Great Langdale

Getting there and parking

Without a car: The nearest stations as the crow flies are Windermere (13 km away) and Staveley (18 km away); the 516 stops at New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel (opp), 0.8 km from here; the last bus back is 20:03 towards Dungeon Ghyll Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel Monday to Friday (Saturday and Sunday differ), signed off against the operator’s timetable on 7 September. The bus map has every stop we hold.

The valley has one road, the B5343 from Skelwith Bridge, two lanes as far as Chapel Stile and narrower beyond. On a fine weekend the three car parks at the head fill by mid-morning, and once they have there is nowhere else: the verges are walled and the road has to stay clear for the bus and the farms. The lay-bys on the Blea Tarn road above are for Lingmoor and Side Pike, not for the Pikes.

The answer is the 516 Langdale Rambler. It runs from Ambleside up the valley to the Old Dungeon Ghyll, by Skelwith Bridge, Elterwater and Chapel Stile, and both hotels have a stop; the days it runs and the times are on the bus map, and it is seasonal, so check before you rely on a last bus back. Every walk in this guide starts within a few minutes of a stop.

If you do drive, the car parks nearest the head of the valley are listed below, with what they charge and who runs them. The parking map shows every option in the valley on one map.

What to see

• The Langdale Pikes — Harrison Stickle, Pike of Stickle, Loft Crag and Pavey Ark, the skyline that is on every calendar. Best seen from the road at Blea Tarn, from Elterwater, or from Lingmoor Fell across the valley.
• Stickle Tarn — the tarn under Pavey Ark's crag, an hour up the pitched path beside Stickle Ghyll from the New Dungeon Ghyll. The most walked hour in the valley.
• Dungeon Ghyll Force — the waterfall in the ravine above the Old Dungeon Ghyll, easy to miss and worth the detour.
• Blea Tarn — the tarn on the road between the Langdales, with the classic view of the Pikes across the water and a flat walk round it.
• Elter Water and Skelwith Force — the smallest lake and the riverside path to the falls, the valley's easy walk, from Elterwater village.
• Chapel Stile — the slate-quarrying village halfway up, with its church on the hillside and the quarry still working above it.
• The Old Dungeon Ghyll — the hotel at the head of the valley whose Hikers' Bar has been the end of Langdale days for a century.

Where to stay

The valley has fewer beds than Borrowdale and they book out earlier. This is what is here, from the Ambleside end up:

Each is a business named for the reader's convenience, not a recommendation; check its own site for what it costs and whether it has room.

Pubs and food

The Hikers' Bar at the Old Dungeon Ghyll and Sticklebarn, the National Trust's pub by the New Dungeon Ghyll, are the two at the head of the valley, both used to wet boots. Wainwrights' Inn at Chapel Stile and the Britannia at Elterwater are the village pubs; there is a shop at Chapel Stile. For anything more, it is Ambleside.

The walks

Great Langdale is the start of some of the best-known days on this site. From the head of the valley: the Langdale Pikes round by Stickle Ghyll, Pavey Ark and Harrison Stickle; the full Langdale Horseshoe over the Pikes, Bowfell and Crinkle Crags; Rossett Pike, Allen Crags and Great End up Rossett Gill to the edge of the Scafells; and the Old Dungeon Ghyll pub walk along the valley floor for a day when the tops are in cloud. From the villages: Lingmoor Fell from Elterwater for the view of the Pikes, Elterwater and Skelwith Force by the river, and the Blea Tarn circuit. The full list is below, with the fells each one climbs.