Walking

Borrowdale is a fantastic area to explore by foot, with plenty of routes to suit a range of abilities and preferences. You can walk up the highest mountains in England (over 900m above sea level), such as Scafell Pike and Skiddaw, or you can enjoy the low-level walks by the lakeshore and through beautiful woodland.

A good website for planning a walk in the Lake District is WalkLakes. It has lots of routes to choose from.

Click here for some walks from the hostel. 

A Walk of Art

This self-guided 8 mile walk starts and finishes at Derwentwater Independent Hostel. It was developed in partnership with the Royal Geographical Society for the Discovering Britain series of geographical self-guided walks. You can find out more information about it here:

http://www.discoveringbritain.org/walks/region/north-west-england/borrowdale.html.

You can also borrow booklets of the route instructions and commentary from the hostel reception. The booklets are free to borrow but we request a deposit of £10.

Orienteering and geocaching

The hostel has its own small orienteering course. There is also good selection of orienteering courses and trails for children and adults at Whinlatter Forest Park: www.forestry.gov.uk/whinlatterforestpark

Geocaching is becoming increasingly popular in Borrowdale. There is a brilliant circular 3 mile walk from Derwentwater Independent Hostel called the Borrowdale Triangle (BT), taking in Cat Gill, Walla Crag, and Ashness Bridge, which connects 10 caches (little hidden boxes containing a log book and perhaps some surprise treasure!). Can you find them all? You can learn about geocaching and log your finds at: http://www.geocaching.com/

Organised walks

There are regular led mountain walks from the Information Centre in Keswick throughout the season. For details ring 017687 71292, see www.keswickrambles.co.uk or see the hostel notice board. The National Trust and National Park also organise occasional various guided walks/farm visits/nature days.