Walk · North Yorkshire

Catbells and the Newlands round from Keswick

Keswick · CA12 5DJ
Stair Swinside Little Braithwaite Cat Bells 451m Swinside 245m Skelgill Bank 338m River Derwent Cockshot Wood N 880 YD © OpenStreetMap contributors
8.9MILES
4h 20mON FOOT
410mCLIMB
CircularSHAPE
The route A-road B-road Lane Track Path Water Woodland
Off-road 84% 16% shares tarmac with cars
Field & moor path 58%Lane & track 26%Road with traffic 16%

Our drawing of the route, over road and path data from OpenStreetMap. It shows where the walk goes and what it goes through. It is not a survey and not a navigation aid — carry OS Explorer on the hill.

Starts at
Lakeside car park, Keswick, out by the Portinscale suspension footbridge CA12 5DJ
Parking
Paid town car parks; the roadside spaces on the Newlands lane at Hawes End and Skelgill are few, heavily enforced and fill by 8.30am
Directions to the start →

Eight and three quarter miles and 410 metres of climb, four and a half hours: out of Keswick by Portinscale and the west shore to Hawes End, up Skelgill Bank onto Catbells, then down to the Newlands valley and back. Start from the Lakeside car park in Keswick, or take the Keswick Launch to Hawes End - dogs travel for a small fare and it removes three road miles. The ridge is superb for a dog with the head for it, but be honest about the two rock steps low on Skelgill Bank, which are hands-on for people and awkward for a short-legged dog, and the summit ridge is narrow with drops both sides; the fell is grazed throughout and there is no water above the Hawes End gate.

THE SMALL PRINTLeads on the whole ridge - grazed fell, a narrow crest with drops on both sides, and two rock steps on Skelgill Bank that a small or heavy dog will struggle with. No water above Hawes End.

House rules, decoded

Livestock — leads on
REGION · NORTH YORKSHIRE
GRID · 54.5968, -3.1382
SOURCE · HTTPS://WWW.KOMOOT.COM/GUIDE/2795213/HIKING-AROUND-KESWICK
Also in Keswick
N 880 YD
Walk SOME LIMITS

Brandelhow Park and the Octavia Hill shore

CA12 5UE
3.6 MI · 1H 30M · 98% OFF-ROAD

The quiet western shore of Derwent Water, on the side with no road, reached by the Keswick Launch to Hawes End jetty. The outward leg runs south along the lake edge through the parkland at Brandelhow, the first ground the National Trust ever bought in the Lake District, past the Low Brandelhow jetty and the bronze hands sculpture to the picnic table at High Brandelhow. The return doubles back on the upper woodland track beneath a line of Douglas firs to the Hawes End Adventure Centre. It is flat, shaded and lined with shallow gravel entries to the water, which makes it one of the better hot-afternoon walks in the northern Lakes.

Livestock — leads on
VERIFIED 30 JUL 2026 VIEW ›
No photo yet
Attraction SOME LIMITS

Castlerigg Stone Circle

CA12 4RN
No reviews yet

Thirty-eight stones in a field east of Keswick with Blencathra and the Helvellyn range around them, free to visit and open at any reasonable hour. Dogs on leads are welcome; the field is grazed by sheep and the ground churns up after rain.

Livestock — leads on
VERIFIED 29 JUL 2026 VIEW ›
N 440 YD
Walk SOME LIMITS

Derwent Water and Cockshot Wood accessible loop

CA12 5DJ
1.25 MI · 45M · 70% OFF-ROAD

A stile-free mile and a quarter from the Lakeside car park, along the Derwent Water promenade and back over the low wooded hill of Cockshot Wood, with the whole line of Catbells and Causey Pike across the water. There is an optional 250 yard spur out to Friar's Crag, where the path narrows to under three feet and drops steeply to the lake, so it is worth thinking twice with a strong dog. Around Strandshag Bay you choose between a compacted upper path through a sheep-grazed field and a rougher lower path on the shoreline with boulders and tree roots. It is the one walk in Keswick that works with a wheelchair or a pushchair as well as a dog.

Livestock — leads on
VERIFIED 30 JUL 2026 VIEW ›

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