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4.16 km · ~167 m ascent · ~1–1.5 h · loop · 1 summit

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Moderate terrainLoopPlanned

Orrest Head

4.16 km
Distance
~1–1.5 h
Typical time
~167 m
Ascent
1
Summit
Download GPX →Planned route · not yet walked

Key facts

Distance 4.16 km
Ascent ~167 m
Descent ~166 m
Time ~1–1.5 h
Type Loop
Start Windermere village (by the railway station)
Wainwright's first Lakeland summit and still the best short introduction to the fells — a steady wooded climb from Windermere to a rocky crown with a sweeping panorama over the lake to the Coniston and Langdale skyline.
✎️ 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. How to use this guide.

🧭 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

LengthEasy4.16 km — a short outing.
SteepnessEasySteepest sustained pull about 15% around the 2.5 km mark.
TerrainModerateMostly good mountain path — rough/natural surface. 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, shaded by steepness
Elevation profile Rises from about 102 m to 229 m over 4.2 km, with the summits marked in order. The area beneath is shaded by sustained steepness over a 250 m window, in the same four bands as the route’s steepness rating: Easy under 15%, Moderate 15 to 25%, Hard 25 to 35%, Severe above 35%. 229 m 102 m 0 km 4.2 km 1

1 Orrest Head

Easy 100%ModerateHardSevere

~167 m
Total ascent
229 m
High point
129 m
Start height

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

This walk covers about 4.16 km with around 167 m of ascent, taking in 1 summit. 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
Not dog-friendly
Buggy
Not buggy-able
Knees
Gentle descent
  • Dog: 1 ladder/squeeze stile(s) a dog can’t get through.
  • Buggy: Not a pushchair route.
  • Knees: No sustained steep descent — kind on the knees.

On the line: 5 gates · 4 kissing gates · 1 ladder stile · 1 stile (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 and we’ll fix it. Barrier data as of 2026-07-09. Access data © OpenStreetMap contributors (via Overpass).

Pacing

SummitCumulativeAscentTime (fast–steady)
1Orrest Head1.2 km103 m0:24–0:32
Finish4.2 km167 m1:07–1:29

Naismith-based estimate — a fast/steady range. Your pace will vary. These use Naismith’s textbook constants (5 km/h, 600 m of ascent an hour). Measured against a pace fitted to 41 recorded Lakeland walks they run about 8% slow, and we have left them that way deliberately: a slow estimate strands nobody.

The walk, stage by stage

  1. 1

    Windermere village (by the railway station) → Orrest Head (1.2 km, 103 m)

    Climb of about 103 m over 1.2 km (around 9% average).

  2. Orrest Head → Finish (3.0 km, 64 m)

    Climb of about 64 m over 3.0 km (around 2% average).

Stage-by-stage field notes coming soon.

Summits bagged (1)

  1. 1Orrest Head238 mSouth Lakeland · Outlying Fell

Getting there & parking

Orrest Head, south car park (paid) — 0.0 km from the start (straight line)
Walking base for Orrest Head — the 'Orrest Head' route starts 26 m away. Paid parking (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
Orrest Head car park (free) — 0.1 km from the start (straight line)
Walking base for Orrest Head — the 'Orrest Head' route starts 77 m away. Free (OSM-tagged). OSM records a 2-hour maximum stay here between 09:00 and 18:00, every day including public holidays (24 Jul 2026 extract); the same element also carries an unlimited-stay tag, so the two contradict each other - check the signs before leaving the car for longer.
Directions Something changed here?
Orrest Head, south (layby) — 0.3 km from the start (straight line)
Walking base for Orrest Head — the 'Orrest Head' route starts 263 m away. Free (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
Orrest Head, south car park — 0.3 km from the start (straight line)
Walking base for Orrest Head — the 'Orrest Head' route starts 276 m away. Fee not verified — check signage on arrival.
Directions Something changed here?
Orrest Head car park — 0.3 km from the start (straight line)
Walking base for Orrest Head — the 'Orrest Head' route starts 314 m away. Fee not verified — check signage on arrival.
Directions Something changed here?

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

Vehicles are left entirely at their owner’s risk. We list places people park; we cannot vouch for any of them. Judge it on the day: take valuables with you, leave nothing on show, and if a spot feels wrong when you get there, park somewhere else.

Every option near this start, on the parking map →

Water, shelter & getting away

💧 possible water source (39 m)🛖 map (22 m)🛖 map (24 m)🛖 map (52 m)🚌 Windermere Railway Station (1) (6 m)🚌 Windermere Railway Station (2) (16 m)🚌 Thwaites Lane (113 m)🚌 Thwaites Lane junction (127 m)⛺ Station Lodge (156 m)⛺ Lakes Boutique Hostel (169 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.

On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors — an absent marker does not mean the facility isn’t there.

Buses

The 505 stops at Windermere Bus Rail Interchange (Stop 1), 10 m 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 505 passes this route at 0.0 km (Windermere Bus Rail Interchange (Stop 1), 10 m off the line).

Stagecoach 505 “Coniston Rambler”
Windermere – Ambleside – Skelwith Bridge – Hawkshead – Coniston
Catch it from: Windermere · Ambleside
Daily in season (reduced winter service). Best access for the Coniston fells (Old Man, Wetherlam group).

Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com or Traveline before travelling.

If the parking is full

There is no real plan B here. Every place we know beside this route serves the same walks and sits close together, so if one is full the others usually are too. Worth starting early, or having a different walk in mind before you set off.

  • Orrest Head car park
  • Orrest Head, south (layby)
  • Windermere, Broad Street (W&F, paid)

Worked out from the parking we hold within walking reach of this route and the other walks each place serves — two places that serve the same walks fill for the same reasons. We are not saying whether anywhere has spaces today, and we never will: this is what exists, not what is free.

Safety & conditions

Check live conditions in the “From the fells” panel, on MWIS and the Met Office mountain forecast before you set off.

Make it easier or harder

Easier and harder options coming soon.

Download

Download GPX

GPX track for your GPS or phone.

Places to stay near this start

Lakes Boutique Hostel hostel

about 0.2 km from the start, in a straight line

The single most useful bed in this cluster and it is 170 m from the start: a self-catering house for up to 19 with a boot room and a drying area for jackets, a travel cot and a high chair, free washer and dryer, dog beds on request, and a minute's walk from the platform the route starts at. It is also the only property in the radius whose own site names Orrest Head as a walk from the door.

The building was a coaching stable, then a bakery, then a hostel from the 1970s; the 2020 refit insulated it with sheep's wool. Their own 'things to do' page leads with Orrest Head.

  • Drying room “a boot room for muddy shoes, and a drying area for your jackets after a day of exploring in the fells”
  • Dogs “Bring your dog along! We offer dog beds, food bowls, and towels - just arrange ahead of time.”
  • Family rooms “We offer a travel cot and high chair for families traveling with little ones.”
  • Children “We offer a travel cot and high chair for families traveling with little ones.”

What each place says about itself, quoted from their own site. We have not stayed at any of them, and there are no prices, no booking and no affiliate links. Distances are straight lines from the route start, never walking times. Properties found via OpenStreetMap.

Appears in these collections
Easy walks