Downloads: GPX File | KML File | Google Maps File | OS Online route
About Wansfell Pike | About Stock Gyhll Force | Parking Location
While we were staying in Ambleside we really wanted to try and get another Wainwright fell under our belt, however the weather had other ideas and the forecast was low cloud with lots of rain! Just what you want when walking the fells. Due to the weather, any high or difficult peaks were out of the running and with wanting to spend some time in Ambleside we wanted a fell that was close, quickly we realized we had one obvious choice, Wansfell. We could hike from our B&B and it wasn’t the highest peak so the weather would be fine, after spending some time looking at the map, we also worked a route where we could Visit Stock Ghyll Force as well.
We left Ambleside early on and walked up the road towards Stock Ghyll force (which is very quiet so It’s perfectly fine), about half way up this road you can take a left turn and enter the walk for Stock Ghyll force, this is a nice easy to follow route up the waterfall, over a bridge at the top and then back down to the bottom. We followed this all the way around, and then looped back on ourselves for a small part of the walk to continue back out towards the road where we started. The waterfall is stunning, and with the rain causing more water to fall from the fells that usual it gave a stunning view of the waterfall. The surrounding area is light woodland and there are a few buildings further downstream, all in all it’s a very pretty place and a very pretty walk.
Moving back out towards the road and heading up the track we eventually got to a stile which allowed us over the wall to the right and to start on the path up to Wansfell. This is a thin but easy to follow track that has a few loose bits under foot but nothing major to worry about. After heading up for a bit we came to a bridge over a small river, we took refuge here under a tree as the rain had really started coming down at this point. After a small break we carried on following the path winding to the left and right, passing a couple of other walkers who asked the question we had been asking all the way up, “why do we do this again!”, “for the view!” we replied, then took a look out to see the clouds covering the top.
The rest of the hike up was through cloud cover, and a bit more of a slog as there wasn’t much to see and the route up was often a slope with the odd step. Eventually as we neared the top, the rain came down even more! unfortunately there was a more stepped and obvious route which we followed around a rocky outcrop, this led to the top of the speak, where unfortunately we again had no views.
We didn’t hang around long due to the rain, as we started back down the route we came up, the rain started to slow and the views began to appear (as you can see in the photos below). As we followed the same path as we came up on, it was easy enough to follow and we made our way down quite easy.
All in all, it’s a nice route, we will definitely go back when it’s better weather as the views were great when we were on the return leg of the walk and it would be nice to get those views on the way up and at the top. It’s also quite an easy walk to follow and to navigate as the paths are pretty clear. Stock Ghyll Force is a really nice waterfall to and if nothing else it’s worth your time to visit that small section alone.
