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.
Five and three quarter miles there and back with 940 metres of climb, five hours or more, and the shortest way up the highest ground in England - stone-pitched to begin with, then loose scree in Hollow Stones and a summit plateau of bare boulders. It starts at the National Trust car park at the head of Wast Water by Brackenclose, paid, roughly 60 spaces and gone by eight on any summer weekend; there is no bus and the nearest fuel is twelve miles away at Gosforth. Be blunt about this one with a dog: the last 200 metres cross an angular boulder field that shreds pads and swallows legs, the summit is often in cloud with dozens of walkers milling about, and there is no water above Lingmell Beck - most dogs are better taken up Illgill Head instead.
Ten and a half miles, 700 metres of ascent and close to six hours: the Burnmoor track out of Wasdale Head, then the whole grassy crest above the screes over Illgill Head and Whin Rigg, dropping to the lake foot and returning by the road. It starts at the National Trust car park at Wasdale Head, which is free to members, holds around 40 cars and empties into one single-track road with a fourteen-mile drive out to the coast. Understand what this route is and is not - the ridge itself is broad grass and safe walking for a fit dog, but the shoreline Screes path below is a mile of unstable boulders that no dog should be taken along, and the ridge edge above the gullies is unfenced with a 400-metre drop; leads the whole crest, and no water at all between Burnmoor and the lake.
Two and a half miles there and back from the National Trust car park at Lake Head, down past Wasdale Head Hall Farm to the shingle at the head of England’s deepest lake and then south-west along the shore path under the Wasdale Screes. The shingle at the head is the best swimming water in the valley for a dog, shallow and clean, with the whole 600-metre wall of the Screes rising straight out of the water opposite. The shore path gets progressively rougher and more bouldery as it goes, so turn back when it stops being fun rather than committing to the full traverse. Sheep graze the intake fields by the farm and the National Trust asks for a short lead throughout Wasdale.
Five and a quarter miles and about two and a quarter hours on level ground, out through the oakwoods to the foot of Wast Water for the view up to Great Gable and back along the river Irt. It starts in Nether Wasdale by the two village inns, where the roadside space is limited to a handful of cars and the lane in from Santon Bridge is single-track for three miles. This is the gentle Wasdale walk - shingle at the lake foot for a swim, deep pools in the Irt, and enclosed woodland where a steady dog can run - but the valley is working sheep country with Herdwicks in every field, there are two narrow wooden footbridges without side rails, and the lakeshore path east of Lund Bridge deteriorates into rough boulder ground.
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