Tucked in between Crummock Water and its own lake of Buttermere, this small village lies in all the splendour of Lakeland scenes, with little but a church and an inn to turn our thoughts from nature back to man.
Yet the Fish Inn has a poignant memory, for it was the home of a Cumberland girl whose fame once went all over England and found its way into verse and drama. She was Mary of Buttermere, known everywhere for her beauty and the cruel tragedy of her marriage. Her story really belongs to Caldbeck, where she lies in the same churchyard as John Peel.
The small plain church of of St James at Buttermere is very attractive, with mucgh fine woodwork. The font cover was given by the children: the ceiling has 16 angels looking down, the altar rails are delicately carved, the pulpit has traceried panels and a vine frieze, and there is a reading-desk given by the old boys of a Southampton headmaster who died on his way to this church.
Small as it is though, the village serves for the two beautifully-placed lakes of Buttermere and Crummock Water. It is the only place hereabouts where there is room for a village, so immediately and steeply do the mountains rise from the shores of the lakes. Between lake and lake is about two-thirds of a mile of flat ground, caused by material brought down by rushing streams being deposited and built up as delta to such an extent that it eventually bisected the original large lake, and over the level strip Buttermere Lake sends its outlet waters by a brook's course to Crummock Water, and Crummock sends them on by the River Cocker to the Derwent.
There is so much of beauty and interest about these close by neighbouring lakes that it is impossible to see them adequately in a few hours. Everyone compares them. Buttermere, the smaller, is much the better wooded on both sides, and its woods give it a softer charm. Both are hemmed in by mountains close at hand, but Crummock Water seems the more overhung, though with one exception ...the Buttermere mountains are higher.
The general views over Buttermere are the more extensive and the best. They include the Buttermere Fells, Hinster Crag, and the descent from the pass; and southward over the lake the bold summits Red Pike, High Style, and High Crag. Down Red Pike come the white, tumbling, vociferous waters of Sour Milk Gill, seen from afar. Red Pike, after a rugged climb, has the best view from these Buttermere hills, and over that way, under High Crag, goes the walking path to the central cone of English mountains, Scafell Pike and his peers.
Buttermere possibly has the preference over Crummock Water, for Crummock looks harder, with Mellbreak, a most aggressive hill for its height, rising abruptly from the shore on one hand, and Whiteless Pike and massive Grasmoor, farther back, frowning wild and rugged. But Crummock Water takes on a softer beauty at its lower end and the shoreline is more varied, while from its upper end tracks lead to Gale Fell where Scale Force leaps 120 feet sheer, one of the grandest waterfalls in the Lake District. And then, of course, there are the attractions of the mountains on either side of Newlands Vale seen to advantage from Buttermere.
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