Cumbria Way: Rosthwaite to Keswick

After a gentle start, the route gains drama as it passes through the famous Jaws of Borrowdale. The Jaws of Borrowdale, where Grange Fell on the east and Castle Crag on the west almost meet, were seen as sensational and even terrifying by the first tourists. The famous Bowder Stone – a huge boulder seemingly balanced on a point – lies in the Jaws like a hazel in a nutcracker. You won’t see it en route, though, as it’s in the trees on the opposite bank of the river, above the road.

After the Jaws, the valley opens out and soon the route reaches the shores of Derwent Water. Dotted with islands and largely wooded around its shores, this is one of the shallowest of the main lakes and one of the first to freeze in a hard winter. It’s popular with sailors but the winds can be unpredictable as they are deflected off the steep fellsides.

Leave Rosthwaite along the road opposite the postbox (soon passing the car-park). Continue along a track to the River Derwent and follow it downstream to a bridge. Cross and go right, keeping close to the river, and then go left, around a knoll. Stay low and and enter High Hows Wood. Pass old slate workings then climb to a fingerpost, turn right and descend back to the river.

At a track junction, turn right and walk through a campsite. At a lane turn left, signed ‘Manesty 1’. Walk through Hollows Farm, then follow a stony track north through fields. At a T-junction by a plantation turn right and down a field path to a road opposite the Borrowdale Gates Hotel.

Turn left for 600yds (550m) then right on a footpath. Cross a boardwalk and turn left, then left again, over more boardwalks to a broad lakeside path.

Turn left. At a fork near Low Brandelhow landing stage go left, then right on tarmac near Hawes End outdoor education centre. At a track junction bear right on a signposted footpath to Portinscale. Join a road into the village.

Turn right to pass the Derwentwater Hotel, cross the Derwent on a suspension bridge, then go right on a path through fields to Keswick. At the main road, turn right.

The bus station is to the right at the first mini-roundabout, down Tithebarn Street, while the main route continues straight ahead along Main Street, past the Market Place and Moot Hall and then left on Station Street.