Stock Ghyll Force

Stock Ghyll Force drops about 21 metres in two stages, in a V-shaped ravine a short walk from the middle of Ambleside. The path is signposted from near the White Lion Hotel on the main street and reaches the falls in ten to fifteen minutes, though it is a walk rather than a stroll: the ground includes steps and can be slippery and uneven, particularly after rain.

The wooded ravine is Stock Ghyll Park, now looked after by Westmorland and Furness Council. It was opened to visitors in the Victorian era by Colonel Rhodes, who owned the land and saw what the arrival of the railway was about to do to Ambleside. There is no dedicated car park at the falls themselves. The nearest options are roadside laybys with parking discs in town, limited to an hour during the day, or the longer-stay Rydal Road car park a short walk further out, so this is better treated as a short excursion from a night in Ambleside than a drive-up stop for someone passing through. Bridge House, a small seventeenth-century building that stands over the same beck lower down in the town, is a much shorter, level walk from the same starting point if the falls themselves are one step too far.

Because the ravine is enclosed by trees on both sides, there is no single compass direction to describe the view. Stock Ghyll Force is instead a self-contained, close-up waterfall scene, water dropping between mossy rock walls a few minutes’ walk from shops and cafes, which suits anyone wanting a quick, scenic break in the middle of a day based in Ambleside rather than a destination in its own right. It does not suit pushchairs or anyone unsteady on wet stone steps.