Food, Toilets and Where to Stay Near Catbells

There is nothing at the foot of Catbells: no café, no shop, no toilets and no tap. Sort all four out in Keswick before you cross the lake, and carry water and something to eat.

Toilets

• None at Hawes End, at the jetty or anywhere on the fell. Keswick Launch says so on its own page for the jetty.
• Keswick, Lakeside car park: public toilets beside the car park, close to the boat landings. They cost 50p and take cards only.
• Customers' toilets at the cafés below.

Checked 12 Oct 2026 · source: keswick-launch.co.uk, cumberland.gov.uk

Cafés Near the Walk

• The Lingholm Kitchen, on the Lingholm estate, 15 to 20 minutes' walk north of Hawes End through the woods, on the path to Portinscale and Keswick. Its website gives opening hours of 9am to 4.30pm every day, with hot food until 3.30pm. Lingholm is where Beatrix Potter spent many summer holidays, and the walled garden is open to visit. thelingholmkitchen.co.uk
• Nichol End Marine, on the lakeshore at Portinscale, has a café serving cakes and scones; the path from Keswick passes the end of its lane. Opening times vary through the year. nicholend.co.uk
• Grange, at the start of the walk from the south, has a café in the village. We haven't been able to confirm its opening times for 2026, so don't rely on it out of season.

The National Park Authority suggests exactly this for the walk back to Keswick: tea stops at Lingholm, Nichol End and Portinscale.

Keswick

Keswick, ten minutes away by boat, has everything else: cafés, pubs, chip shops, bakeries, outdoor shops for the thing you forgot, and a large supermarket (Booths) beside the bus station. For a picnic on the summit, buy it here.

Where to Stay

• Keswick is the obvious base: you can walk to the boat landings and do Catbells without touching the car.
• Portinscale, a mile round the head of the lake, puts you on the footpath to Catbells: under an hour's walk to the start.
• Borrowdale (Grange, Rosthwaite) is quieter, with the 78 bus to Keswick all year and the southern route up Catbells from Grange.
• The Newlands valley behind Catbells has farm B&Bs and a few cottages, and the quiet way up from Little Town.