Chapel Stile: Green Slate and Walking in Great Langdale

Chapel Stile at the entrance to Great Langdale

Chapel Stile is a village built from green slate at the entrance to Great Langdale. Its location and building material give the place a clear connection to the landscape. Two different walking routes are also useful to know about when planning a trip: a route from New Dungeon Ghyll to Elterwater, and a section of the Cumbria Way that passes through Chapel Stile. Holy Trinity adds a listed building and two specific works of art to this picture. This makes it possible to understand Chapel Stile in terms of landscape, route and culture without combining the different routes into a single walk.

Walking routes and directions

The route from New Dungeon Ghyll to Elterwater is six kilometres each way and passes through Great Langdale. Along the way, it crosses the rugged upper valley, passes an active quarry and follows a wooded riverbank. This means the route can be described not only by its start and end points, but also by the landscape along the way. The phrase “each way” is essential for planning: it gives the distance in one direction and should not be confused with a total distance for the return trip.

The Cumbria Way offers a different perspective: on the second day of the Coniston to Great Langdale section, the route passes through Chapel Stile. While the route to Elterwater is described as six kilometres each way, the Cumbria Way places the village within a named stage of the trail. These are two different scales for planning: a specific route distance on the one hand, and the village’s position within a stage on the other.

There is also a specific connection to the village on the route to Elterwater: crossing Wainwright's Bridge brings you to Chapel Stile. The bridge reference pinpoints the village along this route and adds a specific route connection to its location at the entrance to Great Langdale. This is a helpful distinction for navigation: the first detail describes where the village is, while the second explains how the route leads there.

Holy Trinity: listed building and works of art

Holy Trinity is a Grade II listed building. One notable feature is the “St Francis window”: designed in the valley by a local artist, it depicts water, birds and a red squirrel. The local origins of the design connect the window to the valley, while its specific subjects give it a distinctive visual world of its own. The church also houses the Millennium Tapestry, which depicts the history of Langdale. The window and tapestry offer different perspectives: one depicts individual subjects, while the other tells the story of the region. The listed status adds another dimension to these works of art, making Holy Trinity a cultural point of interest in its own right, alongside the walking routes.

Discover more destinations: Thirlmere, Threlkeld, Haverthwaite, Dent, Torpenhow, Morland, Ainstable, Cartmel

For the overview of the wider area: Cumbria.