Wray Castle & the Windermere west shore
Start Wray Castle National Trust Car Park
Getting here Parking: Wray Castle (NT, paid), 0.0 km from the start (straight line). Bus: the 505 stops at Low Wray, at Wray Castle Road End; from there it is 1.6 km and 89 m of ascent to this start. And the same back: about 12.7 km in all, with the walk. Getting there ↓ · Route map ↓
Hardest part Moderate distance: 9.58 km round.
Before you choose
- The castle's interior is closed for refurbishment and the National Trust expects to reopen part of it in spring 2027. The grounds, Joey's Café, the toilets and the car park stay open, dawn to dusk (National Trust, checked 25 September 2026).
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: Not a pushchair route.
- Knees: No sustained steep descent in the track’s height model (steepest 250 m about 7%). 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 climb of about 8% around the 7.0 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 9 July 2026)
- Rock and scrambling: Ground underfoot: Easy – estimated from the map, not checked on the ground. Low-level path — set from the route’s own description on 24 Sep 2026, not walked for grading.
- Drops and exposed ground: Not assessed on the ground; the map suggests Easy. Graded from slope only (~10% max); treat exposure as unverified.
- 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 9 July 2026. Access data © OpenStreetMap contributors (via Overpass).
Route map
Wray Castle
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
Wray Castle National Trust Car Park → Finish (9.6 km, 114 m)
From the National Trust car park, follow the permissive paths north-east down to the shore, then south on permissive paths and the public bridleway. Between about 2.6 and 5 km the line leaves and rejoins the bridleway: follow the map there. From about 5 km the bridleway leads south-east to Red Nab car park at about 6.5 km. From Red Nab, follow the lane uphill and on through High Wray at about 8 km, and north-north-east past the Wray Castle bus stop to the paths back to the car park.
If you need to get offThe map shows two ways up from the shore, each passed three times by the line: at about 1.3 km (again at 4 and 4.9 km) a public bridleway leads about 450 m west-north-west to the lane by the Wray Castle bus stop, and at about 1.4 km (again at 3.9 and 5 km) a public footpath climbs about 40 m in 460 m south-west to the lane at High Wray; further on, the line reaches the road at Red Nab at about 6.5 km; not walked for this guide.
GPX track for your GPS or phone. Not yet personally walked
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
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
If the first one is full, these overlap least in our model. The 2 below sit in different places or are different kinds of parking, so a busy morning at one does not mean a busy morning at all of them.
- Wray Castle (NT, paid) — at the start
- Red Nab (NT) — joins the loop at about km 6.5 of 9.6: a 30 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 505 stops at Low Wray, at Wray Castle Road End. From there it is 1.6 km and 89 m of ascent to this start — a walk in before the walk. And the same back: about 12.7 km in all, with the walk. As timetabled from 27 October to 1 November. Towards Kendal (505): Tuesday to Sunday 20:53. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 7 September 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before travelling.
By boat: the Green Cruise (Windermere Lake Cruises) calls at the Wray Castle pier until 1 November 2026, the last day of its season. The pier is in the castle grounds and is reached on foot. Boats on the lakes →
Toilets and refreshments
The essentials
- Arrival Wray Castle National Trust car park, where the walk starts. Pay and display: £7 for 2 hours, £8.50 for 4 hours, £10 all day; free for National Trust members. Cash at the machine, or the JustPark app. (National Trust, Wray Castle, checked 10 August 2026)
- Toilets Public toilets are mapped near the car park, marked wheelchair-accessible. 70 m in a straight line, not a walking distance. (OpenStreetMap, as mapped on 13 September 2026, checked 13 September 2026)
- Refreshments Joey's Café is mapped beside the car park. Its opening hours are not recorded. 78 m in a straight line, not a walking distance. (OpenStreetMap, as mapped on 13 September 2026, checked 13 September 2026)
- Limitation Not a pushchair route. (our Stile & Gate Census, from OpenStreetMap, checked 25 September 2026)
- Miles without Stiles The lakeshore track between High Wray Bay and Red Nab, which this line uses, is the National Park's Miles without Stiles route 7, rated 'for some'. (Lake District National Park, Miles without Stiles 7: Red Nab to High Wray Bay, checked 3 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 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
Moderate overall — hardest: Length; 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 | 9.6 km | 114 m | 2:06–2:48 |
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.
Places to stay near this start
From Wray Castle: 4 places in Ambleside
Walks from places nearby
- Walks from Troutbeck — 3.1 km from this start
- Walks from Ambleside — 3.5 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.