Windermere Station to Brockhole and Back
Start Windermere 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. Parking & buses ↓
Hardest part Moderate distance: 9.12 km round.
Getting back
This walk is out and back. For a shorter day you can walk one way and take the bus back:
- One way, then the bus: the 555 (every day; the National Park says all year round), the 599 (the National Park says all year round; we hold no timetable for it), the 505 (its summer timetable runs to 1 November 2026) and the 516 stop at Brockhole Visitor Centre (near) for Windermere, about 3.7 km along the line, with about 30 m of climbing to there. The timetables we hold are on the bus pages (555, 505, 516); check the last bus before you set off. The grading and timings on this page are for the whole walk out and back.
Timetables change; the operator’s page is the authority. Checked 4 October 2026.
Before you choose
- Sun Hill and Brook Street have no pavement mapped. On Patterdale Road (A592) OpenStreetMap maps a pavement on one side for about 0.3 km, and none for the rest, about 0.15 km. Where there is no pavement, keep to the right to face oncoming traffic, stay close to the side and be ready to walk in single file; before a sharp right-hand bend, cross to the other side and cross back after it. Wear something bright, or reflective in poor light (Highway Code rules 2 and 3).
- The footpaths in the first and last kilometre are mapped as rough or dirt, and steps are mapped at Brockhole near 4 km.
- The cycle path is shared with cyclists.
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.
Access & barriers
Can a dog, a buggy or dodgy knees manage this route?
- Buggy: Only part of this suits a buggy, and we have not identified which part: do not plan on it for the whole walk.
- Knees: No sustained steep descent in the track’s height model (steepest 250 m about 12%). Steps, wet rock and the surface underfoot are not assessed; your own knees still matter.
With a dog
Not every line below has been assessed. The steepest stretch is a sustained descent of about 9% around the 2.0 km mark.
- 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 2026-10-03)
- 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: No path off the line is recorded, but it passes a bus stop where you could end the walk: the 508 at Troutbeck, at Browhead Campus Windermere School, about 1.8 km; the 505 at Brockhole Visitor Centre (near), about 3.7 km. The buses section says which bus and when.
- 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: 2 gates
Barriers as mapped on OpenStreetMap, which can miss some. Spotted one? Tell us (opens in new tab). Barrier data as of 2026-10-03. Access data © OpenStreetMap contributors (via Overpass).
Route map
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
Windermere station → Patterdale Road (1.4 km, 19 m)
We have written these directions from the map, not on foot. From the station, cross the main road and follow the lane north-west, then the public footpath north-north-west up through the woods. At about 0.5 km, by Windermere Preparatory School, the footpath turns north-west, and it then drops through High Hag Wood to Wynlass Beck and a short permissive track, reaching Patterdale Road, the A592, at about 1.4 km.
WaypointsWindermere station, the crossing, the public footpath through the woods, Windermere Preparatory School, High Hag Wood, Wynlass Beck, Patterdale Road.
Easy to get wrongThese footpaths are mapped as rough or earth paths.
If you need to get offThe map shows the line crossing the main road by the station, then on footpaths through the woods and a short permissive track to Patterdale Road, the A592, at about 1.4 km; the way off is back to the main road or on to Patterdale Road, never more than about 0.6 km; not walked for this guide.
Patterdale Road → Troutbeck Bridge (0.9 km, 0 m)
Follow Patterdale Road north for about 0.45 km. OpenStreetMap maps no pavement on the first 0.15 km and a pavement on one side for the next 0.3 km (see the warnings). At about 1.8 km, by St Catherine's Chapel bus stop, turn left down Sun Hill, a steep lane with no pavement mapped, then follow Brook Street, also with no pavement mapped, north to the A591 at Troutbeck Bridge. Cross the A591 at the lights at about 2.25 km.
WaypointsPatterdale Road, St Catherine's Chapel bus stop, Sun Hill, Brook Street, the lights at Troutbeck Bridge.
Decision pointSun Hill leaves Patterdale Road at about 1.8 km, by St Catherine's Chapel bus stop.
If you need to get offThe map shows the line on roads for the whole of this stage, Patterdale Road, Sun Hill and Brook Street to the A591 at Troutbeck Bridge, so the road is the way off; not walked for this guide.
Troutbeck Bridge → Brockhole entrance (1.6 km, 12 m)
Follow the A591 pavement west over Troutbeck Bridge for about 0.3 km, then the shared cycle path beside the A591 north-west for about 1.25 km, past the Brockhole bus stops, to the entrance to Brockhole at about 3.8 km, where a crossing with a traffic island is mapped.
WaypointsTroutbeck Bridge, the A591 pavement, the cycle path, the Brockhole bus stops, the Brockhole entrance.
Easy to get wrongThe cycle path is shared with cyclists.
If you need to get offBus stops for Brockhole are mapped beside the A591 at about 3.7 km. The National Park says 555 and 599 bus services run all year; check the operator's timetable for your date.
Brockhole entrance → Turning point at Brockhole jetty (0.8 km, 1 m)
Follow the drive into the grounds, past the visitor centre, where OpenStreetMap maps steps on or beside the line at about 4.0 km. Then take the tracks downhill south-west to the lakeshore and north-north-west along it, past the ferry ticket office, to Brockhole Public Jetty at about 4.65 km, where the line turns back. From about 4.1 to 5.1 km the line follows part of the National Park's Miles without Stiles route 8 through the grounds, graded "for many".
WaypointsThe drive, the visitor centre, the steps, the lakeshore, the ferry ticket office, Brockhole Public Jetty.
If you need to get offBrockhole is also a Windermere Lake Cruises landing; check the operator's timetable.
© Lee McCoy Turning point at Brockhole jetty → Finish (4.5 km, 121 m)
From the jetty the line climbs back through the grounds on another track, heading east-north-east, to the drive and the entrance at about 5.3 km. Then retrace the cycle path and the A591 pavement to Troutbeck Bridge, cross at the lights at about 6.85 km, and go back up Brook Street, Sun Hill and Patterdale Road, and the footpaths through the woods, to the station.
WaypointsThe Brockhole entrance, the cycle path, Troutbeck Bridge, Brook Street, Sun Hill, Patterdale Road, High Hag Wood, the station.
Easy to get wrongSun Hill, Brook Street and parts of Patterdale Road have no pavement mapped (see the warnings).
GPX track for your GPS or phone. Planned route · not yet walked
More about this walk
A planned line, drawn from the map. The cycle path is the pushchair part; the footpaths near the station are mapped as rough, and the lanes in between have no pavement. Brockhole is also a Windermere Lake Cruises landing. At Brockhole the line follows part of the National Park’s Miles without Stiles route 8 through the grounds and along the lakeshore, graded ‘for many’, from about 4.1 to 5.1 km; the steps mapped near 4 km come just before 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.
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 a fallback here, but it is a weak one. Some of the 3 below tend to fill for the same reasons at the same time. Treat the list as one-and-a-bit options rather than 3.
- Orrest Head, north-west (layby) — joins the loop at about km 1.8 of 9.1: a 550 m walk to the line, and you walk the round from there
- Windermere, Broad Street (W&F, paid) — a 560 m walk to the start
- Troutbeck Bridge car park — joins the loop at about km 4 of 9.1: a 100 m walk to the line, and you walk the round from there
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) and again at 3.7 km (Brockhole Visitor Centre (near), 10 m off the line) — one bus, two stops, 3.2 km apart on the ground. We haven’t walked a shortened version, so the distance, grading and escape routes on this page describe the walk end to end.
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before travelling.
Toilets and refreshments
The essentials
- Arrival Windermere railway station is at the start. (OpenStreetMap contributors, Cumbria extract of 24 July 2026, checked 3 October 2026)
- Toilets Toilets are mapped at the station and at Booths beside it, and at Brockhole near 4 km. (OpenStreetMap contributors, Cumbria extract of 24 July 2026, checked 3 October 2026)
- Refreshments Booths Cafe is mapped by the station; Joey’s Cafe at Brockhole; The Sun Inn at Troutbeck Bridge, near 7 km. Opening hours are not recorded here. (OpenStreetMap contributors, Cumbria extract of 24 July 2026, checked 3 October 2026)
- Limitation Rough footpaths, steps at Brockhole and lanes with no pavement: not a whole-way pushchair route. (OpenStreetMap contributors, Cumbria extract of 24 July 2026, checked 3 October 2026)
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: Length; terrain not assessed; exposure not assessed on the ground
Five independent axes, not one score. This route has not been walked yet, so none of them was set on the ground: one of the five is our judgement from the map and the route’s record, and 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) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finish | 9.1 km | 153 m | 2:05–2:46 |
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.
Walks from places nearby
- Walks from Windermere — 0.2 km from this start
- Walks from Bowness-on-Windermere — 2.1 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.