This walk is a favourite for us, as it starts and ends from the house and can be done in half a day easily. Taking around 4 hours (less if Allcock Tarn is omitted) it follows the corpse road that connected Ambleside to Grasmere Church. Demands for autonomy from outlying settlements made minster officials feel that their authority was waning, as were their revenues, so they instituted corpse roads connecting outlying locations and their mother churches (at the heart of parishes) that alone held burial rights. For parishioners, this decision meant that corpses had to be transported along what is now called the 'Coffin Route' through difficult terrain and usually it had to be carried unless the departed was a wealthy individual. A coffin stone, on which the coffin was placed while the parishioners rested, still exists and can be found as you walk down the hill into Grasmere. Many of the 'new' churches were eventually granted burial rights and corpse roads ceased to be used as such.

The walk leaves Crow How and gently leads up to Rydal Hall, which was owned by the Le Fleming Family from 1409 and used as a retreat house. The Flemings leased the house on the present site in 1576, came to live here around that time and later bought the house. From that time the family developed their property and estates, with Rydal Hall as their principal seat, until the mid 20th century.Today it is owned by the Diocese of Carlisle.

The path overlooks both Rydal & Grasmere Lake as it winds it's way past Rydal Mount & St Mary's Church. William & Dorothy moved into Rydal Mount in 1813 and designed the layout of the gardens at Rydal, and he often said that those grounds were his office as opposed to the spacious office/writing room in his house. On the high side of the grounds, tucked away from the main house, but overlooking both the grounds and the two nearby lakes, he built the "Writing Hut" where he spent most of his writing time. This hut consisted merely of a bench with a small roof, but it provided shelter from the frequent rains and escape from the house. He lived the rest of his life there until his death at the age of 80 in 1850. The Rash field, next to the churchyard of St Mary's Church at Rydal, was bought by Wordsworth originally to build a house, which never materialised. After his daughter Dora died in 1847, William went down to the field between Rydal Mount and the main road, and together with his wife, sister and gardener, planted hundreds of daffodils as a memorial to Dora.

The path weaves it's way around the fell side on good paths, which in the past couple of year has seen great activity with large many trees having been blown down by strong gales and having to be sawn and cleared from the paths. Nearing Grasmere the tarmac path dips and a sign points to the right giving you the option of continuing down to Grasmere, or turning right uphill to Alcock Tarn (though a stiff pull, the views from the top are worthy of the effort. The path leading back down towards Grasmere is rocky and steep in places and exits via the Swan Hotel).

Refreshments can be found in Grasmere, a small but popular village famous for William Wordsworth and Gingerbread. Wordsworth's most famous dwelling being Dove Cottage where he lived between 1799 to 1808, the house being an inn called the Dove and Olive until the 1790's.

The way onwards continies along the small road past the garden centre. Our favourite way is down towards the lake but continuing along the road for another mile will take you on a broad path which leads you to the balcony path. Either way will take you around the other side of Grasmere Lake, towards Rydal Lake. Rydal Caves (a disused slate mine) can be found along the higher path upon reaching Rydal Lake, but all paths will eventually lead to a back lane which empties at a small hump back bridge, Crow How being found by ignoring the bridge and turning right till the Stepping Stones are reached, from where you can cross and walk back over fields to the house.