Silver How from Grasmere
Start Grasmere Village
Getting here Parking: Stock Lane Car & Coach Park (LDNPA, paid), 0.0 km from the start (straight line). Bus: the 555 stops at Grasmere, at School, a 70 m walk from this start. Parking & buses ↓
Hardest part Hard steepness: Steepest sustained descent about 28% around the 3.0 km mark.
Before you choose
- Silver How: The Grasmere-facing side is steep and craggy, and the lower reaches are broken — only a few lines get safely off the summit plateau. Don't improvise a descent down the craggy east side; keep to the known paths.
- From about 4.3 km the line follows Red Bank Road for about 0.45 km into the village. OpenStreetMap records no pavement on part of it and does not say for the rest.
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
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 Silver How
Easy 57%Moderate 35%Hard 8%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
Grasmere Village → Silver How (2.7 km, 302 m)
From Stock Lane car park, walk west-north-west along Stock Lane (B5287) over Church Bridge and the River Rothay. Go on through the village by Church Stile to Red Lion Square. From there a lane and then a tarmac access road that is a public footpath lead out of the village, over a cattle grid near 0.7 km and through gates to a kissing gate at about 1.2 km. Public footpaths then head south-west, through another kissing gate at about 1.6 km, and cross Wray Gill at about 2.15 km. The line's high point, at about 2.7 km, is on the path about 55 m from the top of Silver How, as OpenStreetMap maps it.
WaypointsStock Lane car park, Church Bridge, Red Lion Square, the cattle grid, the kissing gates at about 1.2 and 1.6 km, Wray Gill, Silver How.
If you need to get offFrom the high point the shorter way off is on down the line, about 1.6 km to Red Bank Road, against about 2.7 km back the way you came.
Silver How → Finish (2.3 km, 9 m)
From the high point the line leaves south-east on a path down the steep Grasmere side of the fell. A public footpath goes on through a kissing gate near 3.7 km and gates to Red Bank Road at about 4.3 km. Follow Red Bank Road into the village, and the B5287 back over Church Bridge to Stock Lane and the car park.
WaypointsSilver How, Red Bank Road, Church Bridge, Stock Lane car park (finish).
Easy to get wrongThe way down from the high point is the steepest ground of the walk, about 28% sustained near 3.0 km. Several mapped paths meet near the top, so check the turn off it against the map.
GPX track for your GPS or phone. Walked in part · km 0.5–2.6 from the map
Summits bagged (1)
- 1Silver How394 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.
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.
- Silver How — in late March the sun reaches it around 06:30, with the sunrise. In late September, about 07:15. It waits longest in midsummer — about half 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.
- Red Bank Road, Grasmere (W&F, paid) — joins the loop at about km 4.7 of 5.1: a 50 m walk to the line, and you walk the round from there
- Nab Scar (layby) — a 550 m walk to the start
- Silver How (layby) — joins the loop at about km 0.5 of 5.1: a 130 m walk to the line, and you walk the round from there
- By bus: buses stop at Grasmere, at School, a 70 m walk from the start. This walk starts and ends in Grasmere, so there is no bus to catch back to the start. For anyone staying elsewhere, the last bus out of Grasmere on a weekday: 20:46 towards Keswick (555). A bus is not affected by a full car park, but check the timetable before you rely on it.
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 555 stops at Grasmere, at School, a 70 m walk from this start. This walk starts and ends in Grasmere, so there is no bus to catch back to the start. For anyone staying elsewhere, the last bus out of Grasmere: the 555 towards Keswick at 20:46 Monday to Saturday, 18:36 on Sunday. From Grasmere, at School; checked against the operator's timetable, 12 September 2026; that timetable runs to 1 November. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.
The 555 passes this route at 0.1 km (Grasmere School (near), 0 m off the line). Other services cross it too — 599 at 5.1 km.
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before travelling.
Toilets and refreshments
The essentials
- Arrival The Grasmere, at School bus stop is about 60 m from the start. 58 m in a straight line, not a walking distance. (OpenStreetMap contributors, via Overpass, 15 October 2026, checked 15 October 2026)
- Toilets Paid toilets are mapped about 50 m from the start. 50 m in a straight line, not a walking distance. (OpenStreetMap contributors, via Overpass, 15 October 2026, checked 15 October 2026)
- Refreshments Baldry’s and Heidi’s Cafe are mapped beside the line at Red Lion Square, about 0.45 km in; Goody Blakes, The Distiller’s Arms and Grasmere Tea Gardens within about 200 m of the start. Opening hours are not recorded here. (OpenStreetMap contributors, via Overpass, 15 October 2026, checked 15 October 2026)
- Limitation Kissing gates and a steep, rough path on the hill: not a pushchair route. (OpenStreetMap contributors, Cumbria extract of 24 July 2026, checked 15 October 2026)
Everything mapped near the start
At Stock Lane Car & Coach Park (LDNPA, 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.
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; 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) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Silver How | 2.7 km | 302 m | 1:03–1:24 |
| Finish | 5.1 km | 311 m | 1:32–2:02 |
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: No mapped stiles, but the ground underfoot has not been assessed; not a buggy line on what we know.
- Knees: A long, steep ~42% drop over 250 m around the 2.9 km mark — hard on the knees.
With a dog
Hardest for a dog here: drops and exposed ground (estimated from the map). The steepest stretch is a sustained descent of about 28% around the 3.0 km mark.
- Drops and exposed ground: Not assessed on the ground; the map suggests Moderate. 1 mapped crag feature(s) near the line — check the airy sections.
- 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 2026-10-15)
- Rock and scrambling: Ground underfoot: Not assessed.
- 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: 6 gates · 3 kissing gates
Barriers as mapped on OpenStreetMap, which can miss some. Spotted one? Tell us (opens in new tab). Barrier data as of 2026-10-15. Access data © OpenStreetMap contributors (local extract).
Walks from places nearby
- Walks from Grasmere — 0.4 km from this start
- Walks from Elterwater — 2.7 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.
