Newlands Valley and Derwentwater
Walk date – 7th April 2026
Distance – 8.3 miles
Weather – breezy but dry and sunny
A longer walk today through part of the Newlands valley as far as Stair, from where we reached the terrace path along the side of Catbells and the views of Derwentwater and the fells around it. Unsurprisingly, many people were out walking today given the sunny weather forecast although on the route we followed we met hardly anyone at all until we reached Brandelhow Park where the Easter holidaymakers were out in force.
Route
Stormwater Bridge – Portinscale – Ullock – Little Braithwaite – Stair – Skelgill – Catbells terrace path – Brandelhow Park – Hawse End – Stub Hill – Lingholm – Nichol End – Portinscale – Stormwater Bridge
From the parking lane which forms part of the Cumbria Way where we were lucky enough to find the last parking space, and from where we headed off towards Stormwater Bridge. Its a suspension bridge across the river Derwent and although it doesn’t ‘bounce’ I nevertheless linked arms with J until we were across it. I’m never a happy bunny when it comes to high bridges across rivers and motorways.
After threading our way through the streets and alleyways of Portinscale we were out in open countryside again and making our way over to the small hamlet of Ullock. We’ve just crossed the footbridge below the narrow path from Portinscale down into the Newlands valley. In the distance we can see Causey Pike and Barrow on the left skyline and Grisedale Pike on the right.
Crossing the flat fields of the valley with Swinside over on the left with Ullock hamlet just ahead.
From Ullock we had a short stretch of road walking before turning right, along another minor lane, and headed towards Little Braithwaite. The view above is of the Skiddaw group beyond the fields.
A disappointment awaited us when we reached Little Braithwaite bridge where we had hoped to follow the path alongside Newlands beck. The entry to the path was closed off and attached to the fencing was a faded notice which was so old that whatever was written on it had been largely obliterated by the weather although we could make out that the path was closed. From the looks of things it had been closed for a considerable length of time. We decided to cross the field anyway so we backtracked along the lane until we reached a suitable entry point and crossed over into the field. Instead of walking along beside the Newlands beck we walked beside Pow beck which is shown in the above shot.
Across the field the line of gorse bushes indicated where we should be walking because behind them is Newlands beck. There just happened to be a mum with her lamb across there at the time. Mum kept a beady eye on us while the lamb helped itself to a morning drink of milk. This was a zoom shot which gives some idea of the size of the field. We reached the far end of the field and, beyond the broken down fence which we assumed had originally been intended to separate the two, reached a small plantation of conifers. The sheep in the field were happily making their way across the broken down fence, through the conifer plantation and on into the next field. They had done this so often that they had created their own path so we followed on behind and eventually reached open fields again.
We walked on through the fields, keeping the Newlands beck to our right, and eventually we came to this pile of storm debris. Fallen trees, uprooted bushes, broken fencing, and a large amount of stones had been washed down the beck and just left where it had been deposited. We continued on by skirting around the debris and keeping to the left of the fence on the left of the shot.
Eventually we came across this path which we assumed had once been part of the Newlands beck path. It had bootprints on it so it had probably been used quite recently. Further on we passed a stone footbridge which we thought would eventually lead over to Uzzicar although we didn’t cross over it.
From the stone bridge the path returned to being a ‘proper’ path and before long we approached this first gate …..
….. which we passed through only to be met with a similar one a little further along the path which tipped us out onto the lane between Stair and Swinside. One through the gate we turned right and made our way over to Stair.
There was a notice about the path closure attached to the other side of the last gate so I took a shot of it so we could look at in detail later. Turns out that the path has been closed since February 2020 and has since been extended until the end of June 2027! No work has been done at all in the intervening years so its quite possible that its still in someone’s pending tray or its being quietly forgotten. To their eternal shame, eventually the LDNPA will probably come up with some reason or other why it never will be repaired and re-opened.
We followed the lane over to Stair and from there took a left turn and began walking up the lane towards Skelgill. It was getting much warmer now so we had a stop to remove a layer and take some liquid on board. Having got ourselves comfortable again we noticed that the view back towards Stair now included both Rowling End and Causey Pike, which isn’t a view you get very often so here it is in the above shot, and …..
….. opposite them is Barrow.
As we got higher we could see the top of Outerside between Causey Pike and Barrow.
The view across the valley from Skelgill, (from L to R) of Rowling End, Causey Pike, Outerside, Grisedale Pike and Barrow. Quite unintentionally I’ve managed to include part of one of the houses around Skelgill over on the left. Another duh moment, again!
Barf and Ullister Hill were also in view although this is a close up shot.
From Skelgill we took to the lane which indicated a path leading to Little Town. This path runs in the opposite direction to where we were going but eventually goes off to the right so we kept on following the lane until we reached the flatter area at the top of the lane. This lane eventually drops down towards the path at the Hause End section of Catbells although we noticed a couple of narrow paths leading from the top of this lane back towards the summit of Catbells. There are parking spaces here and there along the lane but all were full when we walked past them. The above shot was taken as we walked down the lane and shows some of the fells making up the Skiddaw group. As we walked further down to where the paths begin the climb up to Catbells we noticed large numbers of people taking to them and beginning their climb.
Walking along the terrace path now with a view across Derwentwater towards Blencathra, and where one of the sightseeing launches was making its way back to Keswick.
From the terrace path a view of the summit area of Catbells. It’ll need a big zoom in to see it clearly but there was a queue of walkers heading up to it, and even more where they came from. In contrast there was no-one on the terrace path.
Immediately below is the small peninsula jutting out into Otterbield Bay and, on the far side of Derwentwater is Walla Crag. We could just see Great Dodd appearing in the distance to the right of Walla Crag. We couldn’t help but smile at the car parking antics taking place on the road below us, and we also noticed that a few of the waves down there had white tops
Also from the terrace path was this view of the ridge from Bleaberry Fell (L) to High Seat (R) …..
….. and further along as we began to descend are some of the fells in the Borrowdale area. Difficult to identify as they are all in shadow but Grange Fell, Great Crag and King’s How will be in there somewhere.
The terrace path eventually comes to an end along the road coming from Manesty and we crossed the road and began dropping down the path into Brandelhow Park. We remembered using this path in 2021 when the route across to the ‘Chinese’ bridge was flooded so we couldn’t do a circuit of Derwentwater on that occasion.
The landing stage at Brandelhow Bay where a launch has just left after dropping off some of its passengers, a few of which were looking as though they had just been delivered to another planet instead of being a few minutes away from the landing stages in Keswick. We think that the contraption on the other side of the jetty was some kind of pile driver machinery.
A little further on the path through Brandelhow Park we noticed another launch making its way towards the landing stage shown in the previous photo.
We’ve reached Otterbield Bay now and as it was nicely framed by the trees I decided to take another shot of Blencathra …..
….. and a little further on was this view of the Skiddaw group. One look at the waves on the water will give you some idea of the breezy conditions today.
Walking through the woodland on Stub Hill …..
….. before arriving at Nichol End marina and taking a peek down into the cafe and boating area.
We stopped to have a break at Nichol End and, in addition to having a little picnic in the sunshine, watched the comings and goings of folk taking to, or returning from, the water. J, having experience of all manner of boats from childhood and then as an adult, pointed out all the mistakes that people were making. The above shot shows a partial view of the marina and in the background are Clough Head (L) rising up to Great Dodd.
From the jetty we were perched on a look beyond a very scruffy looking boat towards Latrigg over to the right.
After our break we walked back through Portinscale and across Stormwater Bridge to the parking area where the chap in the camper van parked behind us was cooking his lunch. Didn’t see what it was but the aroma coming from it suggested some kind of meat. We had chatted to him earlier as we parked up and asked if we’d left enough space for him to get out if he needed to. He said we had and then proceeded to tell us all about the poor weather he’d experienced in Scotland which decided him to head south for the Lake District in the hope of finding better weather. He’d definitely found some today, although by the end of the afternoon the cloud blanket had returned. We weren’t too concerned about it as we were back home by then. We’ve had a great walk, although slightly longer than usual, in very sunny weather and couldn’t have wished for anything better. Wonder when that queue of walkers on Catbells dwindled away?