Wansfell Pike and Ambleside

Start: The Queen's Head, Town Head, Troutbeck, Windermere, Cumbria LA23 1PW

(S/E) From the car park entrance of The Queens Head, turn right along the pavement briefly, then cross to a kissing gate. Turn right and follow a permitted path parallel to the A592 along the top of two fields.

(1) When you meet a road turning off the right of the main road. Cross the road carefully and follow the narrow lane opposite (“Unsuitable for motor vehicles/No access to Troutbeck”). At a junction, go straight on
(signposted “Public Way”).

(2) Cross a stream then turn right onto a narrow walled bridleway leading up to the village street in Troutbeck. Turn left past Lanefoot Farm, then right into Nanny Lane (signposted “Public Footpath/Wansfell Pike/Ambleside”). Follow the winding, ascending farm track for ¾ mile.

(3) At a right-hand bend, turn left off the track through a gate at a sign reading “Footpath to Ambleside via Wansfell”. Cross an area of open country and pass through a kissing gate (ignoring a slabbed permissive path along the wall to the left). Continuing ahead, the path winds between rocky hummocks and gradually ascends with occasional steps and slabbed sections to the summit of Wansfell Pike (A).

(4) Go through a gate beyond the summit and take the pitched path straight ahead that drops steeply. The path zig-zags downhill and then passes through a gap in a wall, continuing to a footbridge and into open alder woodland. Follow the path roughly parallel to the stream down to a kissing gate at the end of a track. Carry on in the same direction, alongside the stream, to a stile into a lane.

(5) Turn left along the lane for 250 yards, over a cattle grid and past a house on the left. Turn right to a turnstile at the entrance to Stock Ghyll Park. The path beyond leads quickly to a picnic table with views of the Stockghyll Force waterfall (B).

(6) Turn left and follow a path down through the trees with the gorge on your right. Ignore a path leading down to a footbridge, continuing left of the stream back to the road. Turn right and follow Stock Ghyll Lane down into Ambleside (C). Turn left past the Market Hall along the main road.

(7) After 300 yards, turn left into Old Lake Road. Ignore various turnings until just past a car park, where you turn left along a narrow lane (“Except for access”) with a bridleway sign to Jenkins Crag, Skelghyll and Troutbeck.

(8) Follow the narrow walled lane (ignoring a footpath by a driveway on the right) to a fork, where you take the right-hand lane (signposted to Skelghyll Woods). At another entrance, continue ahead to a bench. Shortly afterwards, enter the woods, ignoring a path off to the right. Beyond another driveway, at another path junction, bear left up the main bridleway to cross Stencher Beck on a stone bridge.

(9) Continue climbing, over rocky ground at times, to a gap in the wall on the right, where a brief diversion takes you to the notable Windermere viewpoint of Jenkins Crag. Return to the bridleway and continue climbing gradually alongside a wall until the trees open up on your right with more views over Windermere. Beyond a gate the track continues to High Skelghyll Farm, where you join the descending farm drive to Hol Beck.

(10) Cross the bridge and turn immediately left through two wooden gates and climb to a ruined farm building. Go through a couple of gates and ford a couple of small streams, beyond which the track follows the wall to meet Robin Lane.

(11) Turn right, and stay on the track past the start of a path on the right, and a stone pillar (a sighting pillar built during the construction of Thirlmere Reservoir) above you and to your left. The track descends to a fork, where you take the left-hand track, which winds its way down into Troutbeck past some pretty Lakeland cottages.

(12) At the main street, turn left past the shop and carry straight on at a road junction. Shortly after St John’s Well, in the wall on the left, leave the road along a track on the right that skirts past white-painted cottages to a water treatment works. Continue along the track to cross a stream and reach a crossroads.

From this point you are retracing your earlier steps: follow the metalled lane ahead, to the A592. Cross into the track opposite and turn immediately left through a kissing gate onto a permitted path. Follow the path parallel to the road along the top of two fields, then turn left through a gate to the main road within sight of The Queens Head. (S/E)

Start: The Queen's Head, Town Head, Troutbeck, Windermere, Cumbria LA23 1PW
Web www.queensheadtroutbeck.pub
Email info@queensheadtroutbeck.pub
Tel 015394 32404

Notes: Some moderate climbs and a long, steep descent from Wansfell Pike. Walking boots recommended.

Find more information on Walks From the Door.

(A) Despite its modest height, the view from Wansfell Pike (482 m) is spectacular, including the length of Windermere and (clockwise from south-east) the Coniston Fells, Scafell Pike, Great Gable, Fairfield, Red Screes, High Street and Ill Bell. On a clear day Blackpool Tower, over 40 miles distant, is visible.

(B) Stockghyll Force, on a tributary of the River Rothay just east of Ambleside, drops 70 feet in two steps. Numerous viewpoints offer views of the cascades within their narrow, rocky gorge. In spring the ground below the surrounding woodland is carpeted with daffodils.

(C) The town of Ambleside stands at the head of Windermere and offers a range of local facilities, including numerous outdoor shops. The much-photographed 17th-century Bridge House straddles Stock Ghyll and is owned by the National Trust. Or youcould consider a lake cruise from Waterhead to Bowness or Lakeside.