Holme Wood and Loweswater

Holme Wood

Route: Holme Wood and Loweswater 

Area : Western Lake District

Date of walk: 7th November 2025

Walkers: Andrew and Gilly

Distance:  4.3 miles

Ascent:  600 feet

Weather: Cloudy with bright intervals

Today’s walk was a slightly longer version of our walk to Loweswater from Fangs Brow earlier this year. Fangs Brow is set in an elevated and quite remote position on the western edge of the Lake District. There are several roadside parking spaces at the start of the walk. We followed the obvious track, signposted for Loweswater, and set off along open moorland. As on the last occasion, we followed the route in an anti-clockwise direction in order to keep the best views ahead as we walked. The track is known as the Old Coffin Road from Loweswater to St Bees (the description is probably fanciful but the name has stuck)

Before long Loweswater appeared. The views become better and better on the approach to Holme Wood, and from a well positioned bench along the way there’s a superlative view over Loweswater to Crummock Water. We were fortunate that a few patches of sunlight illuminated the wonderful autumn colours in the woodland below

We continued along the terraced path, which involves a few ups and downs, until we came to a gate leading into Holme Wood, owned by the National Trust. We followed a slanting path down through the wood. Sadly the National Trust has been obliged to carry out forestry operations here by felling all larch trees within 100m of a tree infected by the disease Phytophthora ramorum. Larch made up 75 per cent of the woodland and so the felling has been quite extensive, especially in the upper parts of the woodland. Nature will heal the wounds in due course, but the initial part of the descent is through a recently felled area. On the positive side this has opened up new views over Loweswater and the fells around it

We turned left at a junction in order to visit Holme Force. The waterfall was in good form following recent heavy rain. The path eventually brought us down to the head of Loweswater (the lake is unusual as it drains into lakeland rather than away from it as would be expected). It seemed a shame to leave Holme Wood when the autumn colours were at their best, so we walked back into the wood and around the shore of Loweswater. We left Holme Wood and followed a path through fields above Jenkinson Place as far as Iredale Place, where we turned left to walk uphill. The path brought us back to the old coffin road and from here we retraced our steps back to the start

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