Is Gowbarrow Fell a Wainwright?
Yes. Gowbarrow Fell is one of the 214 Wainwrights: number 10 of 35 in Book 1, The Eastern Fells, of Alfred Wainwright’s Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells.
Climbing Gowbarrow Fell from Aira Force car park, Ullswater
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This route climbs Gowbarrow Fell from the National Trust's Aira Force car park, above the north shore of Ullswater. Parking is paid and the car park sits at about 160 m. The Aira Force bus stop, about 160 m away, is served by the 508, UB1 and UB2.
The line is 2.5 km long and gains about 330 m. The first 600 m follow National Trust permissive paths with a compacted surface, including a flight of steps, and cross Aira Beck at about 365 m. A public footpath then takes the route to just under 1 km, rising to about 220 m.
From there a single path climbs across open access land for about 1.5 km. It passes about 350 m at 1.5 km and 420 m at 2 km. At about 2.4 km the route passes a top that OpenStreetMap names Gowbarrow Fell Summit; the highest point, which the Wainwright list uses, is about 100 m further on at 481 m.
About 475 m of the line follows public footpaths, 2.1 km crosses open access land and about 330 m is on permissive paths only. Only the last few metres are graded on the map, as mountain hiking.
Gowbarrow Fell is 481 m high and belongs to the Eastern Fells in Book 1.
The GPX file is the same line, from the car park to the summit. Return the same way, or plan a longer walk with a map before you set out.
Download the GPXFree. The route is © OpenStreetMap contributors and the file is released under the Open Database Licence: you may copy, share and adapt it.
Where Gowbarrow Fell stands
Nearest Wainwrights
- Little Mell Fell2.7 km away · 505 m
- Hallin Fell3.2 km away · 388 m
- Great Mell Fell3.7 km away · 537 m
- Place Fell4.9 km away · 657 m
- Bonscale Pike4.9 km away · 524 m
Straight-line distances between summits.
All the fells in The Eastern FellsAll 214 Wainwrights
Map and route data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.
Heights along the route from OS Terrain 50. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (NaPTAN, Bus Open Data Service, Lake District National Park Authority rights of way).
Access land © Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.
Heights, grid references and summit positions come from The Database of British and Irish Hills v18.3, used under CC BY 4.0.