Must Do Bowness: 12 Things to Get Right Before You Leave

Bowness-on-Windermere is the lakeside village on Windermere with the pier, the bay, and the busiest few streets in the Lake District — and it's also where most of our small-group tours pick up, right outside Pier 1. Bowness gets more visitors in an afternoon than most Lake District villages see in a week, and most of them never get past the obvious: they photograph the bay, queue for an ice cream, and leave having missed the things that actually make Bowness worth the trip. Here's what to get right.

1. Walk Bowness Bay properly — don't just photograph it

Most visitors stop at the pier, take the photo everyone takes, and move on. The bay rewards a slower pass: walk the full promenade from the Glebe Road pier round to the church, and you get the steamers, the rowing boats, Belle Isle sitting out in the lake, and the fells behind St Martin's — all without paying for anything.

2. Take a lake cruise — but pick the right one

The cruises from Bowness pier range from a twenty-minute round trip to a full circuit of the lake calling at Ambleside and Lakeside. If you've got an hour, the short Bowness-to-Ambleside-and-back loop gives you the best concentration of scenery for the least time. If you've got half a day, the full lake circuit is worth it.

3. See St Martin's Church — and the window that came from Cartmel

Tucked just above the bay, St Martin's is easy to walk past entirely, which is a shame, because it's been at the centre of Bowness for over 800 years — there are written records of a church on this site from 1203. The building that's standing now dates from 1483, rebuilt after the original burned down in 1480. Inside, the east window holds the real surprise: glass salvaged from Cartmel Priory at the Dissolution of the Monasteries, with the oldest panel dating to around 1260. The National Churches Trust has called it among the finest collections of medieval glass in the whole of northwest England — and, remarkably, some of the heraldry in it carries the arms of ancestors of George Washington.

4. Know the difference between Bowness and Windermere

This catches almost everyone out at least once. Windermere is the hilltop town with the railway station. Bowness is the lakeside village with the pier, about a mile away and downhill the whole way. They're often spoken of as one place, but if someone tells you to meet them "in Windermere" and you're standing by the lake, you're in the wrong spot.

5. Visit the World of Beatrix Potter — for the right reason

Housed in a converted Edwardian laundry building on Crag Brow, this is an indoor exhibition recreating scenes from Potter's books — Peter Rabbit's garden, Mr McGregor's vegetable patch — and it's genuinely good for younger children, especially on a wet day. What it isn't is a substitute for Hill Top, the real farmhouse near Hawkshead that Potter actually lived in and drew from life. Treat the two as separate experiences rather than one standing in for the other.

6. Take the car ferry across the lake — not just a cruise

Most visitors only ever board a cruise boat from Bowness pier and never notice the separate chain ferry a short walk south at Ferry Nab, which carries cars, bikes, and foot passengers across the lake's narrowest point to Ferry House on the western shore. There's genuinely been a ferry on this exact crossing for more than 500 years — the earliest boats were simply rowed across — and the route is taken seriously enough that it forms an official part of the B5285 road. It hasn't always been straightforward: in 1635 the ferry capsized and 47 people drowned, the worst disaster in its history. The current vessel, the Mallard, has been running since 1990 and carries up to 18 cars and over 100 passengers at a time, crossing in around 10 minutes.

7. Cross over to Cockshott Point if you've got ten spare minutes

A short walk south along the lakeshore from the bay, Cockshott Point gives an open view back across the water without the crowds of the main promenade — we cover it in more depth in our Must Do Windermere guide, since it's an easy add-on if you're walking between the two.

8. Know where the genuine information centre actually is

The real information centre for this area is run by the Lake District National Park Authority itself, on Glebe Road in Bowness, directly beside the Glebe Road car park and a short walk from the pier — look for the National Park's oak-leaf logo. It's worth knowing this because a separate building up in Windermere, on Victoria Street, also calls itself an information centre but isn't run by the National Park at all: it's a private outlet operated by a local tour company to sell its own tours, not an impartial source for visitor advice.

9. Browse the shops above the bay — not just the ones on the front

The shops directly on the bay are mostly ice cream and souvenirs. Walk one street back and the mix changes — outdoor gear, books, and a handful of independent shops that have been there for decades rather than one season. Worth the detour even if you're not buying anything.

10. Visit Windermere Jetty Museum — the boats most people miss

A short walk or quick bus ride from the bay, Windermere Jetty Museum holds one of the most important single-location boat collections in the world — more than 40 vessels spanning over 200 years of life on the lake. The star of the collection is SL Dolly, built around 1850 and listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest mechanically powered boat in the world still running on its original engine. Less well known: the museum also holds Beatrix Potter's own rowing boat, the one she actually used to sketch from on the water. The current building, a striking £20 million redevelopment by architects Carmody Groarke, opened in 2019 with Prince Charles attending the ceremony.

11. Time your visit around the crowds, not against them

Bowness is genuinely busy on summer afternoons and bank holidays — narrow pavements, full car parks, queues for boats. Arriving before 10am or after 4pm gives you the same village with a fraction of the people. If you're booked on a morning tour, you're already getting Bowness at its best.

12. Use Bowness as your jumping-off point, not your whole day

Bowness is the gateway to the lake, but the lake itself is the point. A short cruise to Ambleside, a walk across to Cockshott Point, or simply having a guide take you beyond the village to Hawkshead, Coniston, or the wider fells is where Bowness stops being a postcard stop and becomes the start of an actual day in the Lake District.

Our tours cap at 7 guests, with all-inclusive pricing and no on-the-day extras — small enough that your guide can stop where something's genuinely worth stopping for, rather than keeping strictly to the clock.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources & further reading

• National Churches Trust — St Martin's Church, Bowness
• Historic England — Belle Isle, Windermere and Bowness
• Westmorland and Furness Council — Windermere Ferry
• Lakeland Arts — Windermere Jetty Museum
• National Trust — Hill Top
• Lake District National Park Authority