The Claife Heights — the wooded ridge that rises on the western shore of Windermere — was one of the first places in Britain to be deliberately marketed as a place of natural beauty. In the 1790s a local landowner built the Claife Viewing Station halfway up the ridge: a substantial stone structure with a glazed viewing room set above the trees and angled to take in the lake.
The viewing station fell into ruin in the 19th century but has been partly restored by the National Trust, and the path up from the chain ferry is well signed and only a moderate climb. The room itself is roofless but you can stand at the window arches and get the view that drew Wordsworth, De Quincey and a generation of early Romantic tourists. Beyond the station, paths run all over Claife Heights through Forestry Commission woodland — the Wise Een Tarn loop is a good two-hour walk.