Our favourite walk, with the best views. We started at High Cascades, went over the trig point to the cairn on Green Hill, and came back up beside the cascades instead of along the road.
Our circuit · 3¾ miles
Ascent
Summit · 1,579 ft
Allow
Why this way round
Gowbarrow Fell is 481 m (1,579 ft), a Wainwright in the Eastern Fells, with an Ordnance Survey trig pillar on the summit. The National Trust owns the fell. We walked it on Saturday 3 October 2026, Peter, Ellie and Cass (on the lead throughout), and it is our favourite walk, with the best views.
Most guides start at the main Aira Force car park. We started at High Cascades car park on the A5091 and would recommend doing it our way. The climb is steep whichever way you do it, but from High Cascades you are already half way up the hill, and you come back up beside the cascades, so you never walk back along the road from the very bottom after already doing a fell. The walk alongside the cascades is absolutely beautiful.
Start at Aira Force, or walk it the opposite way, and the climb is steep and harsh. The way we walked it has steps, including the zig-zag steps at the top that make the toughest point a lot easier. The other way is a lot of grass and mud, with no steps or concrete. Our route, step by step.
Getting there & parking
We parked at High Cascades car park, a National Trust pay and display car park on the A5091, the Dockray road. The Visit Lake District listing gives it 35 spaces and says it can fill by about 10am at peak times. National Trust members park free. The same listing says payment is by coins or the PayByPhone app, and warns that mobile coverage there is patchy. For current charges, check the National Trust.
Park Brow is the other small National Trust car park on the same road. The main Aira Force car park is at the A592/A5091 junction.
Step by step
Peter, Ellie and Cass walked this circuit on Saturday 3 October 2026, clockwise: about 6 km / 3¾ miles, roughly 315 m of ascent, summit 481 m, allow 3 hours. We left the car park at 13:18 and were back at 16:12. what3words are printed at each point below.
Park at High Cascades car park on the A5091. The fingerpost on the route also reads High Cascades Car Park. what3words for the car park: ///tortoises.reporter.romance.
The first gate carries a Patterdale Mountain Rescue sign that gives its own location: OS grid ref NY397210 and what3words ///alley.clubs.dished, as printed on the sign. The same gate has a National Trust notice asking you to keep your dog on a lead, and a dogs-on-leads plaque. Cass was on the lead from here to the end.
Go down through the second gate and turn left. You come to a signpost: one way Aira Force, one way Gowbarrow. We followed Gowbarrow.
Cross the bridge. The first of the High Cascades is a few minutes into the walk, white water running over dark rock steps under the trees. They are the smaller falls beside this path, not Aira Force.
From here the path climbs beside a wall, and Ullswater opens up behind you as you gain height. This is the steep part, and it is steps, including the zig-zag steps in the photo below at the top, which make the toughest point a lot easier. It took us about 50 minutes from the car to the trig point, which we reached at 14:08. From the summit you can see as far as Penrith in the distance, and Lake Ullswater.
From the summit, heading across the top of the fell, it was boggy on 3 October. On the way across there is a steep drop that is quite easy to navigate on foot but worth noticing. This is also where we missed the turn that AllTrails takes back down, and carried on along the top. Peter calls it "the best mistake I have made".
At the cairn, ///grain.shots.headstone, at about 14:54, we stood on top and it felt like a second fell, though we did not know what it was. The hill lists name it Green Hill. More on that in the four tops below.
From the cairn we headed south along the line above Ullswater, and stopped at three viewpoints in walking order: ///rumbles.headlight.foggy, ///swoop.ramming.dusted and ///avid.feels.uplifting. This is where the views are, and the reason to come this way. Peter's note at the first of them: "This is an incredible walk."
At ///gossiped.started.doll there is a choice. Left goes to Aira Force; right is the easier way back to the car. We went right, down a rocky path through the trees.
At the wooden footbridge, ///treble.risks.roughest, you reach High Cascades again: this is the waterfall near the bridge.
Walk up beside High Cascades to the car park. You are already half way up the hill, you stay off the road, and the walk alongside the cascades is absolutely beautiful. We were back at 16:12.
AllTrails' High Cascades, Gowbarrow Fell and Aira Force circular is 5.0 km with 310 m of ascent and turns back down earlier. Ours is about 0.9 km longer, and that extra distance is the reason for the views: the cairn on Green Hill and the three viewpoints above Ullswater. AllTrails sends you on another route that misses all the great views of Ullswater. Don't follow it: use ours and you will get the best views.
The Database of British and Irish Hills lists four tops on Gowbarrow Fell: the Wainwright summit with the trig point (481 m); a separate Gowbarrow Fell entry about 100 m away; Gowbarrow Park (464 m), a grass mound; and Green Hill, the cairn. Gowbarrow Park here means that top, not the National Trust's Aira Force and Gowbarrow Park property. We stood on two: the trig point and the Green Hill cairn.
Dogs are asked to be on leads from the very first gate, where the National Trust notice and the dogs-on-leads plaque are. There are sheep on the fell, and Cass was on the lead from start to finish.
It was boggy across the top on 3 October. There is a steep drop off the summit that is easy on foot but worth noticing, and the path through the woods near the end is rocky. Check the Lake District Weatherline before you go.
The Royal Hotel in Dockray, about half a mile along the road from the car park, heading towards Penrith.
Aira Force is not on this walk. At the junction on the way down, left goes to the falls and right is the easier way back to the car. Our Aira Force guide covers the falls, and Ullswater and Glenridding have the rest of the lake. For more fells, see all our fell guides and the Wainwrights.
Common questions