The Best Viewpoints in the Lake District, and How to Reach Them

Some of the best views in the Lake District ask for very little climbing. A twenty-minute walk from a railway station, a level path along a lake shore, a few steps from a car park: each of these puts a whole lake and its ring of fells in front of you, and several are open to pushchairs and mobility scooters as well as boots.

This guide covers thirteen of them, roughly north to south and then west. For each one you will find what you see, how to get there and who it suits. Heights are for the summit where the viewpoint is a hill. Paths change and car parks fill, so check the National Trust or National Park pages on the day.

Orrest Head, Windermere

Orrest Head is 238 metres high and stands directly above Windermere village. From the top you look down the length of Windermere and across to the central fells: the Langdale Pikes, the Coniston fells, Fairfield, and on a clear day Scafell Pike and Great Gable.

This is where Alfred Wainwright first saw the Lake District. He came up in 1930, aged 23, and later wrote of "our first sight of mountains in tumultuous array across glittering waters". A view-finder on the summit, put there in 2012, names what you are looking at.

Getting there: the path starts on the lane beside the Windermere Hotel, three minutes' walk from Windermere station. The National Park calls it a gentle twenty minutes to the top. It is one of the Park's Miles Without Stiles routes, and a signed gravel path suits pushchairs and mobility scooters. Windermere paintings and prints.

Friar's Crag, Keswick

Friar's Crag is a small rocky point on the shore of Derwentwater, about half a mile from the Keswick boat landings. It looks straight down the lake towards Cat Bells and the narrow mouth of Borrowdale, with the wooded islands in between.

John Ruskin wrote that the first thing he could remember was being taken by his nurse to the brow of Friar's Crag, and a memorial to him stands there. The National Trust took it on in the 1920s in memory of Canon Rawnsley, one of the Trust's founders.

Getting there: walk from the Theatre by the Lake car park along the lake shore. It is about a kilometre and a quarter each way, level and on a good stone track, with a bench at the end. This is a Miles Without Stiles route suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs. Derwentwater paintings and prints.

Latrigg, Keswick

Latrigg is a 368-metre grassy hill on the north side of Keswick, with Skiddaw rising behind it. From the top the whole town is laid out below, with Derwentwater beyond and the Borrowdale fells behind the lake. Wainwright called it "a panorama of crowded detail, all of it of great beauty".

Getting there: the short way is from the small free car park at the top of Gale Road, reached by the Underscar road. It is about a kilometre to the top, steep at first and then easier. The National Park lists it as a Miles Without Stiles route for mobility scooters, though not for self-propelled wheelchairs. From Keswick itself, walk up Spooney Green Lane from near the old railway station. Latrigg paintings.

Walla Crag

Walla Crag rises 379 metres from the east shore of Derwentwater, a short way south of Keswick. The top looks over the islands at the northern end of the lake and the whole Vale of Keswick, and it is a fine place to watch the light go down behind the north-western fells.

Getting there: from the National Trust's Great Wood car park, follow the signed path beside Cat Gill. It is steep and stepped most of the way. You can also walk out from Keswick by Brockle Beck and make a circuit of about four miles. This one is not suitable for wheelchairs or pushchairs. Walla Crag paintings.

Surprise View

Surprise View lives up to its name. You come round a bend on the road to Watendlath, walk a few steps from the car park, and the ground falls away beneath you. Below is the whole of Derwentwater, with Keswick at the far end and Skiddaw beyond. The viewpoint stands at about 220 metres, at the lip of the hanging valley of Watendlath.

Getting there: the National Trust's Surprise View car park is on the Watendlath road, which leaves the B5289 south of Keswick. The road is steep and single-track, with passing places. The drop at the viewpoint is sheer, so keep children and dogs close. Borrowdale paintings and prints.

Ashness Bridge

A little lower down the same road is Ashness Bridge, a stone packhorse bridge over Barrow Beck. Stand back from it and Derwentwater lies below you with Skiddaw on the far side. The National Trust calls it perhaps the most photographed packhorse bridge in the Lake District, and it is hard to argue.

Getting there: there is a National Trust car park beside the bridge. Without a car, take the Keswick Launch to the Ashness Gate jetty and walk up the lane, which takes about twenty minutes. Ashness Bridge paintings and travel posters.

Castle Crag, Borrowdale

At 290 metres, Castle Crag is the only one of Wainwright's 214 fells under a thousand feet, and he included it because it was too striking to leave out. It stands in the middle of Borrowdale, so the view runs both ways: north to Derwentwater and Skiddaw, south up the valley to Great Gable and the Scafells.

The summit is a war memorial. In 1920 the Hamer family gave it to the National Trust in memory of their son John and the men of Borrowdale who died in the First World War, and a plaque is fixed to the top rock. The old slate quarries on its flank have caves where Millican Dalton, the self-styled "Professor of Adventure", spent his summers for many years.

Getting there: a circuit from Rosthwaite is just under three miles and takes about an hour and a quarter. The final zigzags climb steeply through quarry spoil. There are National Trust car parks at Rosthwaite and Seatoller, and the 78 bus runs up the valley. Castle Crag paintings.

Loughrigg Terrace, Grasmere

Loughrigg Terrace is a level path along the north side of Loughrigg Fell. It looks straight across Grasmere, with its single wooded island, to the village and Helm Crag, with the Fairfield fells behind. It gives you a fell-top view without the fell top, and it is one of the classic short walks in the Lakes.

Getting there: from White Moss car park on the A591 between Grasmere and Rydal Water, follow the path through the woods and onto the terrace. A loop is about two miles and takes an hour. Rydal Cave, a huge old quarry cavern, is a short way beyond the east end. The 555 bus stops on the A591. The terrace is a rough path, not a step-free route. Grasmere paintings and prints.

Tarn Hows

Tarn Hows is a lake made by hand. In the nineteenth century James Garth Marshall of the Monk Coniston estate dammed what were three small tarns into one sheet of water and planted the woods around it. In 1930 Beatrix Potter bought the estate, and most of it passed to the National Trust. The view is of the water, its islands and the trees, with the Coniston fells and the Langdale Pikes on the skyline.

Getting there: a National Trust car park sits above the tarn, and the path round the water is just under two miles. It is a Miles Without Stiles route, and the Trust has all-terrain mobility scooters to book. Without a car, take the 505 bus to Hawkshead Hill and walk about a mile and a half. Tarn Hows paintings and travel posters.

Hallin Fell, Ullswater

Hallin Fell is a 388-metre hill on the eastern shore of Ullswater, with the lake on three sides. From the square cairn on top you look up and down Ullswater, into the quiet valley of Martindale, and across to Helvellyn.

Getting there: park by St Peter's Church at Martindale Hause, where there is a little free space beside the road. A wide grassy path reaches the top in about twenty minutes. The road in from Pooley Bridge is narrow and winding. Alternatively, take an Ullswater steamer to Howtown pier and walk up from there. Hallin Fell paintings and Ullswater paintings and prints.

Gummer's How, Windermere

Gummer's How is a 321-metre hill above the southern end of Windermere. The view runs the whole length of the lake to the central fells, and the other way to the sands of Morecambe Bay. Wainwright called it "an old man's mountain", meaning that it gives a great deal for very little.

Getting there: from the free car park at Astley's Plantation, on the steep road above Fell Foot, it is about 700 metres to the trig point. Allow twenty minutes to half an hour; there are short rocky steps near the top. Windermere paintings and prints.

Wast Water and Great Gable

If one view stands for the whole Lake District, it is this one. The National Park says its logo is based on the view over Wast Water to Great Gable, with Yewbarrow on the left, Lingmell on the right and Great Gable between them at the head of the valley. In 2007 it was voted the winner of ITV's Britain's Favourite View.

Wast Water itself is the deepest lake in England: its bed lies below sea level, and the screes that plunge into its south-eastern side are one of the strangest sights in the Lakes.

Getting there: the National Park points to the south-western end of the lake, near the youth hostel at Wasdale Hall, for the classic view. The valley road is narrow, and there are National Trust car parks along the lake. On summer weekends a bus runs from Ravenglass station. Wast Water paintings and prints and Great Gable paintings.

Rannerdale Knotts, Buttermere

Rannerdale Knotts is a small, steep ridge of 355 metres between Buttermere and Crummock Water. From the top you see along both lakes, with Great Gable at the head of the Buttermere valley. In late April and May the valley below fills with bluebells, which grow here on open fellside rather than in woodland.

Getting there: park at the National Trust car parks on Cinderdale Common, beside the B5289. The path into the bluebell valley is flat for about half a mile, and the summit is a short, steep climb. Our guide to the Rannerdale bluebells has more, and the Buttermere visitor guide covers the walks and parking around the valley. Rannerdale paintings.

The easiest viewpoints

If you are walking with a pushchair or using a wheelchair or mobility scooter, four of these viewpoints are on the National Park's Miles Without Stiles routes: Orrest Head, Friar's Crag, Latrigg (scooters only) and Tarn Hows. Surprise View and Ashness Bridge are a few steps from their car parks. The rest are on rough fell paths.

For Cat Bells, which has one of the best views of Derwentwater of all and deserves a page of its own, see our Cat Bells visitor guide.

Bringing the view home

Every painting on this page is a print you can buy. They are impressions of these places, not photographs of them, so each one shows a place the way it feels rather than every rock and tree. You will find more in the Lakes collection and on each place's own page.

• Unframed print: £59.99 / £79.99 / £99.99 (40cm / 70cm / 90cm)
• Framed print: £89.99 / £129.99 / £199.99
• Unframed canvas: £79.99 / £119.99 / £169.99
• Framed canvas: £109.99 / £159.99 / £209.99
• Panoramic framed canvas: £169.99 (30 x 91cm) / £259.99 (51 x 152cm)

Frames come in black, white or natural wood. Everything is made to order: printing takes 2-5 working days, then UK delivery takes 3-7 working days. Framed pieces arrive ready to hang, and you can add a gift message at checkout.