Inspiring walks from Keswick

The beauty of the northern Lake District

Whether by good planning or good luck our recent weekend walking trip to the Lake District was one of the best ever.  The weather was the best I can remember, perfect for walking in the hills.  The sun shone, although the air temperature wasn't too warm, there was hardly any wind and visibility was great.  Simply wonderful.

Staying in Keswick, at the northern end of the Lake District, we planned walks that didn't involve too much driving to get the starting point.  On the Saturday we did a half horseshoe which involved a short drive to Braithwaite of about 2.5 miles and on Sunday we walked from our base, no cars involved.

Here are details of the walks we did:

Walk 1: Grisedale Pike from Coledale Valley

Starting point : Braithwaite village

We headed south west along the Coledale Valley following Coledale Beck (with the beck on the left) and along the valley to a crossing point over the beck just before reaching an old mine (Force Crag Mine).

Walking along Coledale Valley

As you look over to the left there are views of Keswick and the Skiddaw and Blencathra range of hills.

The path climbs, passing a small waterfall on the right to reach a the plateau of Coledale Hause between the impressive Eel Crag to the left and Hopegill Head to the right.  Here we took a breather before heading up to the top of Hopegill Head where the views were outstanding.

Small tarn on Coledale Hause

Eel Crag

To the west we could see Crummock Water to the northwest we had views of Scotland and the Solway Firth, looking back the way we came the views are of the Scafell range. It was beautiful.

From Hopegill Head we turned towards the north and walked along the path up to Grisedale Pike, stopping to watch a hang-glider that had landed on the opposite hillside.  

Once on the summit of Grisedale Pike we could see for miles!

The top of Grisedale Pike

Coming down off the summit, we took the steep and rocky path directly down to Braithwaite.  This is quite a tough descent, picking your way through the rocks and our knees were complaining bitterly by the time we had got down. 

Walk 2: Walla Crag

Starting point: Keswick 

We started this walk from the Grange Country House, which is a beautiful guest house with great view of the fells, located on Ambleside Road in Keswick.

We walked up Ambleside Road then turned right onto Castlerigg Brow before eventually turning right off the main road in the direction of Castlerigg.  This lane continues straight on, passing Castlerigg Hall caravan and camping park and finally comes to a footpath on the right which crosses Brockle Beck and heads uphill to Walla Crag.  

From Walla Crag there are magnificent views over Keswick towards Bassenthwaite Lake and of Derwentwater towards Causey Pike.  Here we took a rest and soaked up the splendid views.

From the crag, the path continues down through woods until meeting the Borrowdale Road.

As we were feeling tired from yesterday's walk we decided to turn back and re-trace our route back to Keswick which gave us different vistas to marvel at.

View from Walla Crag towards Bassenthwaite Lake

Walla Crag view across Derwentwater

If you travel to Keswick and try either of these walks I hope you are as lucky with the weather as we were.