Ambleside to Troutbeck – Holiday Home Walks

Most visitors to the Lake District will at some time or the other visit the villages of Ambleside and Windermere, which provide a mecca for tourists all over the world.

While in summer it means that the streets can get pretty busy, with the landscape the way it is, you can still disappear off the beaten track and lose a few people along the way!

Ambleside to Troutbeck

One of our favourite walks is from Ambleside to Troutbeck via Jenkin’s crag and Robin Lane.  In good weather, you can come up over Wansfell Pike instead, but it’s a fair climb.As we’re usually in a hurry to get to one of the pubs in Troutbeck, we very often go and come back the same way. The views along the route are absolutely superb, so we’re sure you won’t mind seeing it twice!  Do take an OS map with you – I pay £19.99 a year to OS Maps and I have an App so it’s always on my phone.  You then have all the maps and footpaths in the UK at your fingertips, just download the bit you want before you leave to ‘offline maps’, in case you lose signal!

Start Point

To start the walk, we park near Lake Road in Ambleside – there are various car parks dotted along there.  Then you need to walk up Old Lake Road until you get to Skelghyll Lane.  Take Skelghyll Lane uphill all the way until you eventually turn off towards Skelghyll Wood and Jenkins Crag.  This is a bridleway all the way and turns into Robin Lane.  There are stunning high-up views over Lake Windermere for most of the journey, so do take a good camera.

Refreshments

On reaching the end of Robin Lane, you arrive in the pretty little hamlet of Troutbeck, where there is a tea room, post office and a pub called the Mortal Man.  The garden views in the Mortal Man are superb and look straight across at High Street.  We have also fallen in love with the Queens Head in Troutbeck. This does mean a bit of roadwork down to the end of the lane, onto the Kirkstone Pass, but we think it worth it!  The pub has a gorgeous ambiance and delicious food.  The Mortal Man is great too – we’ve not eaten there but have heard it’s good also, and has the advantage of being slightly nearer!

Simply re-trace your steps coming back – the view seems different anyway from the other direction and has fab views over Lake Windermere.

Happy Hiking!

Chloe x

Heading up Jenkins Crag, Ambleside on the way to Troutbeck