Ashness Bridge & Surprise View
Start Keswick (lakeside)
Getting here Parking: Lakeside long stay car park, Keswick (paid), 0.1 km from the start (straight line). Bus: the 78 stops at Keswick, outside Daleview Hotel, a 350 m walk from this start. Getting there ↓ · Route map ↓
Hardest part Hard steepness: Steepest sustained climb about 26% around the 7.3 km mark.
Before you choose
Daylight & turnaround
Daylight is short from October to February — check today’s sunrise and sunset before you set off, and carry a head-torch and spare batteries. On short days, decide your turn-back time before you start.
See also walking in bad weather and today’s conditions.
Route map
Surprise View
Easy 96%Moderate 3%Hard 1%Severe
Heights on this chart and its high point are read from the track itself (a terrain model sampled along the line, or a GPS recording), so a top can differ from its listed height, usually reading lower.
Free mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap, with SRTM elevation data (switch layers top-right).
The elevation profile is under the map; the stage notes follow.
The walk, stage by stage
Keswick (lakeside) → Finish (13.4 km, 322 m)
If you park at Bell Close in Keswick, its maximum stay is three hours, shorter than this walk: use a car park that allows the whole outing. Depart from the Keswick lakeside, following the well-trodden paths along the eastern shore of Derwentwater through the ancient trees of Great Wood. At Ashness Gate, leave the shoreline and tackle the steep, winding ascent up the woodland trails and minor Watendlath road to reach the iconic packhorse crossing of Ashness Bridge. Push further up the steep tarmac ribbon to the spectacular, unfenced clifftop vantage point of Surprise View, before completing the long loop by descending through the Borrowdale woodlands and tracing the shoreline paths back to your starting point in Keswick.
WaypointsDerwentwater eastern shore, Great Wood, Ashness Gate, Barrow Beck (Ashness Bridge), Surprise View cliff edge, B5289 Borrowdale road.
Decision pointThe vast expanse of Derwentwater serves as a continuous handrail for the majority of the valley-level walking, while the single-track Watendlath road leads from the lakeshore to both Ashness Bridge and Surprise View.
Easy to get wrongWhile much of the 13.4 km distance is a flat valley walk, the sharp, concentrated vertical pull from Ashness Gate up to Surprise View is a deceptively steep lung-buster on hard tarmac and rooty paths. The Derwentwater shoreline sections are notoriously prone to flooding after heavy, persistent Lake District rain, which can submerge the trods. Additionally, the sheer, unguarded rock drop at Surprise View commands absolute respect and careful footing, particularly when the rock is wet or if you are walking with dogs.
If you need to get offLeave the route only by a mapped path from a junction you can identify; do not cut down through the woods towards the road. No way off this route has been checked for this guide. If you plan to use the bus, check the stop, the direction and the last bus before you set out.
GPX track for your GPS or phone. Not yet personally walked
Conditions and timing
Check live conditions in the “From the fells” panel, on MWIS (opens in new tab) and the Met Office mountain forecast (opens in new tab) before you set off.
Getting there and back
Parking
2 more places to park near the start
Positions are approximate.
Vehicles are left at their owner’s risk: we list places people park and cannot vouch for any of them. Take valuables with you and leave nothing on show.
If the parking is full
If the first one is full, these overlap least in our model. The 3 below sit in different places or are different kinds of parking, so a busy morning at one does not mean a busy morning at all of them.
- Great Wood, Keswick (NT, paid) — joins the loop at about km 4.1 of 13.4: a 270 m walk to the line, and you walk the round from there
- Keswick, Central Car Park (paid) — a 530 m walk to the start
- Ashness Bridge, south (verge) — joins the loop at about km 9 of 13.4: a 10 m walk to the line, and you walk the round from there
We never say whether anywhere has spaces today. Walks to the line are measured along mapped paths (OpenStreetMap), not in a straight line. How we choose these places.
No signal when you get there? RoutePark keeps this list on your phone: choose this walk’s GPX at home, keep it, and it opens offline.
Buses
The 78 stops at Keswick, outside Daleview Hotel, a 350 m walk from this start. This walk starts and ends in Keswick, so there is no bus to catch back to the start.
The 509 passes this route at 0.0 km (Keswick Park Hotel (opposite), 610 m off the line). Other services cross it too — 554 at 0.0 km, 78 at 5.4 km. Seasonal: the 509 does not run from 2 November 2026 to 21 March 2027.
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before travelling.
Toilets and refreshments
The essentials
- Arrival Lakeside long stay car park, Keswick (Cumberland Council), beside the start. Pay and display: up to 2 hours £3.80, 3 hours £6.50, 6 hours £9.00, 12 hours £11.40. MiPermit location 712223. (Cumberland Council, Lakeside long stay car park, checked 10 August 2026)
- Toilets Public toilets are mapped by the car park, marked wheelchair-accessible, and they charge. 59 m in a straight line, not a walking distance. (OpenStreetMap, as mapped on 13 September 2026, checked 13 September 2026)
- Refreshments Lakeside Cafe Restaurant, The Moon and Sixpence and a café at Lakeside Gardens are mapped nearby. Their opening hours are not recorded. (OpenStreetMap, as mapped on 13 September 2026, checked 13 September 2026)
- Limitation A sustained descent of about 21% over 250 m near the 1.0 km mark. Not a pushchair route. (our steepness model, from the route's own track, checked 25 September 2026)
Everything mapped near the start
Mapped as nearby on OpenStreetMap, as of 13 September 2026, within 250 m of where this route starts (information boards within 150 m; benches and shelter within 50 m):
Also mapped within reach: an information board.
Distances are straight lines from where this route starts, not walking routes. Opening hours are as mapped and change; none of this is checked daily.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (opens in new tab), ODbL.
Water, shelter & getting away
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors — an absent marker does not mean the facility isn’t there.
Getting there across the Lake District: Buses · Parking map · By train · By boat
Planning detail
How each grade on this page is set, and the timings stage by stage.
Difficulty profile
Hard overall — hardest: Steepness; terrain not assessed; exposure not assessed on the ground
Five independent axes, not one score. This route has not been walked yet, so none of them was set on the ground: one of the five is our judgement from the map and the route’s record, and the rest are computed from the recorded track and the map, which measures the line rather than surveying the ground.
How we grade: each axis is Easy, Moderate, Hard or Severe, and a route between two bands takes the higher one. Length: under 8 km, 8–14 km, 14–20 km, over 20 km. Steepness, the steepest 500 m of the track: under 15%, 15–25%, 25–35%, over 35%. Terrain, navigation and exposure are judged rather than measured, and each note says why. How we grade.
Pacing
| Summit | Cumulative | Ascent | Time (fast–steady) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finish | 13.4 km | 322 m | 3:13–4:17 |
A fast–steady range from Naismith’s rule, deliberately on the slow side. Breaks, weather, rough ground and the slowest person in your party all add to it. How we time walks.
Access & barriers
Can a dog, a buggy or dodgy knees manage this route?
- Buggy: Not a pushchair route.
- Knees: A sustained ~21% descent over 250 m around the 1.0 km mark — a little jarring on tired knees.
With a dog
Hardest for a dog here: drops and exposed ground (estimated from the map). The steepest stretch is a sustained climb of about 26% around the 7.3 km mark.
- Drops and exposed ground: Not assessed on the ground; the map suggests Moderate. Graded from slope only (~31% max); treat exposure as unverified.
- Stiles and gates: Only gates and kissing gates are mapped: no stile a dog can’t get through. That is the barriers alone; check the route’s steep or rocky ground before you bring a dog. (OpenStreetMap, mapped as of 9 July 2026)
- Rock and scrambling: Ground underfoot: Not assessed.
- Ways off early: No path off the line is recorded, but it passes a bus stop where you could end the walk: the 78 at Ashness, opposite Derwentwater Youth Hostel, about 5.4 km. The buses section says which bus and when.
- Livestock, shade and water: Not recorded for this route yet. We never call a stream safe for a dog to drink, so carry enough for both of you. The lead rules, and what to do around cattle, are on dogs on the fells.
On the line: 9 gates
Barriers as mapped on OpenStreetMap, which can miss some. Spotted one? Tell us (opens in new tab). Barrier data as of 9 July 2026. Access data © OpenStreetMap contributors (via Overpass).
Places to stay near this start
From Keswick: 28 places
Walks from places nearby
- Walks from Keswick — 0.5 km from this start
- Walks from Portinscale — 1.7 km from this start
Straight-line distance from this walk’s start. Those lists hold the routes we have mapped and every Wainwright and Outlying fell within about 5 km of the town, ranked nearest first.