King's How, Borrowdale

King’s How

Route: King’s How on Grange Fell

Area: Central Lake District

Date of walk: 29th October 2026

Walkers: Andrew 

Distance: 3.5 miles

Ascent: 1,100 feet

Weather: Dull and overcast, some light rain

In search of autumn colours, I decided to revisit King’s How, situated in the heart of Borrowdale. King’s How is one of the three widely scattered tops on Grange Fell, the others being Ether Knott and Brund Fell. Anyone attempting to bag all three would need to traverse some remote and complicated terrain.

I parked in the National Trust Bowderstone car park and from here followed a path into Cummacatta Wood, an ancient woodland which is classified as temperate rainforest. The autumn colours were lovely, despite the light being overcast and rather gloomy. The woodland path gradually curves around the steep crags above – a direct assault on the fell would be impossible for ordinary walkers

After walking through Cummacatta Wood I arrived at the steep rocky staircase which marks the start of the ascent. It’s an energy sapping climb (not helped by a fallen tree which necessitated an awkward detour today), but it’s quite a short one, and eventually emerges onto a flat marshy area known as Long Moss. From here I joined a path which snakes around the rockier sections of the top and leads to the summit of King’s How. From the summit there is a superb view over Derwent Water looking one way and Borrowdale looking the other

A direct descent from the summit is out of the question thanks to the crags on the west, so I followed a narrow path which snakes round the other side of the fell and which descends steeply. Towards the end of the descent high bracken can make the path quite hard to follow at times. Eventually I arrived at a wide and well made path which brought me down to the Borrowdale road.  I followed the road for a short distance – there’s a narrow footpath most of the way – then crossed over at the sign indicating the Bowderstone. I followed this path through the woods, past the massive Bowderstone and back to the car park. During the course of the walk I didn’t see another soul until I arrived back near the start

For anyone following this walk I’d mention that, although the route is only 3.5 miles long, it is likely to take as much time as one twice its length. It’s best to set aside a full morning or afternoon. The terrain is rocky and complicated and there are very few sections where it’s possible to get into a proper stride. Walking poles are a very useful piece of kit to bring along, especially in wet weather when the rocks are wet and slippery

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)

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