Many walkers visit Glenridding intending to walk the high fells such as Helvellyn, but then find that the weather makes such a walk unsafe or unpleasant.

This low-level walk provides a suitable alternative and is great for fine weather too.

The walk visits a peaceful tarn, explores an impressive glacial valley and offers spectacular views over Glenridding and Ullswater.

Route Description

1. Exit the car park, turn right to cross Glenridding Bridge then immediately right alongside the beck on the right. Turn left onto the uphill footpath signed Lanty’s Tarn. After the path leaves woodland turn left and make the steep climb up to a viewpoint with a bench. Go through a gate ahead and pass the peaceful Lanty’s Tarn, named after Lancelot Dobson, a local landowner. It was used for fishing and collecting ice: the entrance to an ice house can be seen below the dam.

2.Descend the stony path towards a wall on the left, go through the gate next to the wall and turn left. Descend the grassy slope to a gate then walk along the lane across Grisedale Beck. At the junction, turn right and go through a gate. The next 1.5 miles of the walk simply follows this lane along Grisedale, whose name comes from Old Norse and means the valley where young pigs graze. Pass to the right of the attractive farmhouse of Elm How and continue along the stony track. After passing woodland, look out for a wooden footbridge to your right: this is your target; the path leading to it branches off to the right of the main path and is easily missed.

3. Cross the footbridge and walk uphill for 250 yards then turn right onto the better path. The path crosses a bridge over Nethermostcove Beck, which has attractive waterfalls, and continues for another 1.6 miles below Grisedale Brow. On reaching Brownend Plantation leave the main path to the left and walk uphill through the woodland and out through a high gate on the far side. Follow a grassy path ahead to go through a gate above the top left corner of woodland. Continue ahead and turn left onto a main stony path. Follow the main path offering spectacular views over Glenridding (whose name means ‘bracken valley’) and Ullswater (‘Ulf’s lake’) to cross a footbridge over Mires Beck.

4. Turn right onto the main path descending to Glenridding Beck then turn left. The building on the left houses a modern hydroelectric power turbine. It supersedes a third power station initially built for Greenside lead mines, which operated between 1825 and 1961. Electricity was introduced to the mine in the 1890s, and it became the first metalliferous mine in Britain to use electric winding engines and an electric locomotive. Cross Rattlebeck Bridge and at the road junction turn left, go uphill for 70 yards then turn right onto a track. Keep right to go through a gate and along a signed footpath behind a house and leading across a field down to the north side of the car park in Glenridding. Walk ahead through the parking areas to return to the Tourist Information Centre where the walk began.