Bowder Stone
One of Lakeland's most famous features, this 2000 ton stone, some 30 feet high, fifty feet across and ninety feet in circumference, rests in a state of delicate balance.
Plan Around Bowder Stone
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Bowder Stone Details
It didn't topple down from the mountain side like most visitors assume, as it's not a local rock. It was most likely carried here from Scotland by the glaciers of the Ice Age. It possibly gets its name from Balder, son of the Norse God Odin, but there are no legends attached to this boulder. It had been the idea of the founders of the National Trust that gifts to the nation of places of beauty or of historic interest would form fit memorials to those who had passed away. The president of the National Trust, Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria, and sister of King Edward VII, wanted to make a gift in memory of the King, when he died in 1910. Grange Fell was purchased, which included the Bowder Stone, and a memorial stone to King Edward was placed on the fell. Eight years earlier Princess Louise had performed the opening ceremony at Brandlehow Wood, the first Lake District's first acquisition. A ladder allows you to climb to the top. It is a short, level walk from the National Trust car park on the Keswick to Borrowdale road, near Grange. It is a very popular site for rock climbers. Bouldering (climbing without ropes) is practised, often with mattresses placed below the climber as the more athletic attempt the overhang. Borrowdale, strewn with tumbled rocks, was once avoided by travellers or provoked near-terror in the few who ventured there. The Victorian painter John Atkinson Grimshaw, most famous for his pictures of scenes lit by moonlight, must have visited it between 1863 and 1868, when he was painting the Lake District and collecting photographs of the region. These, and the Pre-Raphaelite paintings in the Leeds collections, inspired the meticulous realism and detail of this picture of Borrowdale's largest rock. Grid Reference: NY 25388 16436 Address (near): Grange-in-Borrowdale, B5289, Keswick CA12 5XA, UK
Difficulty
Low
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Nearby Parks Around Bowder Stone
Compare nearby parks around Bowder Stone when deciding whether to expand the route after this stop.
Nearby Points of Interest Around Bowder Stone
Use nearby POIs to quickly expand your options beyond Bowder Stone while the map context is still fresh.
0.4 mi away
Inside Out Yurts
Two sites at Hollows Farm and Seatoller Farm.
0.5 mi away
Castle Crag
Castle Crag is a hill in the North Western Fells of the English Lake District. It is the smallest hill included in Alfred Wainwright's influential Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, the only Wainwright below 1,000 feet.
0.9 mi away
Dinah Hoggus Camping Barn
A traditional Lakeland field barn on the outskirts of the village of Rosthwaite.
1.0 mi away
Rosthwaite Round, Fells, Tarn and Beck
This path has a little bit of everything that makes this part of England special: woods, fells, lakes, and the charming town of Watendlath.
