Brant Fell from Bowness
Start Bowness Pier
Getting here Parking: Bowness, Glebe Road (paid), 0.4 km from the start (straight line). Bus: the 6, 508, 555, 599 and 755 stop at Bowness Pier (o/s), a 10 m walk from this start. Parking & buses ↓
Hardest part Moderate steepness: Steepest sustained descent about 15% around the 2.3 km mark. Moderate navigation: Care needed in cloud — 10 path junctions near the line. Held at Moderate by Lee, 18 Oct 2026: the junction count is town streets and short paths, as on Scout Scar. Moderate – our judgement from the map and the route’s record; not walked yet
Before you choose
- About 0.6 km at each end is on town streets: the Promenade and Lake Road (the A592), St Martins Hill and Brantfell Road. OpenStreetMap maps pavements beside the Promenade, Lake Road and St Martins Hill and on one side of the lower part of Brantfell Road, and records none on its last 0.1 km.
- From the kissing gate by the Post Knott viewpoint at about 1.02 km to the top, and from the top down to the public footpath at about 1.8 km, about 0.7 km in all, the line follows paths that OpenStreetMap does not record as public rights of way; it maps the first of them as permissive. The top is not in Natural England’s open access layer. That is a map-data note, not a ruling on access: check the access land and rights of way maps before relying on this stretch.
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
1 Brant Fell
Easy 97%Moderate 3%HardSevere
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
- 1
Bowness Pier → Brant Fell (1.5 km, 150 m)
We have written these directions from the map, not on foot. From the bus stop by Bowness Pier, follow the pavement beside the Promenade and Lake Road (the A592) to St Martins Hill, by the St Martins Church bus stops at about 0.2 km. Go up St Martins Hill into Brantfell Road, heading east-south-east. At the top of the road, at about 0.63 km, a gate leads on to a public footpath, rocky underfoot, which climbs to a kissing gate at about 0.75 km. Turn right there on to a track, also a public footpath, heading south-south-west to a kissing gate at about 1.02 km, beside the Post Knott viewpoint. From there the line follows paths that OpenStreetMap does not record as public rights of way, the first of them mapped as permissive: through a kissing gate at about 1.18 km, then a grass path south-east to the cairn on the top of Brant Fell at about 1.5 km.
WaypointsBowness Pier, St Martins Hill, Brantfell Road, the Post Knott viewpoint, Brant Fell (191 m).
Decision pointAt the kissing gate at the top of the rocky path the line turns right on to the track; the rocky path straight on is the way you come back at the end.
If you need to get offBack the way you came, never more than about 1.5 km to the pier; from the top, the line on past Brantfell Farm is about 1.4 km to the pier.
Brant Fell → Finish (1.4 km, 11 m)
From the cairn the line heads north-north-west down paths that OpenStreetMap does not record as public rights of way, through a kissing gate and over a stone step-over stile at about 1.8 km on to a public footpath. Stone steps and a gate at about 1.93 km lead down to the public footpath past Brantfell Farm, which OpenStreetMap maps as part of the Dales Way. Follow it west-north-west through a gate at about 2.09 km to the top of the rocky path, and go back down the rocky path and Brantfell Road the way you came up, then St Martins Hill and the pavement beside Lake Road and the Promenade to the pier. The steepest descent is about 21% over 250 m near 2.1 km.
WaypointsBrant Fell, the public footpath, Brantfell Farm, Brantfell Road, Bowness Pier (finish).
If you need to get offThe descent is the line itself: about 1.4 km from the top to the pier.
GPX track for your GPS or phone. Planned route · not yet walked
Summits bagged (1)
- 1Brant Fell191 m
More about this walk
A planned line, drawn from the map; not yet walked. It starts at the bus stop by Bowness Pier; the town's pay car parks at Glebe Road and Rayrigg Road are about 0.4 km away.
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
This walk starts in a town with 5 council car parks. They are within 1 km of the start in a straight line, not a walking distance. The places below overlap in our model, so expect them to fill on the same mornings; the town’s other car parks are more places to try.
- Bowness, Quarry Mount (paid) — a 400 m walk to the start
- B5284 Crook Road, 0.6 km N of Lindeth (layby) — joins the loop at about km 1.5 of 2.9: a 1.4 km walk to the line, climbing about 120 m, and you walk the round from there
- Bowness, Windermere Quays car park (paid) — a 570 m walk to the start
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 6, 508, 555, 599 and 755 stop at Bowness Pier (o/s), a 10 m walk from this start. We haven’t published last buses, Sunday or winter service yet, so check the timetable before you rely on getting back.
The 508 passes this route at 0.0 km (Bowness Pier (o/s), 0 m off the line).
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before travelling.
Toilets and refreshments
The essentials
- Arrival The Bowness Pier bus stop is at the start. 3 m in a straight line, not a walking distance. (OpenStreetMap contributors, Cumbria extract of 24 July 2026, checked 18 October 2026)
- Toilets Public toilets (a fee is recorded) are mapped about 80 m from the start. 81 m in a straight line, not a walking distance. (OpenStreetMap contributors, via Overpass, 18 October 2026, checked 18 October 2026)
- Refreshments Cafés and pubs are mapped within about 150 m of the start. Opening hours are not recorded here. 24 m in a straight line, not a walking distance. (OpenStreetMap contributors, via Overpass, 18 October 2026, checked 18 October 2026)
- Limitation Gates, kissing gates, a stone step-over stile and stone steps on the way down: not a pushchair route. (OpenStreetMap contributors, via Overpass, 18 October 2026, checked 18 October 2026)
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
Moderate overall — hardest: Steepness and navigation (our judgement from the map and the route’s record; not walked yet); 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) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Brant Fell | 1.5 km | 150 m | 0:33–0:44 |
| Finish | 2.9 km | 161 m | 0:50–1:07 |
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: Stiles or rough going on the route.
- Knees: A sustained ~21% descent over 250 m around the 2.1 km mark — a little jarring on tired knees.
With a dog
Hardest for a dog here: stiles and gates. The steepest stretch is a sustained descent of about 15% around the 2.3 km mark.
- Stiles and gates: A step-over stile at 1.8 km — a dog may need lifting over. (OpenStreetMap, mapped as of 2026-10-18)
- Rock and scrambling: Ground underfoot: Not assessed.
- Drops and exposed ground: Not assessed on the ground; the map suggests Easy. No mapped crags on or beside the line.
- Ways off early: None recorded for this route.
- 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: 3 gates · 4 kissing gates · 1 step-over stile
Barriers as mapped on OpenStreetMap, which can miss some. Spotted one? Tell us (opens in new tab). Barrier data as of 2026-10-18. Access data © OpenStreetMap contributors (via Overpass).
Walks from places nearby
- Walks from Bowness-on-Windermere — 0.3 km from this start
- Walks from Windermere — 2.3 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.