One of our most popular tours
Beatrix Potter's Hill Top —
and a Windermere cruise
Her home and her favourite places, then back by boat
One of our most popular tours
Her home and her favourite places, then back by boat
Duration
4 hourshalf day, afternoon
Hill Top
Insideentry included
Cruise
IncludedAmbleside to Bowness
Group
Max 7guests
Departs
2:00pmWindermere · back by 6pm
Pickup
3 pointsWindermere to Ambleside
Rated Excellent by our guests on TripAdvisor, Viator and Google
£99per person, all included
Check availability & book Choose your date · small groups onlyOften sells out. We don't run every tour every day, and Hill Top and the boat are booked ahead — so book early for the afternoon you want.
The boat pulls away from Ambleside pier, the mountains go gold on both sides of the lake, and somewhere behind you is the farmhouse you were standing in an hour ago — the small rooms, the things on the dresser, the places your guide held the book up against. That is how this afternoon ends.
“We’re so glad we weren’t driving.” Our guests often tell us so.
The lanes around Near Sawrey and Hawkshead are narrow and winding. Your driver watches the road, so you can watch her country.
Experienced, qualified drivers who know every lane and bend, in every kind of weather.
No car parks to find, no tickets to buy. Hill Top and the boat are booked and waiting.
Your guide carries the books. At each place, the page comes out and the illustration is held up against the place itself, so you see exactly where she stood to paint it. Nobody else brings her stories alive this way.
The afternoon ends on the water: a Windermere Lake Cruises sailing from Ambleside down the lake to Bowness, about thirty-five minutes, ticket included and booked by us. Your guide sees you aboard, and meets the boat at Bowness with the minibus.
National Trust entry is in the price and booked ahead — no queue, no ticket to find. Seven of you in rooms this small means you stand in them rather than shuffle through them.
In Hawkshead, other tours drop you in the square and tell you when to be back. Ours strolls the village with you — the square, the alleys, and William Heelis's office, now Tabitha Twitchit's Bookshop.
A small minibus and a guide who can hear your question and answer it. In a farmhouse with rooms this small, seven is the difference between seeing it and standing in a line.
Her country is the heart of the Lake District World Heritage Site — inscribed for its landscape, its farming and the writers and artists it inspired. She is one of the reasons it was.
The only tour that brings her stories alive — the books in hand — and the only one that finishes on the lake she loved.Two things no other Beatrix Potter afternoon offers
We collect from three points at set times. The boat brings you to Bowness Pier, where your guide meets you with the minibus to take you back to Windermere — or, if you are staying in Bowness, simply step off and stay. Times are approximate — please be there ten minutes before your pickup time.
Windermere Railway Station
Outside the railway station, Windermere LA23 1AH
what3words ///spreading.inflame.removes
2:00pmback around 6:00pm
Bowness Pier
At the Windermere Lake Cruises ticket office, Bowness Pier, Bowness-on-Windermere LA23 3HQ
what3words ///upsetting.sport.mash
back around
Ambleside Library
Outside the library, Kelsick Road, Ambleside LA22 0BZ
what3words ///treaty.courier.constants
back around
Maps and directions for each pickup point
Tap a place to see it. The route can change with the weather and the roads on the day.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
The afternoon runs the way the day suggests, so the places don't always come in this order — but it always ends on the water.
01
Wray Castle
Summer 1882, aged sixteen
02
Esthwaite Water
Hers — seen from the road
03
Near Sawrey
With the books in hand
04
Hill Top
Inside — entry included
05
Hawkshead
With your guide
06
Tarn Hows
If the afternoon allows
07
Ambleside pier
Where the boat leaves
08
Windermere
Back by boat, to Bowness
Wray Castle, the Victorian folly on the western shore of Windermere. The Potters rented it for the summer of 1882; Beatrix was sixteen, and fell in love with the Lakes for life. You will see it again from the boat.
Esthwaite Water from the road — the lake she owned, and thought the most romantic of them all. Why? Your guide will tell you. Then Near Sawrey, with the books, the pictures matched to what is in front of you. A few unhurried yards that turn a house visit into her world.
The farmhouse she bought in 1905 with the royalties from Peter Rabbit, the rooms small and full of her things, much as she left them. Your guide brings you through the garden to the door, books in hand, and tells you what to look for; inside, the house is yours at your own pace. Seven of you, and time to stand and look.
The square, the alleys, the grammar school where Wordsworth sat, and the old office of William Heelis, the solicitor she married in 1913 — now Tabitha Twitchit's Bookshop, the National Trust's second-hand bookshop. We don't drop you in the village and drive off.
Up to Tarn Hows, one of the most beautiful spots in the district and hers before it was the nation's — when the afternoon has time for it, which it usually does. Photo opportunities at every stop.
At Ambleside pier your guide sees you aboard, the ticket already bought. Then the length of the lake — Wray Castle on the western shore, the woods, the shore she painted — while the light goes gold on the mountains. Your guide is waiting at Bowness.
Rated Excellent by our guests on TripAdvisor, Viator and Google, where you can read every review, unedited.
★★★★★"The boat at the end was the perfect touch. We had spent the afternoon in Beatrix Potter's countryside and then cruised back down the lake she loved, watching the light change on the mountains. Our guide saw us aboard and was waiting for us at Bowness."
Helen & Graham W. · London
★★★★★"I had been to Hill Top before and thought I knew the Beatrix Potter story. This tour showed me how little I knew. Wray Castle — where it all began — was completely new to me, and standing in Near Sawrey with the book open was magical."
Janet C. · Sheffield
The same tour, run privately: your own guide and minibus, collected from your accommodation in Kendal, Windermere, Bowness, Ambleside, Grasmere or Oxenholme, on the date that suits you, with nobody in the minibus you didn't bring. Well-behaved dogs, and children under seven, by arrangement.
With six or seven of you, a private afternoon costs less per person than the scheduled tour.
£481 per group up to 7 guests · half day
Enquire about a private Beatrix Potter afternoonThis tour can be added to, or adapted as part of, a bespoke tour — tailor-made for each individual booking, around the places and the people you most want to see.
Find out about bespoke toursHer country changes with the year, and the afternoon light on the water is the best of the day in every season.
Lambs in the fields around Hill Top — Herdwick lambs are born black and turn grey — and the garden coming into flower as she planted it. The lake full and bright for the boat to Bowness.
Long light — the lake is still bright as the boat comes into Bowness. The garden at Hill Top at its fullest. The late afternoon on Windermere is the moment guests remember.
Tarn Hows in October is the best colour in her country — larch gone gold, bracken gone bronze. Fewer people, and softer light on the water.
Hill Top closes for the winter from mid-December, and winter afternoons are short. Check availability for winter dates.
Every tour is led by one of a small team of local guides — Tim, Gillian, Sandra and Steve — who live in Cumbria and know her books and her country well. The team rotates, so we can't promise a particular guide. We are based in Kendal, our minibuses are licensed for private hire, and we are fully insured.
This page was checked by Phil in .
Photographs: David Smith (CC BY-SA 2.0), Jennifer Petrie (CC BY-SA 2.0), Richerman (CC BY-SA 3.0), Bill Boaden (CC BY-SA 2.0), Son of Groucho (CC BY 2.0), Bill Boaden (CC BY-SA 2.0), Graham Robson (CC BY-SA 2.0), Anthony Foster (CC BY-SA 2.0), David Jones (CC BY 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons. Placeholder photography — to be replaced with our own.
