1. GREAT LANGDALE AND LITTLE LANGDALE
8.3 miles / 13.4km / 450m total ascent / 4 hours Overlooked by the towering spires of the famous pikes, Langdale is spectacular at any time of year, but in the winter months, the snowfall on the cirque of summits makes them appear twice their usual height. Snow magnifies what little light is available, bringing great vibrancy to the greens, greys and rust-red palette of the fells.
This circular walk starts with a short, sharp climb but soon levels out to skirt the foot of Side Pike and slowly descend into Little Langdale.
1 Start at the pay and display car park at the legendary hiker’s inn, the Old Dungeon Ghyll, and walk back to the end of the driveway to the T-junction. Follow the track through the National Trust campsite, then take the footpath to the right, over a bridge, through a kissing gate into the woods.
Climb through the wood and another kissing gate onto the lower slopes of Side Pike. Continue parallel to the road to a ladder stile at the top of the pass, then descend the rocky path through quite craggy terrain to reach a gate on the edge of a conifer plantation. Blea Tarn comes into view on your left and the path skirts the edge of this pretty body of water. Look out for red squirrels in the trees and carry on to the SW corner of the tarn, then follow the beck as it descends quite steeply via a series of waterfalls through a craggy gulley for around 200 yards until the beck falls away left, into an innaccessible cleft.
Cross the tributary and veer slowly right across the boggy ground towards the Ting Mound – site of an ancient elders’ meeting place. Join the unfenced road and turn left downhill, winding up at Fell Foot Farm. Follow the road as it winds right and then left around the farm and take the little stone bridge on the right.
2 Cross the bridge over the River Brathay, passing Bridge End Farm before climbing up a track skirting the base of Low Fell below the quarries at Tilberthwaite. Follow the track past the eastern end of the tarn, crossing the River Brathay at Slater’s Bridge.
3 The path heads up a steep little knott just before turning left along the lane to a junction with the main road. Cross the main road and take the track past Dale End Farm, descending through a gate into the woodland. Stay on the track until it joins the B5343 Langdale Road on the outskirts of Elterwater, where a short detour to the Britannia Inn may be in order.
4 From Elterwater, pick up the track running along the western bank of the Langdale Beck and follow it upstream, crossing a wooden footbridge that ends up almost in the beer garden of Wainwright’s Inn at Chapel Stile. Continue along the Cumbria Way through Bayes Brown campsite, past Thrang Farm and, roughly following the beck along its southern bank, head back up Langdale.