Walla Crag to Ashness Bridge Walk

This is a circular loop of 4.5 miles (7.2 km), and that figure is the whole circuit back to where you started, not one way. It begins and ends at Great Wood car park on the Borrowdale road south of Keswick, climbing through woodland to the rocky top of Walla Crag before dropping down to Ashness Bridge and returning at a lower level through the trees. Rated moderate, around 5 out of 10 for effort. The official time is 2 hours; allow about 2.5 hours if you stop to look at things and take photos.

From the car park you head up through Great Wood, crossing small streams, with the first views opening out over Keswick, Bassenthwaite Lake and Skiddaw. At a signed junction the path turns toward Castlerigg and Walla Crag, crossing Brockle Beck on a wooden footbridge, then using a short tarmac lane and another footbridge near Rakefoot Farm. From there a stony track and then a greener, wetter track climb steadily beside the beck. You cross a wall at a stile for the rocky viewpoint, then descend on the track across open moorland above the heads of Cat Gill, cross Barrow Beck and arrive at Ashness Bridge. The signed return goes through a gate, keeps to the lower path, crosses a footbridge over Cat Gill and brings you back into Great Wood.

Be clear-eyed about this one: it is compact but genuinely hilly, with rough ground rather than smooth path. The terrain samples run from roughly 90 m near the car park to around 355 m on the high crag section, so the climb is sustained even if it is never long. Expect a mix of gravel, grass, bare rock, stepping stones, short bridge and lane sections, and stretches that are wet or boggy after rain. Boots with grip are worth having, and the descent toward Ashness has rocky steps in places.

Wayfinding is mostly straightforward but there are three points to pay attention to:

• The signed junction above Great Wood where you turn toward Castlerigg and Walla Crag.
• The stile in the wall that takes you out to the summit rocks.
• The signed gate on the return from Ashness Bridge, where you need to stay on the lower path.

The crag itself is the payoff: a rocky platform with a clean drop toward Derwent Water and Skiddaw beyond, with the marshy ground at the head of the lake forming a small bird's-foot delta you can pick out from above. The hard, erosion-resistant volcanic rock that underlies Borrowdale is the reason for the abrupt crags and the stony tread underfoot, so the ground you are walking on and the view you are looking at are the same story. Lower down, Great Wood is worth slowing for, and red squirrels are part of Borrowdale's wildlife, so keep an eye on the canopy without expecting a sighting. Ashness Bridge is the classic stone packhorse bridge over Barrow Beck, best photographed with the fell behind it. For the crag, late afternoon and early evening light tends to work best looking out over the water; mornings can be softer and quieter on the woodland sections.

• Start and finish: Great Wood car park, Borrowdale Road (B5289), grid reference NY271214, a short drive south of Keswick. It is a National Trust car park, and overnight parking is not permitted.
• Signal and payment: mobile coverage is patchy in this valley and parking payment arrangements at rural car parks vary, so arrive prepared rather than relying on your phone.
• Dogs: allowed, but on a lead at all times on this route. There is grazing land and open fell along the way.
• Alternatives: if you want the crag without the full circuit, a shorter there-and-back to Walla Crag is an option, and a level lakeside walk from Keswick is a much gentler way to spend the same couple of hours.