The Lake District by train
Four Cumbrian stations put you within walking distance of a fell, and they are not the four you would guess. Ravenglass reaches 26 of them and has no bus we hold; Penrith reaches none on foot at all and has the three services that matter. This page is the comparison, because the number only means something next to the others.
| Station | Fells on foot | Nearest | Buses meeting it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windermere | 5 | 0.1 km | 27 stops · 505, 508, 516, 555, 599 |
| Staveley | 6 | 0.5 km | 4 stops · 555 |
| Penrith | 0 | — | 6 stops · 508, 509, X4 |
| Ravenglass | 26 | 0.1 km | none we hold |
Windermere WDM
The branch-line terminus, and the busiest interchange in the Lakes: more buses meet it than meet any other station in Cumbria.
| Fell | To the start | Ascent to the start |
|---|---|---|
| Orrest Head | 0.1 km | — |
| Grandsire | 3.1 km | 118 m |
| School Knott | 3.1 km | 118 m |
| Unnamed top (School Knott) | 3.1 km | 118 m |
| Brant Fell | 3.9 km | 140 m |
27 bus stops within 44 m of the platform, on 505, 508, 516, 555, 599. Each fell page says how far its start is from the nearest stop on that service.
Staveley SVL
A request stop on the Windermere branch that puts you straight onto the Kentmere fells, with more fells nearer to it than to any other station.
| Fell | To the start | Ascent to the start |
|---|---|---|
| Brunt Knott | 0.5 km | — |
| Reston Scar | 0.8 km | — |
| Brunt Knott South Top | 0.9 km | — |
| Hugill Fell (Wainwright summit) | 0.9 km | — |
| Potter Fell | 0.9 km | — |
| High Knott | 2.8 km | 76 m |
4 bus stops within 265 m of the platform, on 555. Each fell page says how far its start is from the nearest stop on that service.
Penrith PNR
The eastern gateway. Nothing is walkable from the platform, and that is not the point: three bus services meet it and they reach Ullswater and the northern fells.
Nothing within 5 km on foot. That is the honest answer here, and it is why the buses matter more at this station than at any other on the list.
6 bus stops within 45 m of the platform, on 508, 509, X4. Each fell page says how far its start is from the nearest stop on that service.
Ravenglass RAV
A two-leg journey and the best of them. Change to the Ravenglass & Eskdale narrow-gauge line and Dalegarth reaches more fells on foot than any other station in Cumbria.
The second leg. Those fells are reached from Dalegarth, not from the main-line platform: you change onto the Ravenglass & Eskdale, a narrow-gauge line that does not appear in a National Rail timetable. Check its own timetable, and note that it does not run every day of the year.
| Fell | To the start | Ascent to the start |
|---|---|---|
| Boat How | 0.1 km | — |
| Illgill Head | 0.1 km | — |
| Whin Rigg (Wasdale) | 0.1 km | — |
| Scafell | 2.8 km | 86 m |
| Slight Side | 2.8 km | 86 m |
| Eskdale Fell - Whinscales | 2.9 km | 86 m |
| Great How - Eskdale Fell | 2.9 km | 86 m |
| Kepple Crag | 2.9 km | 86 m |
| Whin Crag (Eskdale) | 2.9 km | 86 m |
| Rough Crag (Birker Moor) | 3.9 km | 260 m |
| Water Crag | 3.9 km | 260 m |
| White Pike (Birkby Fell) | 3.9 km | 260 m |
| Woodend Height | 3.9 km | 260 m |
| Yoadcastle | 3.9 km | 260 m |
…and 12 more within 5 km.
No bus we hold. Our stop coordinates cover eleven services and none has a stop within 400 m of here. That is a limit of our data, not a statement that no bus calls — so we are not telling you there is none.
What this page does not tell you
No train times, and no “can I do it in a day”. That needs the first arrival and the last departure, which come from the national timetable feed we have not yet wired in. Everything above is geography and it does not change with the timetable; the times are the part that would, and we would rather say nothing than guess them.
- Distances are to the start of the walk, on mapped paths — not to the summit. Dalegarth is 2.8 km from where a Scafell walk begins; the mountain is a full day beyond that.
- A measurement is not a recommendation. A 4 km walk-in before the hill is a real decision, not a detail.
- Five stations are deliberately absent. Carlisle, Whitehaven, Ulverston, Arnside and Oxenholme reach no fell within 5 km on foot and meet no bus we hold, so there is nothing here we could honestly say about them.
Buses answer the other half of this question, and there are far more of them: the bus map shows which of the 598 fells a bus reaches, with the walking distance to each stop.