Gowbarrow Fell

Gowbarrow Fell

Route: Gowbarrow Fell

Area: Eastern Lake District

Date of walk: 16th February 2018

Walkers: Andrew, Gilly and David

Distance: 5.0 miles

Ascent: 1,200 feet

Weather: Cloudy with sunny spells

We parked in the main National Trust car park below Aira Force and followed one of the paths up Aira Beck. There are good paths on both sides so it doesn’t matter which side of the beck you walk along, as there are several footbridges along the way

We passed by Aira Force without visiting it as we’ve all been here numerous times before and there were a lot of other folk around as it was half term. Once beyond the main fall we continued to follow Aira Beck and the upper falls, eventually emerging onto open fellside

After an easy climb beside a dry stone wall we reached the summit of Gowbarrow Fell. The views from here are not particularly good, but the great glory of this walk is the views of Ullswater from the terraced path above the lake – one of the best miles in lakeland – and which we’d saved for last by walking the circuit in a clockwise direction. Progress was slower than usual as there was a lot of ice and snow on the paths

We passed by Yew Crag, from where there is a fabulous panorama, and then made the gentle descent back to the Aira Force visitor centre. A great walk and another Wainwright ticked off for our nephew David

For other walks here, visit my Find Walks page and enter the name in the ‘Search site’ box

Click on the icon below for the route map (subscribers to OS Maps can view detailed maps of the route, visualise it in aerial 3D, and download the GPX file. Non-subscribers will see a base map)

Scroll down – or click on any photo to enlarge it and you can then view as a slideshow

Previous walk: « | Next walk: »