Not every Lake District day needs to be an epic. Sometimes you want a proper fell walk and a decent afternoon in a good town, and this is the route that gives you both. Baystones sits directly above Ambleside, reached via one of the most satisfying short approaches in the Lakes, and returns you to the doorstep of one of the better places to spend an afternoon in Cumbria. It’s an out and back, which is unfashionable in hiking circles but makes complete sense here. The town is the point.
Getting There
Start and finish in Ambleside. Park at the Rydal Road pay and display car park (LA22 9AN) in the town centre, it’s the most practical option, though it fills up quickly on clear weekends. From there it’s a short walk to Stockghyll Lane, where a sign directs you towards the falls.
Ambleside is also well-served by the 555 bus from Windermere and Keswick, which makes this an easy car-free day if you’d rather not deal with parking at all.
The Ascent: Up Through Stockghyll Force
The walk begins in woodland, following the path alongside Stockghyll Beck north through the trees to Stockghyll Force. It’s a genuinely lovely waterfall; the beck drops in a long white curtain into a wooded gorge, and in late February when the water is high, it’s properly dramatic. Worth stopping for longer than you think you need to.
Don’t let the gentle woodland start fool you though. Once the trees thin out, the path makes a direct and unambiguous assault on the open fell side above. It’s steep, and although the stone-pitched path takes some of the sting out of it, your legs will know about this section. The views opening up behind you over Ambleside and down towards Windermere are a reasonable excuse to stop and catch your breath though!
Wansfell Pike (482m) arrives first, a craggy, rocky top with commanding views south along Windermere and west across the Fairfield Horseshoe. It’s a genuinely excellent viewpoint, and you’ll understand completely why most people stop here. But press on. From the Pike, follow the wall northeast along the ridge. The terrain becomes grassier, and there’s a section of bog to negotiate (waterproof boots are not optional early or late in the year) before the cairn at Baystones (488m) comes into view.
Baystones is quieter, more spacious, and has something the Pike doesn’t; a clear view northeast towards Kirkstone Pass and the imposing face of Red Screes. It feels like you’ve been let in on something. Standing there on a late February afternoon, low winter light picking out the valley below, I came to realise exactly why you don’t just stop at the obvious summit.
The Descent: Back via the Other Side of the Falls
Retrace your steps back to Wansfell Pike and then, rather than coming straight back down the way you came, cross over at the top of Stockghyll to pick up the path on the opposite bank. It brings you down the other side of the gorge with a completely different view of the falls, looking across rather than up at them. Same waterfall, different perspective, and it stops the return feeling like a chore.
The path drops you back into Ambleside from the north, leaving the town centre right in front of you and the rest of the afternoon entirely at your disposal.
After the Walk: The Temperance and a Mooch
The Temperance Inn on Lake Road may not be the obvious first stop, but it’s well worth the extra few steps to get there in our opinion. It’s part of The Inn Collection Group (a popular group of well-run Lakeland inns) that we’ve stayed with a few times now and consistently rate highly. The Temperance Inn is one of their Ambleside outposts, and our favourite one. It’s not a traditional Lakeland pub in that it’s a little more lively but it is a recently refurbished town-centre bar that leans into its location shamelessly, and is all the better for it. The food is genuinely top notch and varied enough to keep everyone happy, running from proper pub burgers through to bao buns (which is not a combination you see often and is all the more welcome for it). On draft, look out for Fell Walker from Bowness Bay Brewing in Kendal; quite possibly the perfect pint for after a day on the fells, and the name alone earns it. Oh and the hidden beer garden terrace out the back is a genuinely good spot on a dry afternoon.
Plus if you’re making a weekend of it, they have rooms too and would make a great base for a car-free Lakes trip with everything on the doorstep.
Ambleside itself is worth a proper wander after. It’s one of the better outdoor towns in the Lakes with a useful combination of independent gear shops, bookshops, and cafés without tipping over into full tourist trap territory. The Climbers Shop is worth a look if you’re into climbing kit like us. The tiny Bridge House perched over Stock Beck is one of the stranger things you’ll see in a Lake District town centre, it’s free to visit and on your way back to the car park.
On the map
Interests
