Seventy miles through the heart of the Lake District, from Ulverston on Morecambe Bay north to Carlisle
Indicative — sampled from open terrain data along the simplified route.
The Cumbria Way runs 70 miles from Ulverston, near Morecambe Bay, to the city of Carlisle, and for most of that distance it keeps to the valleys rather than the tops. That was the intention when the route was laid out: a low-level way through country better known for its fells. From Ulverston it heads north to Coniston, along the western shore of Coniston Water, up through Great Langdale and over into Borrowdale, past Derwentwater and Keswick, then out beneath Skiddaw to Caldbeck and down to Carlisle. Almost all of it lies within the Lake District National Park. Most walkers take five or six days.
The going is gentler than the surrounding heights suggest, though not flat. There is a great deal of lakeside, riverbank and farm track, broken by two stretches of open, exposed ground — the crossing from Langdale into Borrowdale over Stake Pass, and the high moor behind Skiddaw, where the weather is worth watching. Guidebooks offer high-level alternatives over the Coniston Fells or Skiddaw for those wanting summits, but the main line stays in the dales.
Both ends are on the railway — Ulverston on the Cumbrian Coast line, Carlisle a main-line junction — so the walk can be reached without a car. The middle, around Keswick, is served by bus rather than train, the town’s railway having closed in the 1970s.
The route was devised in the early 1970s by members of the Ramblers, who linked existing rights of way into a single through-route. Waymarking of the whole length was completed in 2007. It remains a popular first long-distance walk, partly for its length and partly because it is never far from a village.
