Where the information comes from — and the people we have to thank for it.
hikes.guide is a personal project that stitches together a lot of freely available, public and open data so you can plan a day on the fells from one page. This is where each piece comes from, what it's used for, and how it's credited. Wherever a source asks for attribution or sets a licence, we follow it; if you think something is mis-credited, please let me know (opens in new tab).
Maps
The interactive maps on every fell and parking listing are built with the open-source Leaflet library and drawn using OpenStreetMap data, rendered as topographic tiles by OpenTopoMap. OpenStreetMap is a free, editable map of the world made by a huge community of volunteers, and the topo styling shows the contours, paths and crags that matter on the hill.
On route pages we also read OpenStreetMap's mapped access barriers — the gates, kissing gates and stiles along a route — through the Overpass query service, to give each walk an honest Dog / Buggy / Knees access read. We read the same source for on-route facilities — drinking water, shelter and bothies, and trailhead bus stops and campsites (curated parking, toilets and cafés come from our own data). These are all mapped features: coverage in the Lakes is good but not guaranteed complete, so we say “no mapped ladder stiles” or “no mapped water” rather than promise none.
Summit views & the View Report
The View Report — what you can see from each summit, how far the horizon runs, and which coasts and countries appear on the clearest days — is computed from open elevation data: the Copernicus GLO-30 global digital elevation model (30 m), corrected for the curve of the Earth and standard atmospheric refraction. The “how often are the tops clear?” calendar reads summit humidity from the Met Office MIDAS Open record at Great Dun Fell (847 m, 2014–2023), cross-checked against the Helvellyn Fell Top Assessor archive.
Beck water & the old mines
The drinking-water guide and its open dataset use the Environment Agency Water Quality Archive — dissolved lead, cadmium, zinc and copper measured at the agency's own sampling points — which we join to the walking routes that cross each beck. The abandoned-mine attributions come from the Environment Agency and Defra's own records: the Catchment Data Explorer water-body classifications and the abandoned-metal-mines baselines. Drinking-water limits are the World Health Organization guideline values.
Fell data & the hill lists
The fells themselves — which summits exist, their heights and grid positions, and which lists each one belongs to (Wainwright, Outlying Fell, Birkett, Fellranger, Synge, Nuttall, Marilyn and HuMP) — come from the Database of British and Irish Hills (DoBIH), a meticulous, volunteer-maintained survey of the hills of these islands. It's the backbone of the whole site and of the Fells pages.
Path repair & the fells' footpaths
Some fell and route pages carry a short “The path beneath your boots” note, and our feature how a fell path is made explains the craft and cost of upland path repair. The figures in both — costs, ranger-days, metres of path repaired and project dates — come from the published work of Fix the Fells, the project that repairs and maintains the eroded upland paths of Lakeland. The data is theirs and credited to them; the words are our own.
Weather
The 7-day summit forecast on each fell page is generated live from Open-Meteo, a free weather API, with temperatures and wind gusts adjusted to the summit's altitude — because conditions up top are always harsher than in the valley. For serious planning we also link out to the specialist mountain forecasts from MWIS (Mountain Weather Information Service) and the Met Office.
How sure is the forecast (ensembles)
The “How sure is the forecast?” section on the weather page reads two ensemble forecasts twice a day and reduces them to six squares that cover the National Park: ECMWF’s IFS ensemble (50 perturbed members and a control run, 0.25°, from ECMWF’s open data) and NOAA’s GEFS (31 members, from the AWS open-data mirror). Nothing on that section is written by hand: every figure is a count of members or a percentile across them, and a square is an area of about 28 km by 16 km, never a summit.
The season ahead (seasonal outlook)
The “The season ahead” section on the weather page reads ECMWF’s extended-range ensemble (EC46, six weeks, refreshed daily) and ECMWF’s seasonal system (SEAS5, seven months, refreshed on the 5th) through Open-Meteo’s seasonal API, for the same six squares the ensemble section uses. It shows leans, never values: how many of the fifty runs put a week or a month warmer or wetter than the model’s own average for that cell, and the model’s leans for wind, sunshine, topsoil moisture and snow against the same average. ERA5 2015–2025 monthly means at the same points are kept as the reference for what a normal month looks like here; nothing is counted against them, because the seasonal cell runs drier than ERA5 at the same point and a count against it read as a permanent dry lean. The data is not bias-corrected and a cell is 36 km across and lower than the tops; the section says so. Seasonal skill in north-west England is modest and the page says that too.
Getting there & buses
Each fell lists the bus routes that serve its likely start points — from hubs such as Penrith, Ambleside and Windermere — so you can plan a car-free day. Rural Lakeland services are seasonal and change often, so these are a starting point only: always check live times with the operators before you travel.
Parking & toilets
Suggested parking near each fell is hand-curated. Alongside it, nearby facilities are pulled from OpenStreetMap via its Overpass query service, and public toilets — with distance, free/paid status, accessibility and RADAR-key flags where known — come from The Toilet Map. Parking positions are approximate; please park considerately and legally.
Photos & encyclopaedia links
Where a fell has a freely-licensed photograph, it's drawn from Wikimedia Commons (found via the fell's Wikidata entry), shown with the photographer's name and licence. Fell pages also link out to the matching Wikipedia article and Wikidata record for further reading. Over time these are supplemented with my own photographs.
My hikes
The "my hikes" section on a fell page shows my own walks that cross that summit — the route drawn on the map, with distance, ascent, time, pace and photos — synced from my Strava account. It's a personal record as much as a planning aid, and it grows as I get out on the hill.
Common questions (FAQs)
Many fell pages end with a short set of frequently asked questions. They're based on the questions walkers most commonly ask about each fell — the kind that surface in Google's "people also ask" results — then written and fact-checked for this site rather than copied from anywhere. They are written for readers; the structured data behind them describes the page and promises nothing about how a search engine shows it.
Mountain Rescue hazard information
The hazard rating and "Hazard & Incident Information" on each fell page are compiled from the published callout reports and safety advice of the local Mountain Rescue teams — Patterdale, Keswick, Wasdale, Coniston, Cockermouth, Langdale Ambleside and Duddon & Furness — and reputable news coverage of incidents. They describe persistent, well-documented dangers in general terms; they are editorial background, not a live callout feed. Always carry the skills and kit for the ground you're on.
Not sponsored
No brand pays to appear here. There is no sponsored content, no paid placement, no gifted-product review and, since September 2026, no affiliate link: the Amazon “Maps & guidebooks” section was removed from every fell, route and place page. Nothing on hikes.guide earns a commission, and which map or book a page names is chosen for its relevance alone.
Think something here is out of date or wrong? Use the Report a Problem link in the footer — confirmed corrections are updated and dated in the Changelog.
Events & festivals
Our events & festivals calendar lists what's on across the Lake District — traditional Lakeland sports, agricultural shows, festivals and seasonal events — each tagged with its nearest town, indoor/outdoor and family-friendliness. We only show a firm date once it's confirmed against the organiser's own site; where a date isn't out yet we say "usually [month]" and link the organiser, and every event carries a link to its official page so you can confirm the latest.
Town & village guides
The in-depth place guides (Keswick, Glenridding, Patterdale, Pooley Bridge, Braithwaite and the rest) are written from a mix of first-hand local knowledge and published references, with time-sensitive details — opening, ownership, transport — checked against official sources and kept deliberately evergreen. Each page also links its Wikipedia article and Wikidata record for further reading.
Everything here is offered in good faith to help you enjoy the fells safely, but conditions, timetables and access change — please double-check anything that matters before you set off.