This is an easy, and pushchair friendly, walk from Buttermere village centre, to the base of Sour Milk Gill.  You can just do a simple out and back, which is just less than a mile in total, or you could combine it with a circular walk around Buttermere itself.  Or even climb to the top of the falls to visit Bleaberry Tarn.

After stopping off at Moss Force, we parked in Buttermere centre. There are 3 car parks, one free parking (GR175171) but with limited spaces, one Lake District National Park pay and display and one National Trust car park.

As we’d had heavy rainfall we decided to take the easy and pushchair friendly walk over to the base of Sour Milk Gill. The path is bumpy in places but fine for a pushchair or kids bikes etc.

Starting from the pay and display car park, walk round the Fish Hotel onto the path towards the lakes.  Follow the footpath and when you get a fork, take the left path which will lead you to the lake.  With the lake in front of you, turn right and head towards the base of the falls.  In times of spate you can see the falls from the village, so you’ll know the general direction!

The falls themselves were spectacular and can be climbed by heading up the path to the south of the falls.  Several people have died attempting to climb the actual falls themselves, please don’t try this and follow the signed path.  We didn’t climb to Bleaberry Tarn today. We headed to Buttermere lake shore and skimmed stones, played Pooh sticks, climbed on trees and even climbed inside trees!

We then took the lakeshore path and headed clockwise towards the tunnel at GR 184160.

You could even do a circuit of Buttermere quite easily (these bits of the path aren’t pushchair friendly). But we headed back and had a delicious lunch in the Bridge Hotel.  There was also another pub and two delicious looking cafes to choose from.

Our walk today was just under 2.5 miles.  The shorter pushchair friendly version is less than 1 mile if you just go to the base of the falls and back.  If you fancy the full circuit of Buttermere that’s approx 4.5 miles.

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