The Cumbria Way and Allerdale Ramble - Walking Cumbria, England

• Location
• Description
• Contents
• Introduction
• Sample Route
• Maps
• Updates
• Further Reading

View Sample Route Map

Cumbria Way - 1: Ulverston to Coniston

Distance: 16 miles
Map: OS Landranger 1:50 000, Sheet 96: Barrow-in-Furness & South Lakeland
Refreshments: Coniston Hall: Campsite shop
NB there are NO shops or pubs between Ulverston and Coniston, and few becks for filling water bottles. Stock up with food and drink before you leave Ulverston.
Bad Weather Get-Outs: Gawthwaite to Ulverston road.
A5092 road at Gawthwaite.
A5084 Lowick to Torver road.
Negligible bus services but you could thumb a lift in an emergency.
What is it like?: A gentle start to loosen up the legs. Across farmland for the first seven miles, then a more rugged climb to the Blawith Fells and Beacon Tarn. Descent needs care in mist. The final climactic three miles are along Coniston lakeshore. Waymarking is generally poor, though there’s little chance of becoming seriously lost.
Best Bit: Torver Tarn to Coniston.

The walk begins in the western corner of Ulverston’s central car park, The Gill. A sign says ‘Gillbanks. Start of Cumbria Way’.

Walk up the path for about 450 yards, then cross a stone foot-bridge over the beck on your left to climb out of the gill along a walled lane. At the end, turn right along an open field track marked ‘Old Hall Farm’.

Through the farmyard, but just before the beck, turn left through a gap in the bridge wall. After a few strides, climb a stile over the wall on your left into the field behind the farmhouse.

Head up the hill, along the edge of the wood to the back behind Bortree Stile. Go upstream to about 75 yards above the house, then cross the beck to a gap stile into a flat field.

The extensive view back across Ulverston and Morecambe Bay includes the Bowland Fells, the Three Peaks area of Yorkshire and the twin block towers of Heysham nuclear power station.

Continue climbing between two rocky knolls and cross two fields to the road at High Lath farm. Turn right and go down the road to Windy Ash. Here a sharp turn left along a grassy garth brings you to a huddle of farm buildings at Newbiggin. Keep on the farm road until it swings right. You should return to the fields through a gate straight ahead.

In the third field, veer left away from the wall and go through an iron gate where a wall and a hedge meet…