Dove Cottage); The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop; Lake District National Park Authority.
Lake District Tours is an independent local tour company based in Kendal. This guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of the places it mentions.
This page was checked by Gillian in .
Photographs are of the area rather than the hotel itself. Tour photographs are credited on each tour page.
