Orrest Head from Windermere station
Start Windermere village (by the railway station)
Getting here Train: this walk starts at Windermere station. Parking: Windermere Station car park (Northern, paid), 0.0 km from the start (straight line). Bus: the 6, 505, 508, 516, 555, 599, 755 and X8 stop at Windermere Bus Rail Interchange (Stop 1), a 10 m walk from this start. Getting there ↓ · Route map ↓
Hardest part Moderate navigation: No large featureless ground on the map; carry a map and compass for cloud. Moderate – 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.
Route map
1 Orrest Head
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
- 1
Windermere village (by the railway station) → Orrest Head (1.2 km, 109 m)
From beside the railway station, cross the road and follow the lane north-west, then the public footpath that climbs north-north-west through the woods and turns east, through two gates and a kissing gate, to the top of Orrest Head (238 m) at about 1.2 km.
If you need to get offThe map shows no shorter way down than the line itself: the way off is back down the footpath to the road by the station, never more than about 1 km, or from the top on north to the lane at about 2 km, about 0.8 km; not walked for this guide.
Orrest Head → Finish (3.0 km, 64 m)
From the top, carry on north over grass, through kissing gates and field gates, then down across the fields to a lane at about 2.1 km. Follow the lane down to Patterdale Road, the main road, at about 2.8 km, and cross with care. Take the public footpath south-south-east through the woods back to the station, at about 4.2 km.
GPX track for your GPS or phone. Planned route · not yet walked
Summits bagged (1)
- 1Orrest Head238 m
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
Train: this walk starts at Windermere station.
Parking
2 more places to park near the start
Positions are approximate.
Of the pay-and-display machine tickets sold at Hammarbank from 17 August 2024 to 31 March 2026, 4% 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 no real plan B here. Every place we know beside this route serves the same walks and sits close together, so expect them to fill on the same mornings. Worth starting early, or having a different walk in mind before you set off.
- Orrest Head car park (free) — a 500 m walk to the start
- Windermere, Broad Street (W&F, paid) — a 560 m walk to the start
- Orrest Head, south (layby) — a 510 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, 505, 508, 516, 555, 599, 755 and X8 stop at Windermere Bus Rail Interchange (Stop 1), a 10 m walk from this start. This walk starts and ends in Windermere, so there is no bus to catch back to the start.
The 505 passes this route at 0.0 km (Windermere Bus Rail Interchange (Stop 1), 10 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 Orrest Head south car park, about 25 m from the start by Windermere railway station. OpenStreetMap tags it as paid; the fee is not verified. 26 m in a straight line, not a walking distance. (our parking audit, from OpenStreetMap, checked 10 August 2026)
- Toilets Toilets are mapped about 50 m from the start. 50 m in a straight line, not a walking distance. (OpenStreetMap, as mapped on 13 September 2026, checked 13 September 2026)
- Refreshments Booths Café is mapped about 50 m away (opening hours as mapped: Monday to Saturday 08:00–17:00, Sunday 09:30–16:00), with more cafés and pubs in the village. 46 m in a straight line, not a walking distance. (OpenStreetMap, as mapped on 13 September 2026, checked 13 September 2026)
- Easier-access route The National Park's Miles without Stiles route 50 is a separate line up Orrest Head from the lane beside the Windermere Hotel: 3.5 km there and back with 120 m of ascent, graded 'for some', with a stretch as steep as 1 in 4. It is the Park's route, not the GPX on this page. (Lake District National Park, Miles without Stiles 50: Orrest Head, checked 2 October 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: 2 benches, an information board, 4 shelters.
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
Treat water from the fell before you drink it. A mapped point is not proof the water is drinkable, so carry your own or use a supply you know is safe. Never drink untreated from a beck, stream or tarn — even clear-looking hill water can carry giardia or cryptosporidium from livestock upstream and leave you seriously ill. Use a treatment method suited to what might be in the water, and follow the device’s own instructions. Boiling and ordinary filters do not make water with dissolved metals or chemicals safe: where that is possible, choose another source.
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: 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) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Orrest Head | 1.2 km | 109 m | 0:25–0:33 |
| Finish | 4.2 km | 173 m | 1:07–1:29 |
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: No sustained steep descent in the track’s height model (steepest 250 m about 15%). Steps, wet rock and the surface underfoot are not assessed; your own knees still matter.
With a dog
Hardest for a dog here: stiles and gates. The steepest stretch is a sustained climb of about 13% around the 0.7 km mark.
- Stiles and gates: A stile of unmapped type at 1.3 km — a dog may need lifting over. (OpenStreetMap, mapped as of 9 July 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: 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: 4 gates · 4 kissing gates · 1 stile (type unmapped)
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
- Lakes Boutique Hostel (opens in new tab) hostelabout 0.2 km
We have not stayed at any of them. We take no bookings or affiliate fees. Distances are straight lines from the route start, never walking times. Properties found via OpenStreetMap (opens in new tab).
Walks from places nearby
- Walks from Windermere — 0.2 km from this start
- Walks from Bowness-on-Windermere — 2.0 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.