Our drawing of the route, over road and path data from OpenStreetMap. It shows where the walk goes and what it goes through. It is not a survey and not a navigation aid — carry OS Explorer on the hill.
Eight and three quarter miles and four hours, linking the two viewpoints above the lake with the length of Bowness in between: quiet lanes and field paths north of Windermere, then the Dales Way out of Bowness Bay onto the little rocky top of Brant Fell. It starts at Windermere station and can be broken at Bowness Bay, where the 599 bus runs back up the hill every twenty minutes in season. There is drinking water and a bowl outside several of the Bowness cafes, the bay itself is a good paddle away from the boat landings, but the middle mile through the town is pavement and busy with day visitors, and both fell tops are grazed - lead on above the last gate.
An Asian barbecue restaurant and bar on three floors at 18 Ash Street, a minute up from the Bowness piers. Its own dog page puts the welcome on the ground floor: "Our ground-floor bar is a laid-back spot where you can eat, drink, and relax with your pup", with dogs welcome during all daytime hours, water bowls and treats. Small dogs are also taken upstairs in the first-floor restaurant. They suggest coming before 1pm or after 4pm at weekends if your dog is nervous, which is honest advice for a busy three-storey building.
The lakeside circuit south out of Bowness Bay, and the only easy way to get a dog to the water's edge in the middle of town without crossing the launch slipways. From the Glebe Road car park the promenade runs north to the piers, then back south across the Glebe to the point at Cockshott, where the shore path swings round to face Belle Isle. Ferry Nab and the Windermere Ferry slip close the loop, and the return leg is along Ferry Nab Road. Two of the three named sections carry a lead requirement under the council's dogs order, so treat this as an on-lead walk throughout.
A Victorian house on Lake Road on the hill above Bowness, ten minutes down to the bay and the piers. Its own site states plainly that well-behaved dogs are welcome in its pet-friendly rooms, and equally plainly that those rooms can only be booked by telephone rather than through the website. That is the detail worth knowing: an online booking will not get you a dog room. No dog charge is published and the site says nothing about the bar and lounge.
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