Stickle Tarn from New Dungeon Ghyll
Start Great Langdale (New Dungeon Ghyll)
Getting here Parking: Stickle Ghyll (NT, paid), 0.1 km from the start (straight line). Bus: the 516 stops at New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel, a 220 m walk from this start. Parking & buses ↓
Hardest part Severe steepness: Steepest sustained climb about 37% around the 1.0 km mark.
Before you choose
- Near 1.45 km the line crosses Stickle Ghyll without a bridge, where OpenStreetMap maps a ford by the tarn’s dam. After rain it may not be passable: if it is not, turn back the way you came rather than look for another way across. Read about crossing streams in spate before you go.
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
Stickle Tarn
Easy 21%Moderate 41%Hard 34%Severe 3%
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
Great Langdale (New Dungeon Ghyll) → Finish (3.7 km, 397 m)
From New Dungeon Ghyll, the line climbs north-west on permissive paths and then a public footpath, through a gate at about 0.1 km and another at about 0.6 km, and on up beside Stickle Ghyll. This is the steepest climbing of the walk: about 250 m of height between 0.5 and 1.25 km, about 37% sustained near 1.0 km. Near 1.45 km the line crosses Stickle Ghyll where OpenStreetMap maps a ford, and climbs north to Stickle Tarn, its highest point, at about 1.6 km. It turns at about 1.75 km and comes down by a different path, on the far side of Stickle Ghyll from the way up: south-south-west, then south-south-east and south-east, past the crags OpenStreetMap names Tarn Crag, then south and east-south-east. It crosses Mill Gill on footbridges near 3.3 and 3.45 km and Stickle Ghyll on a footbridge at about 3.5 km, back to the start.
WaypointsNew Dungeon Ghyll, the gates at about 0.1 and 0.6 km, the ford on Stickle Ghyll near 1.45 km, Stickle Tarn, the footbridges over Mill Gill and Stickle Ghyll, New Dungeon Ghyll (finish).
Easy to get wrongThe crossing of Stickle Ghyll near 1.45 km is mapped as a ford, not a bridge. Crags are mapped close to the line in two places: within about 10 m near 1.4 km, and Tarn Crag about 20 m off near 2.3 km.
If you need to get offBelow the ford, the way off is back down the way you came. From the tarn there are two ways down: on along the line by Tarn Crag, about 2 km to the start, crossing on footbridges near the end; or back the way you came, about 1.75 km, over the ford again.
GPX track for your GPS or phone. Walked by Lee, June 2024
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
Parking
2 more places to park near the start
Positions are approximate.
Of the pay-and-display machine tickets sold at New Dungeon Ghyll from 17 August 2024 to 31 March 2026, 33% 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 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.
- Great Langdale, valley road verge (free) — a 470 m walk to the start
- New Dungeon Ghyll (LDNPA, paid) — a 220 m walk to the start
- Stickle Ghyll (NT, paid) — at the start
- By bus: buses stop at New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel, a 220 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 516 stops at New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel, a 220 m walk from this start. As timetabled from 24 October to 1 November. Towards Kendal (516): Sunday to Thursday 20:13; Friday and Saturday 22:33. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 23 September 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.
The 516 passes this route at 3.6 km (New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel, 90 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 The New Dungeon Ghyll bus stops are about 140 m from the start. 140 m in a straight line, not a walking distance. (OpenStreetMap contributors, via Overpass, 15 October 2026, checked 15 October 2026)
- Toilets Free toilets are mapped about 50 m from the start. 52 m in a straight line, not a walking distance. (OpenStreetMap contributors, via Overpass, 15 October 2026, checked 15 October 2026)
- Refreshments Sticklebarn (about 65 m) and Walker’s Bar (about 120 m) are mapped by the start. Opening hours are not recorded here. (OpenStreetMap contributors, via Overpass, 15 October 2026, checked 15 October 2026)
- Limitation A ford on Stickle Ghyll near 1.45 km and a steep, rocky path: not a pushchair route. (OpenStreetMap contributors, Cumbria extract of 24 July 2026, checked 15 October 2026)
Everything mapped near the start
At Stickle Ghyll (NT, 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
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
Severe 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) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finish | 3.8 km | 397 m | 1:25–1:53 |
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 ~40% drop over 250 m around the 2.4 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 climb of about 37% around the 1.0 km mark.
- Drops and exposed ground: Not assessed on the ground; the map suggests Hard. 3 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: 4 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 Great Langdale — 1.0 km from this start
- Walks from Stickle Tarn — 1.5 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.
