Blea Tarn

The picture at the top of this page is Blea Tarn, a small but exceedingly beautiful tarn that sits on the fellside midway between Great and Little Langdale. It is much loved by walkers and motorised tourists alike, and a small car park and short tarn side walk now exist to serve the growing number of people who visit every year. Despite this it is still easy to find the peace and tranquility with which this place abounds. We have two walks to the tarn for you, the first simply takes you there and back, and the second shows the tarn from a different perspective.

Walk 1

5 Miles

Start Point is the car park opposite the New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel. If staying at the hotel simply walk down the drive to the car park opposite.

Turn left on to the road, then after 250 yards turn left onto the farm track to Side House, signposted “Public Footpath”. Walk along the farm road, going over a bridge and through a gate, until you get to the buildings. Bear left to a kissing gate, keeping the farm house to your right. Go through and walk over a wooden bridge, then turn right, on to a track that leads towards a ladder stile over a wall.
Cross the ladder stile, which has a small stream in front of it, and follow the path across the fields. Cross another wall by a ladder stile, and then go over a broken wall. Keep the camp site to your right, and note the appearance of Side Pike above you and to your left.

After crossing the broken wall, bear left and walk up the slope, heading towards a small conifer plantation surrounded by a barbed wire fence. Keep the plantation to your right. Walk along the edge of the plantation and go through a kissing gate, then bear left through a narrow path in the bracken up the side of the fell. The path climbs steeply to join up with a footpath that runs up the hill to the left hand side of a wall. The path is steep, but has been the subject of recent erosion control work and is easy to see. At the top you will reach a ladder stile on to the road that links Gt. Langdale and Little Langdale, a quarter of a mile from Blea Tarn.

Go over the ladder stile, turn left, cross the cattle grid and walk along the road past Blea Tarn House towards the Tarn.
At the other end of the tarn, just opposite a small car park, turn right onto the wide track that leads around the tarn. The footpath was designed with motor tourists in mind, with well maintained paths and seats. Cross the bridge at the end of the tarn and bear right along its western edge. Go through a kissing gate, which marks the unofficial boundary beyond which the motor tourists seldom tread, and follow the rough but easy to see path across the fell side until you reach the public road again. Cross the road to the ladder stile you climber earlier, then retrace your steps back to your car.

Walk 2

5 miles

Start point is the same as walk 1

Follow the instructions for walk 1 until you get to the ladder stile over the wall close to a cattle grid, just before you reach Blea Tarn. Do not go over the ladder stile but continue on, keeping the wall and the road beyond to your right.

Shortly after the ladder stile cross another wall and continue on. The path is not always visible here. The wall/fence you have just crossed runs to your left before veering away up the side of the fell. The path soon bears left to follow it. Climb up the grassy path, stopping every now and then to look at the views of Blea Tarn below you. Eventually the path reaches a stone wall. Just before it is a stile over the wall/fence to your left, leading up to a large outcrop of rock (Side Pike) that seems impassable. Don't worry, it isn't. Go over the stile and bear left with the narrow path to locate a narrow gap in the rock, with, seemingly, a sheer drop on the other side.

Get a map

If you don't have a head for heights you may wish to return the way you came, however, squeezing through the rock and onto the ledge beyond is often easier than you would first imagine. Once through, bear right around the side of the rock ( you can't go any other way, there is a 400 foot drop on the left!) and follow the path up the fell. Continue to bear right and clamber up to the top of Side Pike. From the top of Side Pike follow the path down, beside an old wall and into a dip, then up the other side to a rocky outcrop from where you can see the road running up the top of the valley. Now follow the well worn path back down to the road, looking for cairns that mark your route as you go.

When you reach the road at the bottom you should be close to the ladder stile onto the road by the cattle grid, just before Blea Tarn. Now simply retrace your steps back to your car or the New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel.