Lake District Peak to Pub · Day 4 of 7
Peak to Pub Day 4: Eskdale to Langdale
Day 4 of the Lake District Peak to Pub — Harter Fell and the Coniston fells (Old Man, Swirl How, Great Carrs) from Eskdale over to Langdale and the New Dungeon Ghyll. Route notes and the GPX from our walk.
Download GPX Route
Import to Garmin, Komoot, or any navigation app
Map: OS Explorer OL6 (The English Lakes — South-Western) · View on OS Maps
Getting there
Start: Eskdale
End: Langdale (New Dungeon Ghyll)
Before you go
Prices and times — worth a quick check before you travel
Eskdale — the Woolpack Inn & parking
The Woolpack Inn sits on the valley road between Boot and Hardknott; roadside and inn parking is limited, so come early. The Ravenglass & Eskdale narrow-gauge railway (“La’al Ratty”) runs down-valley to Dalegarth, a handy car-free way in or out of Eskdale.
Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway · checked June 2026
The biggest distance of the week. Day 4 is a long, rangy traverse that leaves quiet Eskdale, climbs over Harter Fell, crosses the high wild ground around Wrynose, and then takes on the whole spine of the Coniston fells before dropping into Langdale. Nearly 1,800m of ascent over 23-odd kilometres — a full day on the hill.
Like the rest of the week, we did it from a base with the car at each end, and finished with a lemonade rather than a bed.
Harter Fell and the crossing
Harter Fell (the Eskdale one, 653m) is a lovely, craggy little summit with a proper rocky top you scramble the last few feet onto. From there the route crosses some genuinely remote ground toward the Three Shire Stone at Wrynose, the old meeting point of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire. It’s the connective tissue of the day — less about summits, more about big empty country.
The Coniston fells
Then the main event. The route climbs onto the Coniston ridge and ticks off the big names: the Old Man of Coniston (803m), Swirl How (802m) and Great Carrs (785m). It’s superb high-level walking, all linked tops and long views, with the old copper and slate workings of Coniston giving the fells their distinctive scarred, industrial character lower down.
On Great Carrs there’s a sobering thing to stop for: the wreckage of a WWII Halifax bomber that crashed into the fell in 1944, with a small memorial cross. Bits of the aircraft are still there. Worth a quiet minute.
Down into Langdale
The long descent off the Coniston fells drops you toward the head of Great Langdale, with the Langdale Pikes rearing up ahead — the view that tells you you’ve arrived. The day finishes at the New Dungeon Ghyll, the hotel and walkers’ bar at the foot of the Pikes, where everyone who’s been on the hill ends up. We had our drink among the day’s other survivors and watched the light go off the Pikes.
Practical notes
Eskdale parking and the railway option are in the Before you go box above. This is a long point-to-point with no easy public transport between the ends — plan your logistics.
This is a big mountain day — long, high and committing, with serious ground around Wrynose and the Coniston tops. Map (OS Explorer OL6) and compass, and the legs for 23km.
The GPX above is our track for the day, but it’s an incomplete one — the watch stopped recording partway down off the Coniston fells, so it doesn’t capture the final descent into Langdale. The distance and ascent shown are Trail’s figures for the full route (23.4km, 1,777m); treat the downloadable track as most of the day rather than the whole of it.
This is a frame draft — the route and the landmarks are here, with more of the day’s own detail to follow.
Part of the Lake District Peak to Pub. Previous: Day 3, Wasdale to Eskdale. Next: Day 5, Langdale to Grasmere.