Home / Routes / The Old Dungeon Ghyll Pub Walk (Great Langdale)

ModerateLoopPlanned

The Old Dungeon Ghyll Pub Walk (Great Langdale)

6.61 km

Distance

~1.5–2 h

Typical time

~106 m

Ascent

Download GPX →Maps & guidebooks

Key facts

Distance 6.61 km

Ascent ~106 m

Descent ~109 m

Time ~1.5–2 h

Difficulty Moderate overall — hardest: Terrain

Best season Year-round, but best after a dry spell. The valley paths and field sections hold water and churn to mud after rain, so wear boots rather than trainers.

Type Loop

An easy, near-level loop of the Great Langdale valley floor from the Old Dungeon Ghyll, walked entirely beneath the Langdale Pikes — Pike o' Stickle and Harrison Stickle rearing up on one side, Bowfell and the Band on the other. Barely a hundred metres of up-and-down across 6.6 km, so it's a proper leg-stretch with all of the drama and almost none of the grind — and it begins and ends at the pub.

✎️ A rare low-level circuit in a valley famous for its high fells — all the Langdale scenery, almost none of the climbing. No summits are bagged here; the appeal is the setting, and the pub at either end.

✎️ Planned route — drawn but not personally walked or checked yet. A planned line is a suggestion, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate independently and carry a map & compass.

🧭 The automated detail on this page — distance, climb, pacing and a first-pass difficulty read — is live. Hand-written field notes are being added.

Difficulty profile

LengthEasy6.61 km — a short outing.

SteepnessEasySteepest sustained pull about 15% around the 1.1 km mark.

TerrainModerateMostly good mountain path. desk assessment — not field-verified

NavigationModerateClear line, hard to stray. desk assessment — not field-verified

ExposureNot assessedExposure (drops, scrambling, how bad a slip would be) can’t be judged from gradient data alone, so we don’t guess. A rating appears once the route is editorially assessed or walked.

Five independent axes, not one score. “Desk” ratings come from maps and guidebooks, not yet walked — treat them as a guide, not a survey.

☀️ 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.

Why this matters: 78% of Mountain Rescue call-outs come after midday — the day runs out on the way home, not on the way up. See also walking in bad weather and today’s conditions.

OpenTopoMap

Elevation profile

~106 m

Total ascent

135 m

High point

102 m

Start height

Free mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap (switch layers top-right).

This walk covers about 6.61 km with around 106 m of ascent. The map above shows the line; the elevation profile and stage notes are below.

Access & barriers

Can a dog, a buggy or dodgy knees manage this route? A quick read from the gates and stiles mapped along the way.

Dog

Mostly gates

Buggy

Not buggy-able

Knees

Gentle descent

Dog: A stile of unmapped type — a dog may need lifting over.
Buggy: Not a pushchair route.
Knees: No sustained steep descent — kind on the knees.

On the line: 35 gates · 4 kissing gates · 3 stiles (type unmapped)

These are mapped barriers, from OpenStreetMap — coverage in the Lakes is good but not guaranteed complete. Spotted a stile or gate we’ve missed? Tell us (opens in new tab) and we’ll fix it. Barrier data as of 2026-07-09. Access data © OpenStreetMap contributors (via Overpass).

Pacing

Summit	Cumulative	Ascent	Time (fast–steady)
Finish	6.6 km	106 m	1:30–2:00

Naismith-based estimate — a fast/steady range. Your pace will vary.

The walk, stage by stage

Start → Finish (6.6 km, 106 m)

Climb of about 106 m over 6.6 km (around 2% average).

Stage-by-stage field notes coming soon.

Summits bagged (0)

🅿️ Getting there & parking

Old Dungeon Ghyll (NT, paid) — 0.1 km from the start (straight line)

Head of Great Langdale — Bowfell, Crinkle Crags, Pike o' Blisco, the Langdale Pikes.

Directions

Stickle Ghyll / New Dungeon Ghyll (NT, paid) — 0.5 km from the start (straight line)

Direct start up Stickle Ghyll for the Langdale Pikes.

Directions

Positions are approximate. Lakeland car parks fill before 9am on fine weekends.

💧 Water, shelter & getting away

💧 possible water source (49 m)🚺 map (53 m)🚌 Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel (107 m)🚌 Great Langdale Campsite (294 m)⛺ Great Langdale Campsite (291 m)

💧 Treat water from the fell before you drink it. A mapped point is usually a tap or public supply, but never drink untreated from a beck, stream or tarn — even clear-looking hill water can carry giardia or cryptosporidium from livestock or a carcass upstream and leave you seriously ill. Run it through a filter or purifier (a LifeStraw, Sawyer Squeeze or HydraPak) or bring it to a rolling boil first.

🚌 Buses

Stagecoach 516 “Langdale Rambler”

Ambleside – Skelwith Bridge – Elterwater – New Dungeon Ghyll – Old Dungeon Ghyll

Catch it from: Ambleside · Windermere (change at Ambleside)

The Langdale bus — Pikes, Bowfell, Crinkle Crags, Pike o' Blisco all walkable from the Dungeon Ghyll stops. Seasonal frequency varies; check before relying on the last bus back.

Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before travelling.

⚠️ Safety & conditions

Low-level but not always dry — the valley-floor paths and field sections get boggy and can flood after heavy rain.
Working farmland: expect gates, stiles and livestock. Keep dogs on a lead and under close control near sheep.
Great Langdale Beck and its side becks rise quickly in spate — take care at any crossing or footbridge.

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.

Make it easier or harder

Harder: The same start is the launch point for the classic higher rounds — the Langdale Pikes and Bowfell — if you want a full mountain day.