Most lake views in the district are had from the shore, looking in. Ullswater rewards the opposite: an hour on the water, looking out, with the fells rising around you on every side. The boats that carry you have been doing this since 1859 — and the hour aboard sits at the heart of our 10 Lakes Full-day Tour for very good reasons.
The Ullswater Steamers began carrying passengers in 1859, in an age when the lake was as much a highway as an attraction — mail, minerals and mining workers moved along it before tourists did. The fleet that survives is among the oldest collections of working passenger vessels in the world, and boarding one still carries a faint, pleasing formality: a proper gangway, a proper deck, a proper sense that the lake is about to be travelled rather than merely looked at.
Ullswater is England's second-largest lake — seven and a half miles, curving in three great reaches between genuinely mountainous shores. From the water, Place Fell rises straight out of the eastern shore in a single unbroken sweep, and the ridges of the Helvellyn range stand along the southern skyline. Landscapes this vertical behave differently from a boat: the shore views show you the lake, but the deck shows you what surrounds it, turning slowly around you for a full hour. Guests who have photographed Ullswater from every lay-by tell us the hour afloat rearranged their sense of the whole valley.
And then there is the literary pilgrimage hiding inside the boat trip. It was on Ullswater's north-western shore, in April 1802, that William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy walked among the wild daffodils that became I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud — the most famous poem in the English language, born on a lakeshore you will cruise directly past. Dorothy recorded the daffodils in her journal that evening; William turned her prose into the poem two years later. On tour, your guide points out the very stretch of shore as you pass it. It is a small moment, and it lands every single time.
On the The 10 Lakes Full-day Tour, the cruise arrives mid-morning, after the descent from the Kirkstone Pass — an hour on the water placed deliberately between two stretches in the vehicle. The ticket is included in the £169 tour price and pre-booked by us; you simply walk aboard. It changes the rhythm of the whole day: nine hours of touring with a full hour of open deck, moving water and mountain air in the middle of it is a very different proposition from nine hours on wheels. It is also, quietly, the stop guests mention most in reviews.
Since 1859. The fleet is among the oldest collections of working passenger vessels in the world, originally serving mail and mining traffic on the lake before tourism.
Yes — the one-hour cruise is included in the £169 tour price and pre-booked by us. There is nothing to arrange or pay separately; you simply board.
About seven and a half miles long, making it England's second-largest lake after Windermere. It curves in three distinct reaches between mountainous shores.
On Ullswater's north-western shore, in April 1802, walking with his sister Dorothy — the origin of I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud. The cruise passes the stretch of shore, and your guide will point it out.
A warm layer, whatever the season — the breeze on the water runs cooler than the shore. The boats have covered seating as well as open deck, so the cruise runs comfortably in most weather.
The Steamers sell tickets independently, but on our half-day tours you see Ullswater from the shore only. The 10 Lakes Full-day Tour is the one that puts you on the water, with the ticket included.