Grasmere Gingerbread & Hiking Easedale Tarn

Thursday, May 29, 2025

I accidentally overslept on this morning and woke up at 7:42 am. I made myself minimally presentable and headed down to the café for breakfast.

My plan for this morning was to do some shopping!

Sarah Nelson's Grasmere Gingerbread is an institution. Sarah Nelson invented the gingerbread in 1854 and it's been going since then. I had noticed on previous days that the line was out the door and down the street. I decided to go there right after they opened and I was able to walk right in. The girls working the counter were wearing bonnets and aprons like olden times. The smell is gorgeous and it wafts into the road. Buttery, cinnamony deliciousness.

I mentioned in a previous post that I had visited Grasmere very briefly in 2010. We definitely stopped and got some gingerbread then and I remember how different it tasted than I expected.

Here is a pic of what the gingerbread looks like.

It's about the size of a graham cracker and its got a crumbly outer coat. The texture is really nice. It's chewy but also melts in your mouth. The taste itself is hard to describe. It's definitely got that molasses taste to it. As someone who has only had gingerbread in this context, I'm not sure how to compare it to anything. I liked it, but didn't need to eat a ton. I think I had one piece and brought the rest home to the US so that Philip could try it. It would be good with vanilla ice cream.

After that, I think I went into every shop in Grasmere to see what was offered. It's quite a touristy town, but I enjoyed looking around. At a secondhand shop, I found another little cottage to add to my collection (below). At a different shop, I bought a blue and white teapot ornament that matches my blue/white Christmas tree perfectly.

I went back to my room and sat around for a bit, seeing what the weather would do. It was raining steadily the whole time I was shopping. It continued, then it would let up, then it start up again, then it would slow down some. I decided after a while that I couldn't sit around all day, so I went out and started a hike to Easedale Tarn. Here are some countryside photos right outside of Grasmere. 

This is where I ran into some folks who were turning around, saying that the road was washed out. I wasn't really sure where to go from here, but I guess I started on a different route using Google Maps.

I was headed up this particular mountain (below).

I did creep a little on some houses on this walk. The charm of where these people get to live... they are lucky.

Parts of this walk were obviously very wet and even flooded.

I encountered lots of sheep. They are so cute. You are walking through their habitat (and dodging lots of droppings). This isn't trespassing, actually. There are "roaming" laws in England which make the majority of the countryside open for walkers.

Ugh these photos make me want to go back so badly.

Earlier in this hike, I had run into a young family (one that had told me the way was washed out). I ran into that family again at this point and they saw me setting up my tripod to take a photo of myself with the waterfall in the background. The young boy (probably 7 or 8 years old) really wanted to take the photo for me; his dad somewhat protested and I was like, "Nah, it's all good!" The dad said he could take another photo for me if the boy's picture didn't turn out. But the boy's picture was absolutely awesome! Look! He did so good.

Kept going up and up, trudging through probably a half inch of water continuously running down the hills.

This view was amazing. The sound was so peaceful even though there is clearly a lot of force behind this amount of water. I think this waterfall is actually called Sour Milk Gill.

I could see the family from earlier making their way further up the hill, past the waterfall, and over the other side. It looked quite steep and things at this point were getting more and more slippery. As mentioned before, the path was flooded with about a half inch of water. To make it all the way to Easedale Tarn would've been another 30 minutes, which I would've enjoyed... but I just wasn't sure what type of terrain and slipperyness I was getting myself into. And the rain was certainly not letting up. So I turned around.

At about this point, I dropped my phone on the ground and into the half inch of running water! I was so scared that it was gonna malfunction because how would I live without my phone?! How would I even find my way back to Grasmere?! Where in Grasmere would I get a new one? (I wouldn't... I'd have to get to Ambleside somehow.) I got a notification letting me know there was water in the charging port, but other than that, it seemed fine! Whew. I did run the hair dryer on it for a while (and on my shoes and backpack) once I got back. A couple of my videos from right after I dropped it do have strange audio to them.

Grateful that my phone didn't immediately stop working, I made my way back down. This was the hardest part because it was quite slippery and steep at points. Lots of slow, strategic stepping.

I hung out in my room for a bit and then headed back out for dinner at Travellers Rest, which was a 20 minute walk outside of Grasmere.

I had a pinot grigio and their peach, pecan, and gorgonzola salad and it was good! There were about four different dogs at the table on my right, so I enjoyed watching and smiling at them throughout my meal.

Walked back into Grasmere with this wonderful view.

Stopped at a cemetery because I love a cemetery. The weather was still somewhat rainy with low clouds and a general Halloween vibe to it. My favorite. (My favorite other than a sunny, 75 degree day. 😉)

Another pretty waterway within Grasmere.

This was my last day in Grasmere. My visit to the Lake District went fast! It was time to head back into London. I was sad to leave this beautiful part of the country, but also ready for the big city.