A ruined mine and its mill standing at the head of Coledale, reached on a wide, well-surfaced track from Braithwaite. Easy walking, one climb at the start, and an industrial ruin at the end of it that most visitors to the Lake District never see.
Out and back from Braithwaite
Ascent from the village
Allow, with time at the mine
Wide track · one climb
An easy walk with a payoff
Force Crag Mine stands at the head of Coledale, the valley running south-west from Braithwaite. It is reached on the mine's own access track — wide, well surfaced and, once the first climb is behind you, close to flat the whole way in. That combination is unusual: most walks that end at something this dramatic make you earn it with a summit. This one does not.
From the village it is roughly 8.3 km (5.2 miles) there and back, with around 240 m of ascent and a moving time of about 1 hour 40 minutes. Allow two to two and a half hours in practice, because you will spend longer at the mine than you expect to. The track is fine in trainers, and the mine buildings come into view from a long way off, which keeps children walking.
It is also a genuine alternative for anyone already parked at or heading for Whinlatter Forest, which sits directly across the valley. Flat, wide, and with a ruin at the end of it rather than a viewpoint. Grisedale Pike is the obvious "one day" upgrade from here, and you can see the whole of its Sleet How ridge from the track — but this walk does not go up it.
Not to be confused with the Coledale Round — sometimes called the Coledale Horseshoe. That is a long, hard day over five or more summits on the fells above this valley. The walk on this page stays on the valley track and climbs nothing.
Map
Parking, the mine buildings at the valley head, and the High Force workings on the fellside above them. The route between them is the single track shown on the ground — there are no turnings to get wrong.
Interactive map © OpenStreetMap contributors — tap a pin for the place. Pin positions are approximate, plotted from published grid references; tell us if any need nudging.
The bit everyone asks about
Braithwaite is a small village with a lot of walkers arriving in it, and parking is the thing that catches people out. Here is what is actually true, and what is not settled.
An informal gravel area off the Whinlatter road (B5292), reached by a sharp left turn. Free. Room for five or six cars. The National Trust information board for the mine is here, and the track starts at it.
It fills early — local advice for a busy day is to be there by around 7am. It does turn over reasonably quickly, though, because most people parked here are on a short walk rather than a full fell day.
The village primary school opens its grounds to parking — and this is the detail almost everyone gets wrong, to the point that locals correct each other on it: weekends and school holidays only. Not on a term-time weekday.
There is a suggested all-day donation, payable by cash in the letterbox by the front door, or online through the school's JustGiving link. No overnight stays or camping. We are deliberately not quoting the amount here — check the school's own page for the current figure.
It is a nicer place for your money to go than a machine, too.
Braithwaite CofE Primary SchoolThe old road across from the village has long been used for free parking. A new sign has appeared on it recently, and what the restriction actually is now is not clear — accounts locally do not agree, and we have not been able to settle it.
We would rather tell you it exists and that the position has changed than pretend it is unrestricted or leave it out. Read the sign before you walk away from the car.
Parking at Whinlatter instead? The Forestry England visitor centre across the valley has a large car park with a charge, and is a reasonable fallback if Braithwaite is full — though it puts a road walk between you and the start of this track. Charges change, so check the current tariff with Whinlatter Forest before relying on it.
This is worth knowing, because the parking above is the weak point of the whole day — and Braithwaite is on the bus network. Both services are Stagecoach and both stop in the village at Croft Terrace.
The 77 / 77A, the Honister Rambler, is the interesting one. It is a seasonal circular from Keswick running in both directions, and it takes in Portinscale, Braithwaite, Whinlatter, Buttermere and Borrowdale. That puts Braithwaite and Whinlatter on the same loop — so you can come out from Keswick, walk to the mine, cross to Whinlatter Forest afterwards, and ride home, with no car and no parking problem at either end. Being seasonal, it does not run all year and the dates move, so check before you plan around it.
The X5 is the year-round option — Workington, Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith, stopping at Braithwaite and Thornthwaite.
Timetables and fares change too often to publish here. Check current times with Stagecoach.
Stagecoach — timetables and ticketsStep by step
Out and back on the same track. Directions below are given walking away from Braithwaite; on the return everything is simply reversed.
From the Royal Oak, cross the bridge and head to the end of the road at the rear of the pub. Turn left onto the Whinlatter road, the B5292.
About 250 yards along, Hope Memorial Camp is on your right. It is a children's and youth camp, not a public campsite — we mention it only because it is the landmark that tells you the turning is close.
Shortly after the camp, a sharp left turn on the left-hand side opens into the informal gravel parking area — five or six cars, and the National Trust information board for the mine. ///jeeps.startles.hushed
The track climbs immediately. This is the only real ascent of the walk, and it is over early. It curves around the lower flank of Grisedale Pike, which is the steep ground on your right.
The gradient eases and the track levels out. Views open back over Braithwaite and away towards Keswick. Worth turning round for — it is the best view of the outward leg, and you get it again on the way home.
From here the track runs almost flat along the northern side of Coledale. The fellside rises on your right; on your left the ground drops away to the beck running down the valley floor. It is wide enough for bikes as well as walkers, and there is nothing to navigate.
The buildings become visible from a considerable distance, sitting at the head of the valley beneath the dark cliffs of Force Crag itself. This is the stretch that keeps children going: the thing you are walking to is in sight for the last mile or more.
Back down the same track. It is downhill in the places that were uphill, and the whole return is quicker than the way in. See below for the alternative, which is not the same standard of path.
There is an option to cross the beck in the valley and return on a path down the opposite side, which brings you back into Braithwaite. It exists, and some people prefer it. But it is not the equivalent of the main track, and we are not going to present it as though it were:
The main track from the Whinlatter side is wide, well surfaced and genuinely fine in trainers. If you came in trainers, go back the way you came.
Orientation
Given once, walking out from Braithwaite. On the return they swap sides, so we will not repeat it.
| Fell | Where it is | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| Grisedale Pike | Right, north-west side | Drops its Sleet How ridge straight down to the track. The steep ground on your right for most of the way in. |
| Barrow | Left, near the start | Low and rounded. |
| Stile End | Left, after Barrow | The next rise along the same side. |
| Outerside | Left, further in | Deeper into the valley, still on the same side. |
| Force Crag | Head of the valley | The crag directly above the mine — and what the mine is named after. The dark cliffs behind the buildings. |
| Crag Hill (Eel Crag) | Beyond and above the valley head | A separate summit, higher and further back towards Coledale Hause. Not the cliffs behind the mine. |
Barrow, Stile End and Outerside are all on the same side — your left, walking out. They are often described as being on opposite sides of the valley, and they are not.
The reason you walked in
What stands at the head of Coledale is a working industrial site that stopped and was left. The mill is the large building against the crag, and it is the important one: Historic England rates it the best-preserved barytes mill in the country, with its ore-refining machinery still in place.
Force Crag was worked for galena (lead), sphalerite (zinc) and baryte, also written barytes. Galena was identified when the site was first investigated in 1775. Historic England records lead being mined from 1839 until 1865, and barytes and zinc intermittently from 1867. Across its whole life the mine produced roughly 60,000 tons of barytes, 1,248 tons of zinc and 624 tons of lead, plus silver.
Baryte is not a household name, but it is a useful mineral: it is very heavy for its size, which is why baryte is used as a weighting agent in the drilling fluids used in oil and gas drilling — the bulk of UK output goes to that — and why barium sulphate is used in the barium meals given for radiographic imaging. Those are uses of the mineral in general; what Force Crag's own output went to is not something we can tell you.
Barytes became a strategic mineral in wartime, and Force Crag was expanded to suit. Tampimex Oil Products took the mine over in 1939; the mill, originally built in 1908–9, was redesigned in 1939–40, and in 1940 an aerial ropeway was built to bring ore down to it from the High Force track, some 740 feet above. By 1947 35,000 tons of barytes had been taken out. Laporte Chemicals worked the mine later.
Production stopped in 1990, after a collapse in Zero Level, and the mine was formally abandoned the following year. Both dates circulate and both are right — they describe two different things. The National Trust describes Force Crag as the last working metal ore mine in the Lake District.
The fenced ponds you pass are a water treatment scheme. Metals — principally zinc, cadmium and lead — drain out of the disused workings and spoil into Coledale Beck, and the scheme is there to take them out again. It was devised by Newcastle University with the Environment Agency, the National Trust and the body now operating as the Mining Remediation Authority. It matters downstream: Coledale Beck feeds into the Bassenthwaite Lake Special Area of Conservation.
Be straight about this
Not on your own — though what you find on the ground is not quite what "abandoned mine" suggests, so it is worth describing properly.
The buildings are more secure than they look. Windows are barred, and doors and gates are sheeted over with metal. The main structures are effectively sealed.
What is open are the shed areas — and that is almost certainly what the warnings about roofs are there for. The danger is in the open parts, not the sealed ones. Take those signs at face value: they are about structural danger, not about keeping people off the site.
The mine itself is only accessible on one of the National Trust's guided open days — a small number each year.
We are deliberately not listing dates. They change from year to year and a date on a web page goes stale within months — check the National Trust's Borrowdale pages for the current ones.
National Trust — Borrowdale & Derwent Water
Afterwards
The walk finishes in the village, which is the right way round. Three places, all in Braithwaite itself.
Pub · the finish point
The pub the route starts and ends at — you cross the bridge by it on the way out, and it is the obvious place to end up on the way back. Food and drink.
royaloak-braithwaite.comInn · dog friendly
A family-run inn above the village, taking its name from the valley you have just walked. Dog friendly, which matters if you have brought one up the track with you.
coledale-inn.co.ukVillage shop · tea room · rooms
The place to pick up supplies before you set off, and a tea room and rooms as well. The shop has traded in the village since the 1830s, by its own account.
braithwaitehouse.co.ukWhinlatter Forest is directly across the valley — England's only true mountain forest, with bike trails, Go Ape and family walks. If this walk is shorter than your day, that is the other half of it.
Braithwaite is a couple of miles from Keswick. See walks around Keswick for the rest, or the full Lake District walks guide.
Common questions
The walk-start pull-in is an informal free gravel area off the Whinlatter road, at ///jeeps.startles.hushed, with the National Trust information board beside it. It holds five or six cars and fills early — local advice on a busy day is to arrive by around 7am — though it turns over reasonably quickly because most people here are on a short walk.
If it is full, Braithwaite CofE Primary School opens its grounds to parking at weekends and during school holidays only, never on a term-time weekday, for a suggested all-day donation payable by cash in the letterbox by the front door or online through the school's JustGiving page. No overnight stays or camping. Check the school's own site for the current amount.
There is also the old road across from the village, long used for free parking, but a new sign has appeared recently and the restriction is not clear — read the sign before you leave the car. More on parking.