Three walks from the town: Castlerigg, Latrigg and Catbells

Keswick's best walks start in the town. You can leave a hotel on Main Street and be on a fell, at a stone circle or on a lake shore inside half an hour, and none of these needs a car. Three, in rising order of effort.

Castlerigg Stone Circle

The stones sit in a field on the hill east of the town: a ring of 38, which English Heritage says was probably put up about 4,500 years ago, in the late Neolithic. English Heritage names Helvellyn and High Seat as its backdrop.

English Heritage puts the walk from the centre of Keswick at about 30 minutes, and asks people to think about walking or public transport because there is only limited parking at the site. It is free, and open at any reasonable time in daylight. The field is grazed by sheep, so dogs go on leads, and English Heritage warns that the ground round the stones gets muddy and slippery after rain. On some summer dates its volunteers give short talks at the stones. No smoking, vaping, barbecues or naked flames.

Latrigg

Latrigg is the small fell straight above the town, under the bulk of Skiddaw. The National Park Authority's limited-mobility route to its viewpoint starts from the car park at the head of Gale Road, reached by car from the A591 Bassenthwaite road via Applethwaite or Ormathwaite, and is 1 kilometre each way.

It starts hard. The first 150 metres climb at 1 in 7; the Authority does not recommend it for people pushing their own wheelchairs. The gradient eases to 1 in 10 at a resting place where you can look back at Skiddaw, Lonscale Pike and the western end of Blencathra, then rises again to a small plateau with a bench. That is where the view opens: Keswick below, the whole of Derwentwater, and Borrowdale running away south. On a good day, the Authority says, you can pick out Scafell Pike, Great End and Great Gable at the head of Borrowdale, with Helvellyn to the left. The summit is a little further on a steeper, uneven path. The Authority's own page suggests it for watching the sunset over the town; if you do, take a torch for the way down. There are no toilets on the walk.

Catbells

Catbells is the ridge across the lake, the one in every photograph from the boat landings. Its main path starts at Hawes End, which is a stop on the Keswick Launch, and the boat is the sensible way there: the free parking near Hawes End is a few spaces on the side of a narrow lane, and thelakedistrict.org says it fills very quickly in busy periods.

From the jetty, follow the lane back to the cattle grid and take the stepped path on the right. Thelakedistrict.org grades the fell medium difficulty: the first section is steep, and near the top there is some scrambling over rock, which the site says can be intimidating if you are new to fell walking. Over the summit the path carries on to a crossroads, where a bridleway, one of the Lake District's accessible routes according to the same page, zig-zags back down. Plan the walk round the boat times, and outside summer check that the launch is running at all: on the winter timetable it sails only on listed dates and not at all in December and January.

A level alternative

For a day when the tops are in cloud, the Keswick to Threlkeld trail follows the old railway along the River Greta for about 5 kilometres each way, built for all levels of mobility. It starts from the car park opposite the old station building, by the leisure centre. Check before you set out: from 22 September 2026 the bridge over the Greta at the western end is completely closed for up to eight weeks while it gets new decks and guard rails, and the trail has to be joined east of it. The National Park Authority says herons and dippers live along the river. Threlkeld has two pubs and a coffee shop at the far end, and the X5 bus brings you back to Keswick.

Before you go up

The fells are colder and windier than the town, and the weather turns faster. Carry a waterproof and something warm even on a fine morning. In an emergency on the fells, call 999 and ask for Mountain Rescue, as Keswick Tourism Association advises. For a twisted ankle in town, Keswick's urgent treatment centre at the cottage hospital on Crosthwaite Road is usually open 8.30am to 6pm; it is not an A&E, and the nearest emergency department is in Whitehaven.