With winter weather upon us and daylight hours limited, it can be difficult to find the time to enjoy Cumbria’s beautiful countryside. But even just a few hours outdoors can be enjoyable – and comes with the added benefits of boosting your fitness, your immune system and your mood. Award-winning guidebook writer and photographer Vivienne Crow has come up with 10 great walks – all accessible by Stagecoach bus – that can be squeezed into winter’s short days.

Most of these walks are low level, but there are fell walks in the list too. Wherever you’re going, you’ll need to make sure you’ve got a map and are equipped for the terrain and changeable weather. Take a torch too – it gets dark early this time of year. If you’re going to tackle one of the fell walks, check out the Adventure Smart website as well as the National Park’s daily ground conditions report.

For bus times, visit the Stagecoach website or download the Stagecoach Bus app from Google Play or Apple’s App Store. Pensioners travel free with a NoW card while everyone else pays only £3 per journey under the national fare-cap scheme.

Kendal Castle: Kendal and the fells beyond seen from the castle precincts Photo: ©Vivienne Crow

Walk 1: Kendal Castle
Bus route: Multiple bus services to Kendal
Bus stop: Kendal Bus Station / Weavers Court / Castle Garth
Length/difficulty: 3 miles; easy; approximately 2 hours
Map: Ordnance Survey OL7, English Lakes SE

How many times do visitors simply rush through Kendal on their way to somewhere else, pausing only when the traffic lights insist they do? But this historic town is well worth a stop. Take a stroll along pretty riverside paths and through the ginnels and yards that characterise the town centre and you’ll come across a host of interesting buildings, including the medieval Sandes Hospital in Highgate, built as a school and almshouses for poor widows by cloth merchant and former mayor Thomas Sandes, and the 14th-century Castle Dairy, Kendal’s oldest inhabited building. After sightseeing in the town centre, choose from any one of the dozens of pubs and restaurants serving up hearty dishes that’ll fortify you for the next part of the walk… a short hike up to the ruins of Kendal Castle. This hilltop stronghold, thought to have been the birthplace of Katherine Parr, Henry VIII’s sixth wife, enjoys a fine outlook that takes in the Kentmere and Longsleddale fells.

Skelwith Bridge The well maintained path beside the River Brathay Photo: ©Vivienne Crow

Walk 2: Skelwith Bridge to Elterwater
Bus route: 516 from Ambleside to Skelwith Bridge, return from Elterwater
Bus stop: Skelwith Bridge
Length/difficulty: 1⅔ miles; easy; approximately 45 minutes
Map: Ordnance Survey OL7, English Lakes SE

This short, linear stroll is classed as a ‘route for many’ in the Lake District National Park’s Miles Without Stiles listings, meaning that its well-maintained, level bridleway is suitable for pushchairs and certain types of mobility scooter. Catch the 516 bus from Ambleside to Skelwith Bridge and then head upstream along the River Brathay’s wooded banks to Skelwith Force. This powerful waterfall, particularly impressive after a winter deluge, can be glimpsed through the trees from the main path or, for the surefooted, there are metal walkways that take you closer to the noisy action. Leaving the trees, enter meadows and skirt the reed-fringed shores of Elter Water. The distinctive Langdale Pikes dominate the scene to the north-west while Lingmoor Fell can be seen across the water to the west. Another beckside path, in and out of patchy woodland, then leads to the village of Elterwater where you can jump on the 516 to return to Ambleside – or use the bus to explore more of Great Langdale.

Ling Fell and Sale Fell The Helvellyn range from Sale Fell Photo: ©Vivienne Crow

Walk 3: Ling Fell and Sale Fell
Bus route: X5 to Dubwath, near northern tip of Bassenthwaite Lake
Bus stop: Dubwath Brathay Hill
Length/difficulty: 9¾ miles; moderate; approximately 4¾ hours
Map: Ordnance Survey OL4, English Lakes NW

Wrap up warm for this one – the first of the fell walks listed here. Ling Fell and Sale Fell, sometimes referred to as the Wythop Fells, are a pair of low summits that can easily be climbed on a short winter’s day. Just to the north of the Whinlatter forests, they guard the north-western edge of the Lake District and enjoy a bird’s-eye perspective on Skiddaw and Bassenthwaite Lake. If you’re fortunate enough to be out on a crisp day with good visibility, you’ll also be treated to more far-reaching views across the Solway Firth to the hills of southern Scotland. An added bonus comes in the form of a visit to the site of Wythop’s old church, sitting in a quiet spot on the edge of the atmospheric Chapel Wood. Nearing the end of the day, the walk back to the bus stop at Dubwath passes The Pheasant Inn and Bassenthwaite Lake Station café – both of which are great places to rest after several hours out in the cold.

Glaramara and Allen Crags Snow-dusted fells seen from the route on to Glaramara Photo: ©Vivienne Crow

Walk 4: Glaramara and Allen Crags
Bus route: 78 to Seatoller
Bus stop: Seatoller (National Trust car park)
Length/ difficulty: 8½ miles; hard; approximately 6 hours
Map: Ordnance Survey OL4 and OL6, English Lakes NW and SW (both are needed)

This pairing makes for a considerably harder outing than the two little Wythop Fells above, but it provides experienced fell-walkers with a sense of being totally immersed in the grandeur of Lakeland’s more serious mountains. Glaramara and Allen Crags are linked by a rugged, undulating ridge where glittering pools are hidden among rocky basins. From Borrowdale, a sometimes boggy walk across Thornythwaite Fell leads to a greasy rock step at the base of Glaramara’s summit area. This can be easily bypassed in winter to reach the main ridge, from where the views of neighbouring summits, such as Great End and Great Gable, are spellbinding. After reaching a high point of 2,575ft (785m) on Allen Crags, drop to the cross shelter just below Esk Hause. The day then ends with a long descent beside Ruddy Gill and then Grains Gill. By the time you reach Stockley Bridge, you’re on surer ground again, and the final two miles back to Seatoller – on a broad track and then a surfaced lane – could easily be completed by the light of a headtorch.

Langstrath Winter in Langstrath Photo: ©Vivienne Crow

Walk 5: Langstrath
Bus route: 78 to Rosthwaite
Bus stop: Rosthwaite, at General Store
Length/ difficulty: 8 miles; easy/moderate; approximately 4 hours
Map: Ordnance Survey OL4, English Lakes NW

Langstrath, like Langdale, means long valley, and if you walk this one in its entirety, you’ll find out how it got its name. One of the longest uninhabited valleys in the Lake District and surrounded by steep-sided, often craggy fells, this spectacular setting is populated by little more than enormous boulders, a few yew trees and the ubiquitous Herdies. After briefly following Stonethwaite Beck away from the bus stop in Rosthwaite, this route heads up the damp, eastern side of the valley as far as the point at which Stake Beck thunders into the valley bottom. There is more to Langstrath than this though and a quick glance at the map shows a right-of-way continuing up to the head of the valley – an opportunity for a rough and wet extension to the walk, although the main route begins its downstream journey now. It crosses a sturdy bridge to return to Borrowdale on easier ground along the west bank of Langstrath Beck – beside clear blue pools, gentle cascades and boulder-filled shallows.

Campfield Marsh Looking across the Solway Firth to Criffel Photo: ©Vivienne Crow

Walk 6: Campfield Marsh RSPB Reserve
Bus route: 93 to Bowness-on-Solway
Bus stop: Bowness On Solway (opposite the Kings Arms pub)
Length/difficulty: 6¾ miles; easy; approximately 3 hours
Map: Ordnance Survey Explorer 314, Solway Firth

Bowness Common, including the RSPB’s Campfield Marsh reserve, forms part of the South Solway Mosses National Nature Reserve, one of the most important areas of lowland raised peat bog in England. It’s particularly lively at this time of year when the sound of over-wintering birds fills the air: teal, wigeon and other ducks can be spotted, as well as huge flocks of barnacle and pink-footed geese that fly in from colder Arctic climes to sun themselves on the Costa del Solway. This easy-going walk, suitable for families, starts in the village of Bowness-on-Solway and heads out along a quiet road fringing the salt marshes. Reaching the RSPB reserve, warm up in the Solway Wetlands Centre – where self-service hot drinks are available – before heading out across the wetlands and peat bog on tracks, field paths and a boardwalk. There are several hides along the route, so keep your binoculars handy. The final part of the walk is mostly on country lanes that lead back into Bowness-on-Solway.

Silver Point and Silver Crag Looking across Ullswater to Glenridding Photo: ©Vivienne Crow

Walk 7: Silver Point and Silver Crag
Bus route: 508 to Patterdale
Bus stop: Patterdale Hotel
Length/ difficulty: 4¼ miles; easy/moderate; approximately 2 hours
Map: Ordnance Survey OL5, English Lakes NE

Ullswater may be Lakeland’s second largest lake, but surely it’s the most beautiful? To test this theory, check out Silver Point and Silver Crag on this short and relatively easy walk from the 508 bus stop in Patterdale. These two vantage points provide superb views over this fine body of water and the high fells that tower over it. Silver Point is a small lakeside promontory reached by following a clear, low-level track just above the shore – part of the waymarked Ullswater Way. From here, young families might choose to return the way they came, but the more adventurous can head up on to a slightly higher path. After the optional ascent of the juniper-clad Silver Crag (889ft/271m), the second half of the walk mirrors the outward route but at a slightly higher point on the slopes of Place Fell. The small gain in altitude makes all the difference, turning what had been good views up until now into breathtaking panoramas. Refuel in the White Lion at the end of the walk.

Coniston Coppermines and Levers Levers Water, once a natural tarn, was dammed to supply water to the mines Photo: ©Vivienne Crow

Walk 8: Coniston Coppermines and Levers Water
Bus route: 505 to Coniston
Bus stop: Coniston Crown Inn
Length/ difficulty: 5½ miles; moderate; approximately 3¼ hours
Map: Ordnance Survey OL6, English Lakes SW

Although this walk never makes it on to any hilltops, it brings with it a distinct feeling of being very much in the hills. Levers Water sits almost smack-bang in the middle of the Coniston Fells, surrounded by some impressive mountain scenery. Once a natural corrie tarn, it was dammed and enlarged to provide power for the nearby mines, and today supplies domestic water to the village below. As well as that exquisite feeling of being surrounded by mountains, this walk from the centre of Coniston also conveys a strong sense of stepping back in time. Many of the paths and tracks followed were once used by miners and quarrymen – either as routeways to and from their workplaces, or as ‘leats’ bringing water to the mines. Open adits cutting deep into the fellsides, waterwheel pits and even miners’ graffiti all figure during our few hours in the Coppermines Valley, taking walkers as far back as Elizabethan times when Cumbria’s fells were first worked on a large scale.

Brant Fell Windermere and the distant high fells seen from Brant Fell Photo: ©Vivienne Crow

Walk 9: Brant Fell
Bus route: 6, 599 and 755 to Bowness-on-Windermere
Bus stop: Bowness Pier
Length/difficulty: 3½ miles; easy/moderate; approximately 2 hours
Map: Ordnance Survey OL7, English Lakes SE

If you’ve been hibernating for much of the winter so far and you’re looking for something fairly gentle to start blowing away the cobwebs that have amassed, look no further than a walk up on to the top of little Brant Fell. This 627ft (191m) viewpoint overlooks Windermere and provides a great vantage point from which to gaze across the lake to a long skyline of high fells. From Bowness-on-Windermere, the route climbs first to Post Knott before continuing up the grassy slopes of Brant Fell. On a sunny day – and we do get some in winter! – the rock outcrops here provide several sheltered spots to unpack a picnic and enjoy those fantastic views. Beyond Brant Fell, the walk drops east and then follows a quiet lane to the buildings at Matson Ground. From here, it joins the route of the long-distance Dales Way as it enters the final stages of its 80-mile journey from Ilkley in West Yorkshire to the shores of Windermere.

Helvellyn Winter walkers on Nethermost Pike, part of the Helvellyn group

Walk 10: Helvellyn from Dunmail Raise
Bus route: 555 to Dunmail Raise on the A591
Bus stop: Dunmail Raise bus stop
Length/difficulty: 7½ miles; hard; approximately 5 hours
Map: Ordnance Survey OL5, English Lakes NE

…And when you’re ready for a massive step up from ‘fairly gentle’ and really want to blast those cobwebs into oblivion, Helvellyn is the answer… The 555 bus passes directly below its western slopes and stops at the top of the pass at Dunmail Raise, giving walkers a bit of a leg-up on to England’s third highest mountain. The route from here ascends to the beautifully located Grisedale Tarn via Raise Beck before embarking on the zig-zag path up Dollywaggon Pike, the southernmost peak in the range. It’s a tough slog to the top but once you’re there, it’ll feel like you’re on top of the world. Ahead lies more than a mile of easy, high-level ridge-walking – a chance to peer down on a glacier-sculpted landscape. From the summit of Helvellyn (3,116ft/950m), backtrack slightly to descend the Birk Side path towards Wythburn and then end the day with a forest walk back up to Dunmail Raise – or cut the final 1½ miles by jumping back on the 555 from Wythburn Church.