Lake District - 'real' walks ok for the weak of leg and faint of heart!

[Blu]

We are off to the Lake District with a large family group, which includes DS, 6 who walks with a limp and gets tired but is plucky, my Mum, 76 but game, and listless pre-teens, alongside ambitious hillwalking adults, some of whom (ahem) are not as fit as they once were!

We need recommendations for a selection of 'real' walks which are nevertheless manageable. Not strolls along proper paths to tourist destinations, iyswim, and not Great Gable. Examples of walks which have worked well are Glenridding to Lanty's Tarn, and the path from the head of Hawes Water to where the Golden Eagles nest. We like a bit of a hill, possibly a low summit, some changing views etc.

We will be based by Ullswater.

Any recommendations?

Ooo - I'm interested too.

Loving 'plucky' as a description of your Boy Blu.

Right, am sending this link to JT - she'll know!

There are some lovely walks along the langdales that we do often with verying scenery.

I had a scaredy cat fit near the top of Great Gable the other week

I have done all the 'big walks' in the Lakes - but never Great Gable.

I had a scaredy fit on a bit of Striding Edge last year - the bit as you come to the end of Striding Edge and on to the last summit bit.

Yes, JT will know - thanks!

Have you got the Wainwright guides -- they detail walks to every peak.

Hi Blu we are going to the Lakes in a few weeks with my dad. We are staying in Keswick, but dh and I have stayed near Ullswater before we had dd. One walk we liked was from Brothers Water up to Angle Tarn.
we also like around Watendlath, and last year dd managed from Grange (Derwentwater) up to the top of Castle Crag and half of the way back (she was nearly 4 then).
When we were in Ambleside we did a walk up to the Sweden bridges.
Another nice walk is from Buttermere up to Haystacks.
I know what you mean about Striding Edge - the last time I went up there I had to turn back!!

Which end Ullswater? We stayed near Pooley Bridge at end of April, got book of local walks from tourist information (you could also investigate Jarrold Pathfinder books). You can catch the steamer across the lake and do walk for part of return journey etc, don't think this involves hills though (but perhaps this will cheer the listless pre-teens ). We didn't do walk in the end (only had wrap for baby which I felt wouldn't support my back enough) but you could do a leg of walk from Howtown to Pooley Bridge using steamer to connect the end stops - this might give reasonable views. Poss best to ask at TIC when you're there...

Thanks for all these - Brothers Water is a good idea, also I remember Watendlath being very pretty - went there when I was a child, so it must have been managable!

I feel I have been on the Ullswater steamer enough for one lifetime - we will be at the other end, above Glenridding. The bridge at Howtown is a gret place for catching minnows.

We have the Wainwrights - but save most of those walks for the days when the children and grannnies stay and fall in play by the beck.

sorry can't help, all the walks we've done around Ullswater area are 'big' walks!

I did Great Gable on Friday. Had a completely fabulous time, as did my half-mountain-goat dog.

Am completely desperate now to get back and do more.

I'm still not sure exactly what you're after length-of-walk-wise. Ullswater is a good area to be in, as it's quieter than - say - Windermere.

Of you've got footwear to cope I would just get OS map and pick routes, there are plenty of paths which go along fairly steadily without going to fell-tops.

I've walked along the West coast of Ullswater, which is lovely.

There are nice routes right round Rydalwater (caves at the back for 6-yr-olds), but it can get very busy round there on Saturdays and in the holidays. If you go over to that part of the world Elterwater tends to be quieter.

If you want quiet then over to the West (Wastwater and Eskdale and so on) are usually quieter, but tends to be a lot of "up" or "flat" which may not be your cup of tea.

Our dog does the half mountain goat thing at great gable, runs up and down to get a drink constantly.

Last time we had a go at great gable an old couple were descending backwards whilst singing hymns!

Watendlath is beautiful-walk up from the Surprise View carpark.Try the walk through the woods to Crummock from Lanthwaite Green carpark-great wee beaches for skimming stones, fantastic views and very quiet.A walk round Buttermere?.St Beeshead for great bird life.

Don't have maps or guidebooks in front of me but there is a well-surfaced walk up a valley from Howtown jetty, which brings you out at a not super-high hause at the top end of Ullswater. You drop down and follow the low-level path round to Glenridding/Patterdale.
Castle Crag is a proper little mountain - could your party manage the slight scramble up the slate to the top?
Agree that the walk up to Watendlath past Surprise View and then down returning to Ashness landing stage via the Bowder stone is a goodie
Ds loved Dodd Fell, a Forest Enterprise set of route-marked walks, the last time we were there, but the main interest for Boyblu would be helping to spot the waymarks. Views over Bass are stunning at the top.
Look, I've got too excellent O/S Lake District Walk books, mail me your addy and I can lend them. They have lots of slightly off-beat circular walks, always with a bit of a climb, but going to places like the hidden valley up behind Barf/the Whinlatter Forest Centre etc, also Castlerigg Stone Circle etc
And yes, there is a fell called Barf

Bloody Blencathra is worse by the way Blu - horrific Never mind hymns, tsap, I came off Sharp Edge swearing continuously for two hours thereafter
You need to do Helvellyn when you are a teenager and assume you are immortal.

I'm to say that I live in the lake district and have never 'done a walk' but I know there is one by Haweswater dam which I had a go at once (but thats as far as I got). Don't know if you've ever been up there.

Brilliant suggestions here - thanks Marina - will do.

yes, that descent from one of the edges from Blencathra - I did that as a reckless teenager!

I really enjoyed Sharp Edge in a sadistic kind of way!

me too disco

gosh I never dared to go up Sharp Edge. I am a wuss! As was my mum, who didn't do it either. My dad did it, of course (he has since been to Everest base camp)!

I think Striding Edge is a lot worse than it used to be - lots of erosion. The other edge (Swirrel?) isn't quite so bad.

Has anyone here done Jack's Rake (Scafell), think that's what it's called? That looked a bit suicidal to me (but then as I said, I am a wimp!)

From Keswick over Catbells and round Derwentwater in a circular walk? Not sure how far that is altogether.

I always feel very old when I watch kids run down Great Gable with no cares in the world.

Hellvellyn and Blencathra are on our to do lists before we move south.

Catstycam from Greenside, Swirral edge and then down by striding edge and ...oh what's it called? Down into Glenridding, anyway, not Patterdale, is the best Helvellyn walk, I think.

Have you seen the "Walks with children i n the Lake District" series? Haven't got the Ullswater one sorry.