The waterfall at Swinner Gill

How to walk to Swinner Gill and Crackpot Hall

Route instructions to be used alongside a map

1. Starting at the car park in Keld, head out of the car park exit and head straight across the road (there are houses to your left). On the other side is the information board about Keld and a signpost. Head on the track going straight on.

2. After a very short distance, turn left. The path heads steeply downwards on a partly flagged track towards the footbridge. You will hear the thundering water of the waterfall of East Stonesdale. Check it out, it’s a great paddle spot! (heads up, you’ll pass it again on the way back if you prefer!)

3. At the end of the footbridge, turn left and take the path that heads upwards steeply round to the right. At the top you will find a T-Juntion. Turn right.

4. Continue on the wide stony track until you reach the ruins of an old farm building to your right (Cow'us). Just ahead of this, the path splits. There are the remains of an old vehicle at the fork (see the picture). At the vehicle, there is a path that to the left that heads upwards straight away and there is a path to the right. Both will more or less get you to the same spot at Crackpot Hall. If you choose the right, be aware this forks into two shortly afterwards, and at that point you need to take the left (the right takes you downhill and on the path to Muker).

5. At Crackpot Hall, the path, bends left and heads uphill in the direction of the old spoil heaps, before bending round to the right. (You can of course pause here to check out the ruins, or do it on the way back).

6. Continue to follow the wide track, to your right, you will have immense views towards Muker. A short time after you pass another ruined building to your left, the path turns grassy and you will reach a five bar gate. After this point, the path becomes a little trickier (but still clear and well trodden, as this is the Coast to Coast route).

7. The narrow path takes you along the side of the steep valley of Swinner Gill, continue along here until you see the waterfalls of East Grain to your right. Here, the path splits into two, the right is the easier of the two (the first time, we went left and ended up scooching down scree on bums!)

8. Ahead, you will see a packhorse bridge and around you are the ruins of the lead mining industry in the area, dating back to the 1700s. Here, is the furthest point of this walk.

9. EXPLORE! There are ruins, there is an epic waterfall, but we’re talking the middle of nowhere here, and the waterfall is not easy to get up close to. In wet weather it may well be completely impossible and so you’ll just have to check it out from a distance. We’ve now visited in the middle of a dry Summer, at the end of a wet summer and also in the early Spring and were able to get down to the falls on all occasions, but read the situation as you find it! You can get down the far side of the packhorse bridge to the bed of the mainly dry gill. We walked along the dry bed of the beck and explored the pools that way. Bear in mind that in wet weather it will probably not be easy to get to unless you get wet. The banks are steep and may well also get muddy. If you head down, plan your route back out before you even try getting down! (Mum bit over!)

10. I do like this bit about linear walks….. turn round and head back the way you came! This is one of those walks where I am happy to leave it as a ‘there and back again’ walk. The views there and back are completely different and there is so much interest that it doesn’t get boring (remind them of that steering wheel and the waterfall at the end if you need to!)

Last walked March 2025.

The ruins of Crackpot Hall

The archway under the packhorse bridge