Pack your rucksack and catch the bus to find these great Lakeland walking routes
One of the best things about spring and summer hiking in the Lakes is the chance to walk for hours and hours along airy ridges or through dramatic glacial valleys. It’s even better if you can turn that walk into a linear outing, with the scenery steadily changing as you progress. That unbroken journey from one place to another, rather than a circular route, often ends with a greater sense of satisfaction and achievement.
There are dozens, if not hundreds of possibilities, the five walks featured here providing just a few ideas to get you going. Use the traveline.info website for bus times or to help you plan your own day out.
Walk 1: Patterdale to Troutbeck
The summer-only extension to the 508 bus from Penrith to Windermere opens up several opportunities to stride out on long ridge lines for hours on end. I’d recommend climbing up to beautiful Angle Tarn from Patterdale and then making your way to High Street and Thornthwaite Crag. From there, the roller-coaster western arm of the Kentmere Horseshoe beckons. The views from the shapely peaks of Froswick and Ill Bell are magnificent, taking in a vast panorama that includes Morecambe Bay to the south. The day ends with a steady descent over Yoke and down to the old Garburn Road for some easy track walking to Troutbeck.
Walk 2: Great Langdale
If you’re looking for leisurely walking in spectacular surroundings – and with refuelling opportunities along the way – then Great Langdale hits the spot every time. Start from Skelwith Bridge, grabbing a coffee from Chesters by the River as you set off, and head steadily upstream. A combination of lanes, tracks and trails makes for easy going, with the majestic Langdale Pikes dominating the scene throughout. Stop for lunch in Elterwater, Chapel Stile or further up the dale. The 516 Langdale Rambler bus, which runs all year, can then be caught back to Skelwith Bridge from its western terminus at the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel.
Walk 3: North Western ridges
There are some great places for ridge-walking throughout the Lakes, but their brevity can sometimes be disappointing. Not so in the North Western Fells and even less so in spring and summer when the 77/77A bus makes long, linear routes more accessible. The only difficulty is trying to decide which tops to string together. There’s Whiteside, Hopegill Head, Grisedale Pike, Grasmoor, Robinson, Dale Head, Maiden Moor… Why not climb Whiteless Pike from Buttermere and then continue across Wandope to Crag Hill? After negotiating The Scar and crossing Sail, there’s another decision to be made before dropping to Braithwaite. Causey Pike or Outerside and Barrow? It’s a tough choice…
Walk 4: Through Borrowdale
The 78 Borrowdale Bus runs from Keswick to Seatoller all year round. It’s a lovely journey – beside Derwentwater, past sumptuous ancient woods and into the higher reaches of one of Lakeland’s most spectacular dales. Lovelier still is the walk back. A complex network of rights of way allows you to pick and choose from riverside paths, trails through the heart of the woods, bridleways hugging the fells’ lower slopes, balcony paths and lakeside routes. And that’s just within the dale itself. Climb higher for heather moorland, impressive waterfalls and fabulous viewpoints. Higher still, the eastern arm of the Newlands Horseshoe offers a more invigorating option.
Walk 5: Helvellyn and its neighbours
Is this the ultimate Lakeland ridge walk? I think so. Using the 555 bus to link the start and finish points, walkers can follow an eight-mile-long line of hills and never drop below 2000ft. Stretching from Clough Head in the north to Dollywaggon Pike in the south and taking in Helvellyn, this is one of the best and longest stretches of sustained high-level hiking in the National Park. As you progress, broad, grassy ridges give way to an altogether more rugged landscape, while the pleasant twittering of the skylarks is replaced by the ravens’ harsh squawks, heralding your arrival in the mountains proper.
The writer: Vivienne Crow is an award-winning freelance writer and photographer, specialising in the outdoors. She has written more than a dozen books about Cumbria and the Lake District.
