Grasmere in general > Reviews > Wordsworth lived here a long time ago .

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money	Good
Sightseeing	Excellent
Shopping	Good
Nightlife	Average
Ease of getting around	Average

Advantages:	pretty place,  lots of interesting places about Wordsworth
Disadvantages:	touristy

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Grasmere.

I may not have been to Grasmere recently but in my lifetime I have visited many times both for day visits and for holidays in the area.
Grasmere is a tiny village in the Lake District, Cumbria.
Grasmere is well known as the place where William Wordsworth, the poet lived from 1799 to 1808 in a house called Dove cottage on the edge of the village. He also lived in other properties in the village, Dove cottage is open to the public and next to it is a Wordsworth museum. William Wordsworth and his wife Mary are both buried in St Oswald's church.
Sadly to say because of the links to Wordsworth this village has become a little touristy with many gift shops places to eat and places to stay. However Grasmere with its pretty stone cottages is a pleasant village for a stop over and visits.

We visited because we were in the area on a walking and exploring holiday. The Lake Grasmere is to the south of the village. You can hire boats on the lake. There is a small island in the lake, not sure if you can visit it now, I think you can. . There are some easy low flattish walks around the lake, if you want a more challenging walk then Scafell Pikes, Helvellyn, Skiddaw and the Langdale Pikes are nearby. It has a long time since I have walked these . Wish my foot was better I would love to be up on the tops, trouble is these walkin routes are so popular at peak times that you do see a lot of people on the walks and There is concern about soil erosion on some tracks. If you are watching the Wainwright series on TV this is one of the areas he walked on

If you are a bird watcher the countryside around Grasmere is good for birds and Red squirrels, butterflies well as with most northern sites it's a bit chilly for a lot but one of interest is the mountain ringlet
The plants of this area are interesting, there are a wide variety of ferns and primroses snowdrops and blue balls are so pretty in the spring I could not write a review on Grasmere with out mentioning daffodils the daffodils Wordsworth wrote about are wild daffodils growing by Ullswater in 1807. A garden of daffodils has been created near the church to honour his poem. Sadly this year apparently daffodils have been blooming too early and the display will not be so good in April for Easter when everyone expects them to be at their best, I have heard rumours that they are going to "plant a few plastic fake daffs, hmmmmmmmmm " Any way to finish my review a few lines of the Poem daffodils by William Wordsworth.

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.