If you only do a few things
These are the places people come back for. None of them is far — the furthest is under six miles from the Market Square — and several can be done on foot from the town centre in under an hour.
Where a place can be reached by launch or by bus, its page says so. Two of the eight need no transport at all.
The eighth is not on the map below because it is already underneath it: Keswick’s parks — Hope Park and Fitz Park, both a short walk from the square, with gardens, a putting green, crazy golf and the river.
Map
An hourCastlerigg Stone Circle
Thirty-eight stones on a plateau a mile and a half east of town, five thousand years old, with a ring of mountains all round.
On foot from townFriars Crag
Ten minutes from the Market Square, for the view down Derwentwater that John Ruskin called among the finest in Europe.
Under an hourCastlehead
A wooded hill of 162 metres, five minutes out of the square, with a dial at the top naming thirty fells.
ClimbableThe Bowder Stone
Two thousand tonnes of volcanic rock balanced on its edge in Borrowdale, with a ladder to the top.
Arrive by boatAshness Bridge and Surprise View
The packhorse bridge off the Watendlath road, and the panorama a hundred yards above it. Reachable by launch and a twenty-minute walk.
Free, and levelDubwath Silver Meadows
Seven hectares of wetland at the head of Bassenthwaite, with boardwalk, willow hides and red squirrels at the feeders.
In townKeswick’s parks
Hope Park and Fitz Park, both a short walk from the square — gardens, a putting green, crazy golf and the river.
Half a dayWatendlath Tarn
A hamlet and a tarn at the end of a dead-end lane above Borrowdale — one of the hidden corners of the district.
Without a car
Friars Crag and Castlehead are both walks from the Market Square. Ashness Bridge can be reached by the Derwentwater launch to Ashness Gate and twenty minutes up the lane. The Bowder Stone is on the 78 to Borrowdale, which runs all year.
Castlerigg has a circular walk from Keswick if you would rather not park on the verge. Bus times and routes are on the getting here page.