The falls after rain
The day after a heavy downpour the gully fills and the water thunders some thirty metres between two crags.
Antiquary — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rosser1954 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rosser1954 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Anthony Foster — CC BY-SA 2.0
This is a waterfall with moods. After a wet night it roars down a chasm between two crags and drenches the rocks at its foot in spray; after a dry week it thins to a shy thread of water that barely earns its name. That is the first thing to know about Lodore Falls, because it decides whether the stop is worth making at all. The beck drains little Watendlath Tarn on the fells above and drops about thirty metres over a boulder-choked gully at the southern tip of Derwentwater, in the Borrowdale valley. The fame here is as old as Lakeland tourism itself: the falls were on the visitors' circuit by the 1770s, and Robert Southey sealed it in 1820 with a poem whose words mimic the tumble of the water, after which they became a fixture of the Victorian tour. An inn has stood in front of them since the 1790s, growing into the Lodore Hotel in 1870; the waterfall itself is in the woods behind it. Getting there: from Keswick, the hub of the northern Lakes, it is about three miles south on the B5289 towards Borrowdale, a ten-minute drive. Pass the hotel to the corner, and on the right a rough path beside a field gate doubles back through the trees to the viewing spot behind the hotel: five to ten minutes on uneven ground, free, with nothing at the gate but an honesty box towards the upkeep of the path. Parking is the real problem. The hotel's car park is for its guests and the roadside lay-by holds only a handful of cars, so the nearest dependable option is the National Trust's Kettlewell car park on the lakeshore (pay and display, filling early on summer mornings), from which a gentle woodland path brings you here in roughly fifteen minutes. In July and August it is easier to arrive by water: the Keswick Launch calls at Lodore jetty about twenty minutes out of Keswick on the run that goes via Ashness Gate, while the boat going the other way round the lake takes nearer fifty, so check which one you board. The fare is £6.95 one way, or £16 for the full circuit. The 78 bus up Borrowdale stops outside, open-top on some summer journeys. For families: the final path is no place for a pushchair, and the rocks at the base are slippery with nothing fenced off, so hold small hands. Do not build a day around it. Treat it as a half-hour stop on a Borrowdale outing with the Bowder Stone and Ashness Bridge a few minutes away, and pick a day that follows rain rather than one that follows a week of sunshine.
The day after a heavy downpour the gully fills and the water thunders some thirty metres between two crags.
The Keswick Launch docks at Lodore jetty about twenty minutes out on the run via Ashness Gate, folding the lake cruise and the falls into one outing.
Robert Southey's 1820 poem mimicked the sound of the water in its words and made the falls a fixture of the Victorian tour.
B5289, Borrowdale, Keswick CA12 5UX
Honestly, not much. After a week without rain it shrinks to a thin thread among the rocks, so if you are passing through Borrowdale give it ten minutes rather than a trip of its own. After rain it becomes a sight worth waiting for, which is why some prefer it to Aira Force, which runs more reliably through the year but is further away and busier.
In July and August take the launch or the 78 bus. The only nearby car park is Kettlewell, which fills early, and the hotel's spaces are for guests. The boat takes about twenty minutes on the run via Ashness Gate and nearer fifty the other way round the lake, so check the direction before you board; outside the season the car is easier and quicker.
