Lakes stop off

If you're travelling north up M6 then I'd park at Staveley (and thereby avoid the bowness/windermere traffic) and do a loop around Garburn pass / Kentmere.  Or High Street. Or even Nan Bield pass

(I'm sure you'll get better advice as not ridden up in lakes for ages and you probably know it better than me)

I’ve never ridden in the lakes so was thinking i will just use my free time to burst that bubble 

Anything from Glenridding would be my recommendation - it’s not too much of a detour from the M6 and has plenty of options both high and low level if the weather isn’t too kind. First choice Helvellyn, ticks all the big mountain boxes and is easy to navigate without too much map faff

Agree with both the ideas above.  If you are really time crunched then I like  Askham as a starting point as it is only 10minutes from the M6.

Over Cockpit to Howtown, up Boredale Hause to a cracking descent to Patterdale, then return via Ullswater Bridleway.  It's a very unbalanced ride as Askham to Howtown ( and indeed back) is very easy and descent to Patterdale is much more steep and UWBW is well gnadgery.... but it's an option if the very high fells are out. And as anorak pointed out to me last weekend you can always make it shorter and easier by heading down Martindale from the  top of Boredale Hause, which makes a mellower route.

No time pressure I’m alone and in my van so don’t even need to go to Scotland if the lakes is good

No time pressure I’m alone and in my van so don’t even need to go to Scotland if the lakes is good

yes I agree with the poster above re Helvellyn.  If you're new to the lakes then you need a big mountain and i agree its easy to navigate around.  Although that said, I still managed to screw it up and took the wrong path so had to hike a bike up Swirral Edge, which was sub optimal