Unforgettable Bus Rides: Route 555
The Main Course: Windermere to Keswick
15 June 2025
ABOVE: Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire 10559 (SN16 OOC), an ADL Enviro400 MMC, passes through spectacular scenery to the north of Grasmere. All photos in this article were taken on Thursday 1 May 2025, unless otherwise stated.
There's a leaflet rack at Windermere's bus / rail interchange in Cumbria. There are, in such an important tourist area, a huge number of attractions to be discovered, and the rack has dozens of slots, nearly all filled.
Lake cruises, castles and heritage railways are all catered for here. There's a theatre leaflet in case you're looking for some culture to top off your day, and thrills on offer through white water rafting, escape rooms or segway rides!
There are leaflets for individual hotels, and guides to the towns of Penrith and Ulverston. There's also, curiously, one for The World of James Herriot, the famous vet whose books inspired the TV series (plural) All Creatures Great and Small. Curious because it's in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, which is about 65 miles away. Still, if you don't try...
But there's nothing in the rack to invite people to explore the region by bus. I'm riding the 555 bus from Lancaster to Keswick, one of Britian's best bus rides. In Part One of this article, I covered the section from Lancaster to Windermere. But, in terms of scenery, that section is merely the warm-up. It's time for the main event. But why is nobody shouting about it?
I first ride the 555 on the Thursday, and I make several trips around the region, but it is the Saturday morning before I discover that there is actually a timetable book, when I find a little pile in a rack on the bus. To be honest, the booklet doesn't even shout "bus" from the cover. Yes, the word "bus" appears twice, but the bus on the front cover is tiny. I would use a picture with a much more prominent bus on it - like the one at the top of this article...?
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To be fair, it's a decent booklet - 76 pages full of timetables with a decent, colourful fold-out map in the back. Unfortunately not all of the buses on the map are featured in the booklet, with advice to "see website for details" in some cases.
It's a good tool to publicise the bus network, but it seems that one has to be on the bus in order to find it. Even copies of the map, if not the full timetables, could be a valuable way of publicising things, but I see nothing, anywhere, except on that one bus (plus a few maps in bus stops).
Maybe the operator, Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire (SCNL) doesn't feel the need to publicise. The service has been busy since Kendal and is getting busier as more people join at every major stop. There is churn at Windermere, but this is going to be a busy run for the rest of the way to Keswick. And it's a weekday morning in the off-season - albeit an uncharacteristically hot weekday morning, given that it's the beginning of May.
A few early and late journeys run into Windermere town and to Bowness-on-Windermere, but the majority just head straight on to the north.
As we pull out of the Interchange, we come to the Windermere Hotel, which stands in a commanding position that gives it oversight of the town's High Street. This High Street is well worth exploring, but will have to wait for another day. The hotel is English Heritage-listed and dates back to 1847.
This is also the starting point for a climb to Orrest Head, reportedly offering one of the great viewpoints in the area, with amazing views over Windermere and the surrounding fells.
This is also popular for being the first climb of famed walker and author Alfred Wainwright MBE (1907-1991), who wrote the seven-volume "Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells", entirely in pen and ink with no typeset material. The 214 fells he describes in the seven books are now known collectively as "The Wainwrights", and the Long Distance Walkers Association holds a register of walkers who wish to record that they have completed all of the Wainwrights (wow)!
We're heading broadly north-west, alongside Windermere itself. The word "mere" means Lake, or pool, in Old English, so to call this "Lake Windermere" would be incorrect, as it would be duplication. Winder is thought to translate as "Winand" or "Vinand's" lake, and this is usually identified with an Old Swedish personal name Vinandr. The town takes its name from the lake.
This next section of route 555 takes us through the village of Troutbeck Bridge before giving us an extended run along the side of the lake itself; As England's largest natural lake. It's stunning.
We reach Ambleside; the name is derived from the Old Norse for "river, sandbank, summer pasture". All buses, in both directions, descend onto Kelsick Street in the Town Centre, where the "Bus Interchange" (actually two bus stops next to each other) is located.
This makes for a busy spot, especially when buses in both directions arrive together, or buses on other key routes arrive at the same time as the 555. Loading and unloading takes several minutes, as significant numbers of passengers leave the bus, to be replaced by similar numbers boarding.
ABOVE: An ADL Enviro400 MMC heads north out of Ambleside, working route 555 towards Keswick, on Friday 2 May 2025.
You may be able to see someone, halfway along the upper deck, with her back to the direction of travel. There are three tables around seats of four on the top deck of the latest batch of MMCs to work this route. The forward seat appears to be unoccupied - quite unusual on this part of this route in my experience!
To the north of the town is Bridge House, which was built over Stock Ghyll, a stream that flows through the town, more than 300 years ago. Now used as an Information Centre for the National Trust, it is Grade I-listed. It is believed to have been built as a summer house and apple store for Ambleside Hall. The building was depicted by the Victorian landscapist Lewis Pinhorn Wood (1848–1918) in his late 19th-Century work "The Cobbler's Shop on the Bridge".
ABOVE: Bridge House takes centre stage in this view in Ambleside. To the left is the entrance to the Ambleside Tap Yard, an old mill yard that specialises in serving "pasteurised brewery-fresh craft beers served direct from six large copper tanks displayed above the bar", as well as pizzas, burgers and delicatessen items. Looks very inviting, and I say that as someone who doesn't drink!
The 555 is paralleled over this stretch by the 599, an open-top bus service that starts beyond Windermere Town Centre in Bowness-on-Windermere. We'll go into that side of the town in a future article.
As well as being a congestion-buster for the 555 (the 599 runs every 20 minutes), it also allows photographs to be taken that are unhindered by windows, clean or otherwise!
ABOVE: The approach to Grasmere, taken from a route 599 open-top bus (obviously!) on Friday 2 May 2025
We pass Grasmere, the lake (again, it would be duplication to call it Lake Grasmere) to reach Grasmere, the village. A trick of the routings here means that the 599 approaches the village from the opposite end to the 555, enabling it (the 599) to turn around, as it terminates here.
ABOVE: SCNL 11573 (YX23 OPA), calls at the "School" stop on Stock Lane in Grasmere, heading south.
Before researching this article, I had never heard of rushbearing. It's an old English Festival in which rushes (flowering plants of the Juncaceae family) are collected and carried to be strewn on the floor of the parish church. The tradition dates back to the time when most buildings had earthen floors and rushes were used as a form of renewable floor covering for cleanliness and insulation.
Grasmere's Rushbearing Ceremony is an annual event, which features a procession through the village with bearings made from rushes and flowers. In this procession there are also six Maids of Honour, a brass band, the church choir, and others carrying their own decorated rush-bearing.
Sounds interesting, and it's certainly a lovely picturesque village.
"The Inn at Grasmere", a bar and restaurant, may date back to 1769, given all of the references all over the building...
ABOVE: "The Inn at Grasmere"
Bus stops in this area carry a reduced-area version of the regional map from the timetable booklet. It's smart and colourful, even if a certain interpretation of it could imply that four routes head down the road west of Ambleside towards Dungeon Ghyll.
ABOVE: You wait ... well, it was only a few minutes, actually ... and two buses turn up at once! A 555 for Lancaster is heading towards the "Heaton Cooper Studio" stop in Broadgate, Grasmere - the stop is named after the business opposite. You may just pick out a 599 behind it - an open-top Volvo B5TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 3 - although its green livery is merging into the background! This is Friday 2 May 2025
Romantic poet and one-time Poet Laureate WIlliam Wordsworth (1770-1850) moved into Dove Cottage in Grasmere with his sister in 1799. He remained in the area and is buried in the church here.
As we reach the main road at the edge of Grasmere, we come to The Swan public house, which was built in 1650 as a coaching house.
ABOVE: The Swan in Grasmere sits on the main road just at the edge of the village. The 555 will turn left here, but not until it has picked up this group of intending passengers at the bus stop right on the junction, one of whom is already making his presence known, even though the bus is still a little way off!
We're heading north now, through some of the highest peaks in the region. Indeed, Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England, is less than eight miles west of Grasmere. The Helvellyn mountain range is to our right, and we also pass Thirlmere, an upland lake and reservoir. It's all beautiful and unspoiled.
We're soon heading into Keswick itself. This bridge sits across the River Greta, just outside the Town Centre:
Retired Secretary Betty Dove, writing about the 555 in the excellent Bus Pass Britain (Bradt, 2011), sums up Keswick as "hardly picture perfect ... [but] a popular centre for tourists visiting the Lakes and blessed with a super range of bus routes". She notes that "canny visitors know that they can often see far more of the region on the excellent local bus services than is possible on tours organised by various tour companies in Keswick".
ABOVE: Main Street, Keswick
Journey's end is Keswick Bus Station, a small interchange outside a Booth's supermarket that has a spacious and welcoming coffee shop! Having left the outskirts of Lancaster, via the fast route, at 0821, we have arrived here just two minutes late, at 1040. Few have come right through from Lancaster, but many have travelled long distances along the route.
There's pretty much a full load to drop off in Keswick this morning, and they will disperse in many different directions - some to explore the town, some to walk / climb further afield, some to find a cruise on nearby Derwent Water, and many to catch one of the "super range of bus routes" that emanates from here.
ABOVE: A selection of SCNL ADL Enviro400s is Keswick Bus Interchange is headed by 10014 (PX12 DLV), on route X5 (Penrith to Workington). Behind is 19276 (MX08 GPZ, right) on route 554 to Wigton and Carlisle, and another, left, working route 78 to Seatoller. All three routes are on my "to do" list!
Including me! Whilst I said there was no "dessert" as such to follow this "main course", there are a couple of other stories to tell about this region, including a trip that starts right here in Keswick.
And I fully intend to return to the Lakes soon-ish, as I've hardly scratched the surface of the region's buses!
This second half of my route 555 article has, hopefully, allowed many of the pictures to speak for themselves. But there's only so much that a camera can capture of this stunning route. If you can get here yourself it's well worth making the trip.
And if you're in Thirsk, and happen to find the Lakes timetable booklet in a leaflet rack next to The World of James Herriot, maybe that's a publicity "win". If you can get a window cleaner to go and do the front upper windscreens on the 555 buses as well, then so much the better!
Excuse me - that looks like my next bus pulling in...