Catbells: the short way up
Photo: © Lee McCoy
Start Hawes End
Getting here Parking: Skelgill Bank, north car park, 0.0 km from the start (straight line). Bus: the 77 stops at Hawes End, outside Cattle Grid, an 80 m walk from this start. Seasonal: the 77 does not run all year. 1 November 2026 is its last day. Getting there ↓ · Route map ↓
Hardest part Hard steepness: Steepest sustained descent about 31% around the 2.7 km mark. Hands for a few steps: two rocky steps, the second just below the top (km 1.0–1.7).
Before you choose
- It is a small fell, not an easy one. Short does not mean gentle: the ridge is steep, and there are two rocky steps where you will want your hands. Confident children love it; it is not a pushchair walk.
- The path is badly eroded and the rock is worn slippery by sheer numbers. Most incidents here are slips on the descent.
- Do not read ‘low’ as ‘safe in a storm’. Catbells is a bare, open ridge with nothing above you — on it, you are the highest point. Height is not what protects you from lightning. If you hear thunder, get off it. (Lee watched people walking up it into an incoming storm on 11 July 2026.)
- Livestock on the lower fields — dogs on a short lead.
Conditions on this route
We score every Lakeland Wainwright each morning on cloud, wind, rain and underfoot, and this route crosses 1 of them. The worst summit governs the verdict — a route is only as kind as its roughest top.
Modelled guidance — not a substitute for the mountain forecast or your own judgement. See how every fell ranks today →
Daylight & turnaround
By bus: the Honister Rambler (77/77A) (opens in new tab) reaches Catbells at 08:33 and the last one back leaves from Hawes End, outside Cattle Grid at 19:00. At a steady pace this walk finishes about 10:55. Be off Cat Bells (Catbells) by 14:20, to be down at least an hour before dusk on 1 November; that is earlier than the last bus needs. Seasonal: the 77’s last day is in Buses. The last bus is from the operator’s timetable, checked 7 September 2026; that timetable runs to 1 November. Check the timetable before you rely on it.
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 Skelgill Bank2 Cat Bells (Catbells)
Easy 66%Moderate 21%Hard 13%Severe
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
Start → Skelgill Bank (1.0 km, 222 m)
Decision pointFrom Hawes End take the obvious path onto the north ridge and up over Skelgill Bank.
Easy to get wrongThe first rocky step comes here. It looks worse than it is, but the rock is polished — take your time.
© Lee McCoy - 2
Skelgill Bank → Cat Bells (Catbells) (0.7 km, 126 m)
Decision pointContinue along the ridge to the summit.
Easy to get wrongA second, shorter scrambly step just below the top. Hands out of pockets.
Cat Bells (Catbells) → Finish (3.9 km, 59 m)
Decision pointDescend south towards Hause Gate, then drop back north on the terrace path above Derwentwater.
Easy to get wrongThe terrace path is the gentle way home and it is the best view of the day. Going straight back down the ridge is steeper and where people slip.
© Lee McCoy
GPX track for your GPS or phone. Walked by Lee, May 2026
Escape routes
There is no shorter way off this walk: before the summit, turn round and go back down the way you came, slowly on the polished rocky steps; after it, carry on to Hause Gate and the terrace path, which is gentler than going back down the ridge.
Make it easier or harder
Why this direction: Up the ridge, down the terrace — the steep, rocky ground is climbed rather than descended, and the walk out along the lake is the loveliest part.
Short version: turn back at about 1.0 km and retrace your outward leg: about 2.0 km in all, against 5.7 km for the whole walk. It is the same ground back, not a separate descent.
Summits bagged (2)
- 1Skelgill Bank338 m
- 2Cat Bells (Catbells)451 m
In the order you walk them — the same numbers the elevation profile, the stage notes and the pacing table use.
More about this walk
No car needed: the Keswick launch to Hawes End, or the bus, puts you at the foot of it.
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.
When the sun reaches the tops
Not sunrise — the moment the sun clears the skyline from that summit, which on a fell with high ground to its east can be a good deal later.
- Cat Bells (Catbells) — in late March the sun reaches it around 06:30, about a quarter of an hour later. In late September, about 07:15. It waits longest in late March — about a quarter of an hour after sunrise.
How to read these times
The two equinoxes are shown because they fall in the walking season, and late December too wherever a top keeps you waiting then; the clock gap between the equinoxes is British Summer Time, not the hill. Rounded to the nearest quarter hour and meant as a general idea, not a schedule.
Modelled from a 30 m elevation model against each summit’s own skyline — the same figures the fell pages carry, never observed. Cloud is not in it.
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
There is no real plan B by car 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. The bus below is the exception: it is not limited by car-park space, though it runs to a timetable and can be full.
- Cat Bells (verge) — joins the loop at about km 4.1 of 5.7: a 70 m walk to the line, and you walk the round from there
- Cat Bells, south-east (layby) — joins the loop at about km 3.4 of 5.7: a 120 m walk to the line, and you walk the round from there
- Skelgill Bank, north car park — at the start
- By bus: buses stop at Hawes End, outside Cattle Grid, an 80 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 77 stops at Hawes End, outside Cattle Grid, an 80 m walk from this start. Seasonal: the 77 does not run all year. 1 November 2026 is its last day. It returns on 22 March 2027. Confirmed with the operator: its last day on 29 August 2026, its return on 16 October 2026. The last bus is 19:00 towards Keswick (77), every day. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 7 September 2026; that timetable runs to 1 November 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.
The 77 passes this route at 0.0 km (Swinside, at Green Road, 630 m off the line). It passes again at 5.6 km.
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before travelling.
Toilets and refreshments
The essentials
- Arrival Skelgill Bank north car park, beside the start. The 77 bus stops nearby. (our parking audit, from OpenStreetMap, checked 10 August 2026)
- Toilets No toilets are mapped within 250 m of the start. (OpenStreetMap, as mapped on 13 September 2026, checked 13 September 2026)
- Refreshments No café is mapped within 250 m of the start. In summer there has sometimes been a mobile refreshment van beside the start; it is not a fixed café and may not be there. (OpenStreetMap, as mapped on 13 September 2026; the van: Lee, seen on summer visits, checked 25 September 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: 3 information boards.
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
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
Hard overall — hardest: Steepness
Five independent axes, not one score. Three of the five were set on the ground; 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) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Skelgill Bank | 1.0 km | 222 m | 0:35–0:46 |
| 2Cat Bells (Catbells) | 1.8 km | 348 m | 0:56–1:15 |
| Finish | 5.7 km | 407 m | 1:49–2:25 |
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: A long, steep ~37% drop over 250 m around the 2.5 km mark — hard on the knees.
With a dog
Hardest for a dog here: the steepest stretch, a sustained descent of about 31% around the 2.7 km mark.
- Rock and scrambling: Hands for a few steps: two rocky steps, the second just below the top (km 1.0–1.7). Ground underfoot: Moderate – graded by Lee on the ground. Good path, but two short rocky steps where you will want your hands, on rock worn slippery.
- 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 12 July 2026)
- Drops and exposed ground: Easy – graded by Lee on the ground. Steep-sided in places, but the walking line has no serious drops.
- 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: 1 gate
Barriers as mapped on OpenStreetMap, which can miss some. Spotted one? Tell us (opens in new tab). Barrier data as of 12 July 2026. Access data © OpenStreetMap contributors (via Overpass).
Places to stay near this start
From Hawes End: 6 places in Keswick
Walks from places nearby
- Walks from Portinscale — 2.5 km from this start
- Walks from Keswick — 2.9 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.
