Swinside Inn
Newlands Valley. Keswick. Cumbria
Newlands Valley. Keswick. Cumbria
Fell walking is the most popular activity in the Lake District and The Swinside Inn is the ideal base for a walking holiday in the Lake District! We offer hearty home-made food, comfortable accommodation and a full English breakfast.
If you are not a experienced fell walker then the smartest, safest and most pleasurable way to tackle the fells is by joining a local guide. Reach the highest summits or explore hidden valleys, waterfalls and woodlands on low level walks - there's something for all ages and abilities. If you are considering walking please check out the latest 5-day weather forecast for the Lake District. The Swinside Inn doesn't offer guided walks though there are plenty of local organised guides that do provide safe Lake District walks. Here are just a few places that can be reached from the Swinside Inn:
There is good reason why this fell is probably the most popular walk in the Lake District. Sitting near the summit for a well earned break the view to the North provides a panorama of Newlands, the wooded fell and hamlet of Swinside and the Inn, tantalizingly close, raising such quotes as ‘I can see the Pub from ‘ere’. The panorama continues with Skidaw, Derwent Water, Keswick, Blencathra (Saddleback) even round to the East, The Helvelyn ridge and the higher peaks of the Langdales.
Wainwright wrote of this famous Fell:
It is one of the great favorites, a family fell where grandmothers and infants can climb the heights together, a place beloved. Its popularity is well deserved, its shapely topknott attracts the eye offering a steep but obviously simple scramble.
The middle of the 3 peaks bounding the southern end of the Newlands valley, it’s picturesque outline stands proud in the panoramic view from the Swinside Inn, from where you can see the path that descends from the summit down over May Crags, highlighted in the last of the light on a summers evening.
These crags once contained some of the richest deposits of minerals, however all that is left is a man made fissure that bisects the ridgeline.
Its summit is marked by an iconic cairn, despite its exposed location this cairn has stood for many years withstanding the worst weather that the Lake District winters can throw at it. This is a testament to both the dry stone walling techniques refined throughout Cumbria’s many walls and the natural strength of the local stone, the blue slate, which was originally plucked off the escarpments and now mined below at the summit of Honister.Looking past the cairn to the north into the deep valley is one of the Lakelands truly spectacular views giving an unsurpassed panorama of the whole of the Newlands Horseshoe.
Nestling within the bounds of the Grizdale horseshoe, Barrow sits proudly on the eastern side of the valley, it’s history has been important to the expansion of the British Empire during Elizabethan times. The rich lead and silver deposits extracted from here assisted in the funding of the Royal Navy, allowing us to defend the British shores against the Spanish Armada.
One of the most pleasant approaches to the summit of Barrow is via Stoneycroft Ghyll following the ancient mining track towards Outerside then turning east along the easy path to the summit. Barrow provides dramatic views of the Newlands valley, the Vale of Derwent, Bassenthwaithe Lake, Derwent Water, Catbells and in good conditions even the distant spine of the North Pennines.
The Western side of the valley is dominated by the rugged and gnarly summit called Causey Pike, although the hardest peak to walk from the Newlands valley due to the final summit scramble it can still be achieved by most competent walkers.
Once completed walkers can enjoy the vantage point with a packed lunch enjoying the solitude looking down on the Newlands Valley and the busier more accessible peaks such as Catbells and Maiden moor.
To the south of the summit there is a rare glimpse of the ancient woodland that once blanketed the whole of the Cumbrian fells. Following the deforestation during the 17thcentury this small unique habitat is almost all that remains.
For most walkers this is the final peak on the Newlands horseshoe and therefore the quietest. Its wide open summit on a day when the clouds are scraping the tops provide solace and calm, when the clouds lift the unsurpassed views open out over Buttermere, Crummock, Loweswater and the Scottish peak of Criffle beyond the Solway. To the north you have Skidaw, Blencathra and Keswick.
