Inn on the Lake to Silver Point and Back
Start Beckside Car Park (paid)
Getting here Parking: Beckside Car Park (paid), 0.1 km from the start (straight line). Bus: the 508, 509 and 559 stop at Glenridding, at Bus Shelter, a 220 m walk from this start. Getting there ↓ · Route map ↓
Hardest part Hard navigation: Care needed in cloud — 17 path junctions near the line. Hard – estimated from the map, not checked on the ground
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.
Access & barriers
Can a dog, a buggy or dodgy knees manage this route?
- Buggy: No mapped stiles, but the ground underfoot has not been assessed; not a buggy line on what we know.
- Knees: No sustained steep descent in the track’s height model (steepest 250 m about 16%). Steps, wet rock and the surface underfoot are not assessed; your own knees still matter.
With a dog
Not every line below has been assessed. The steepest stretch is a sustained descent of about 14% around the 4.3 km mark.
- 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 31 October 2026)
- 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: No path off the line is recorded, but it passes a bus stop where you could end the walk: the 508 at Patterdale, outside Hall, about 1.3 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: 8 gates
Barriers as mapped on OpenStreetMap, which can miss some. Spotted one? Tell us (opens in new tab). Barrier data as of 31 October 2026. Access data © OpenStreetMap contributors (local extract).
Route map
Easy 100%ModerateHardSevere
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
Start → Finish (8.9 km, 191 m)
From the Inn on the Lake the line takes Greenside Road through Glenridding village, crosses Glenridding Beck by the main road bridge, and follows a lane and footways south-east past St Patrick's Well, crossing Grisedale Beck, to Patterdale. It turns east across Goldrill Beck on a lane that is a public footpath to Side Farm, then north on the public bridleway towards Silver Point. Near 4.2 km it turns and comes south on a second bridleway nearer the lake, past Side Farm again, back across Goldrill Beck and Grisedale Beck to Glenridding, and by the same lane and Greenside Road to the Inn on the Lake.
WaypointsThe Inn on the Lake, Greenside Road, Glenridding Beck, St Patrick's Well, Grisedale Beck, Patterdale, Goldrill Beck, Side Farm, Silver Point, Ullswater.
Decision pointThe Ullswater Way is the line for most of the way. A wall beside the second bridleway for most of 5.2-6.7 km.
Easy to get wrongNothing steeper than Easy on the whole route. Eight gates: one near 0.4 km, six near 1.7-2.2 km and one near 6.2 km. The line is on the main road, mapped as a primary road, through Patterdale near 1.2-1.7 and 7.2-7.7 km, where no mapped path leaves it, and for about 130 m each way at the Glenridding Beck bridge, near 0.3 and 8.5 km.
If you need to get offAt any point, turn back the way you came, to Glenridding.
GPX track for your GPS or phone. Planned route · not yet 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.
Of the pay-and-display machine tickets sold at Glenridding from 17 August 2024 to 31 March 2026, 34% were bought before 10am (our count of FOI/2026.500 ticket data). Contains public sector information provided by the Lake District National Park Authority and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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
There is a fallback here, but it is a weak one. Some of the 3 below tend to fill for the same reasons at the same time. Treat the list as one-and-a-bit options rather than 3.
- KGV Playing Field Community Car Park, Patterdale — joins the loop at about km 1.2 of 8.9: a 270 m walk to the line, and you walk the round from there
- Glenridding, by St Patrick's Boat Landing (car park) — joins the loop at about km 0.6 of 8.9: a 30 m walk to the line, and you walk the round from there
- Patterdale Hotel Car Park (Patterdale Hotel, paid) — joins the loop at about km 1.6 of 8.9: a 210 m walk to the line, and you walk the round from there
- By bus: buses stop at Glenridding, at Bus Shelter, a 220 m walk from the start. A bus is not affected by a full car park. Its return times are under Buses.
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 508, 509 and 559 stop at Glenridding, at Bus Shelter, a 220 m walk from this start. The last bus is 17:05 towards Penrith (508), every day it runs. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 20 October 2026; that timetable runs to 21 March 2027. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.
The 508 passes this route at 1.3 km (Patterdale, outside Hall, 10 m off the line).
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before travelling.
Toilets and refreshments
At Beckside Car Park (paid), the closest parking we hold to where this route starts:
Distances are straight lines from the car park, not walking routes. Opening hours change; none of this is checked daily.
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: Navigation (estimated from the map, not checked on the ground); terrain not assessed; exposure not assessed on the ground
Five independent axes, not one score. None of them was set on the ground: they 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 | 8.9 km | 191 m | 2:06–2:47 |
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.
Walks from places nearby
- Walks from Glenridding — 0.1 km from this start
- Walks from Patterdale — 1.4 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.
