Orrest Head

Orrest Head is a 238m knoll above Windermere town, listed by Wainwright as an outlying fell, and it earns its place in Lakeland writing for one afternoon in 1930. Alfred Wainwright, then 23, arrived in Windermere with his cousin Eric Beardsall for a week’s walking holiday and climbed it; the view of the central fells from the top, by his own later account, began his love affair with the district. The summit carries a view indicator naming the fells beyond the lake, among them Scafell Pike, Great Gable and the Langdale Pikes.

The land is public because a local landowner, Arthur Henry Heywood, gave the woods and the hill for everyone to enjoy; a Victorian kissing gate on the route carries an inscription saying so. The Lake District National Park Authority has adopted the walk as its fiftieth Miles Without Stiles route, built on a restored Victorian carriageway through Elleray Wood, so that pushchairs and powered mobility scooters can use it. The authority describes a path with no steps, gates or stiles, a mix of tarmac and gravel, though the first stretch of tarmac climbs at up to 1:4 and the authority says the route is not suitable for every user. It starts where the narrow lane beside the lower entrance of the Windermere Hotel leaves the main road, three minutes from Windermere station.

The authority gives 3.5km for the round trip with 120m of ascent; Lakes Walks gives the same 3.5km with 136m of ascent and reckons on an hour. A steeper red-waymarked alternative through the wood has roots and steps. It suits anyone who wants a first sight of the mountains on the day they arrive, without a car, and families with pushchairs. Anyone who wants a summit with something to climb should look elsewhere, because this one is a woodland stroll to a viewpoint; for a harder pull to a higher view of the same lake, Wansfell Pike starts from Ambleside, and for a path with no gradient at all, Tarn Hows has a level, accessible circuit.