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The Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway runs from Haverthwaite at the southern end of the line via Newby Bridge to Lakeside at the southern end of Windermere. It is a former branch line of the Furness Railway and was opened on 1 June 1869.

The main revenue earner for the line then was freight, this being coal for the Windermere steamers, iron ore for the Backbarrow Iron Works, and sulphur and saltpetre for the Black Beck and Low Wood gunpowder works. The traffic in the opposite direction was mainly pig iron, gunpowder, pit props, ultramarine "blue" powder, wooden bobbins (from the Finsthwaite area) and livestock.

British Railways closed the line to passengers on 6 September 1965, and to all traffic two years later. In the late 1960s efforts by enthusiasts to reinstate the line were frustrated by both an unsympathetic British Railways and the local planning authority who wanted to turn the route into a footpath.

The line was eventually re-opened on 2nd May 1973, but no longer connects to the main-line railway system. At Lakeside, however it does still connect to the ferries on Windermere to Bowness and Ambleside.

Lakeside & Haverthwaite railway website: Link

Windermere is the largest natural lake in England. It is a ribbon lake formed in a glacial trough after the retreat of ice at the end of the last ice age some 13000 years ago.

The lake is largely surrounded by foothills of the Lake District which provide pleasant low-level walks; to the north and north-east are the higher fells of central Lakeland. It has been one of the country's most popular places for holidays and summer homes since the arrival of the Kendal and Windermere Railway's branch line in 1847.