581 mWainwright — North Western Fells+10 bonus Birketts within 3 km Fewer traps in Clag
Ard Crags at 581m (1,906ft) is a craggy ridge summit above the head of the Newlands valley, its rocky west face giving the fell its name. The ascent from Newlands Pass is short and rewarding.
Summit conditions on Ard Crags
On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 12° to 6°C, gusts to 58 mph, 10.3 mm of rain forecast over the whole day, midnight to midnight.
Against our lines, Tuesday 27 October: wind, cold and cloud from the Met Office UKV 2 km model (daylight hours, as in the verdict above); rain from the summit line’s forecast (the whole day). A tile is large when this top is past its line.
Wind on the top
Past the line
60mph, our estimate for the open top in the worst daylight hour
The Met Office 2 km model’s gust of 51 mph times our exposure factor of 1.18. The summit line above gives Open-Meteo’s highest gust for the whole day, 58 mph, before any exposure factor.
under 25
25–35
35–45
45–55
55+
The line Our line: 25 mph, where our wind Scale begins its 25–35 band: “balance affected; buffeting on exposed ground”. MWIS (opens in new tab) describes what wind does to a walker across a range rather than at a line: from about 20–25 mph it starts to affect your balance.
Estimated: it is not calibrated against summit readings, and the two forecasts can disagree by more than a band.
Rain, and the becks
Past the line
10.3mm of rain over the whole day, midnight to midnight
The same figure as the summit line above and the 7-day forecast.
The line Our line: 6 mm in the day, where our scorer counts a day as soaking. We read rainfall, never river levels: becks in spate.
Open-Meteo’s forecast. It says nothing about rain already in the ground.
Also checkedcold: feels like 2 °C, no ice or snow forecast; cloud: a clear-top reading of 33 out of 100, over our in-cloud line of 20. Under a line is not the same as fine: it means only that these figures are under the lines we use.
Not in these tiles Lightning, river levels, snow or ice already lying, and the ground under your feet. A tile cannot see them, so an empty space here never means they are absent.
Snow figures with a second opinion: Powered by Met Office data
Wainwrights are scored for walking conditions each morning from the Met Office’s UK forecast model, read for each summit through Open-Meteo; the forecast figures are Open-Meteo’s, worked out for the summit’s height. How we check →
Choose the way up before the car park: these four routes start from three places, and the last two rows give the parking and bus at each route’s own start. Full maps further down.
A narrow grassy ridge with gentle drops to either side; no scrambling.
Not mentioned in the route’s notes
Not mentioned in the route’s notes
Not mentioned in the route’s notes
Exposure
Moderate
Not assessed
Not assessed
Not assessed
Navigation
Moderate
Hard
Hard
Moderate
Steepest stretch
Descent of about 33% at 9.2 km (Hard)
Descent of about 27% at 5.1 km (Hard)
Descent of about 43% at 9.4 km (Severe)
Descent of about 38% at 6.1 km (Severe)
After the summit
Over Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top) and Knott Rigg
No further tops
Over Scar Crags, Sail, Crag Hill (Eel Crag), Eel Crag (Birkett), Wandope, Thirdgill Head Man and Whiteless Pike
No further tops
Walked or planned
Planned: drawn, not yet walked
Planned: drawn, not yet walked
Planned: drawn, not yet walked
Planned: drawn, not yet walked
Car park at the start
Braithwaite village (roadside/small areas)
Newlands Hause car park (free)
Newlands Hause car park (free)
Honister Pass (paid, slate mine)
Bus to the start
77 at the start
77, 2.2 km walk from Buttermere Youth Hostel (near). Seasonal: the 77 does not run all year. 1 November 2026 is its last day.
77, 2.2 km walk from Buttermere Youth Hostel (near). Seasonal: the 77 does not run all year. 1 November 2026 is its last day.
77 at the start. Seasonal: the 77 does not run all year. 1 November 2026 is its last day.
Times run from fast to steady pace (Naismith’s rule). Scrambling quotes each route’s own notes; “not mentioned” means they do not say, not that the ground has none. Each route’s page has its map, stages and GPX.
Distance, climb and the steepest stretch are measured from each route’s GPX track; the other grades are set on the ground, judged from the map or estimated from OpenStreetMap, and each route page says which. How we check →
Is Ard Crags an easy walk?
The ridge is a delight and genuinely straightforward — a narrow grassy crest above Newlands with heather on its flanks, no rock to negotiate, and views out of proportion to the effort. Walked with Knott Rigg it is one of the best short rounds in the district.
Our mapped routes over it are much bigger days: 19.3 km with 708 m of ascent, or the Honister crossing at 19.6 km and 1057 m, which we rate Severe overall for its steepness. The short version from Rigg Beck is a fraction of either and is one we have not yet measured.
Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.
Braithwaite village (roadside/small areas) — 0.1 km from the start of Ard Crags & Knott Rigg (straight line)
In the village centre, beside the primary school. The small car park there may be the one the Authority lists as 'Braithwaite School', open to the public at weekends and in school holidays only, with no overnight parking. The 'Scar Crags, Causey Pike', 'Stile End, Outerside, Causey Pike, Rowling End' and 'Ard Crags & Knott Rigg' routes start here; the 'Coledale Round' starts at the Whinlatter Pass road car park above the village, 0.7 km on foot.
If it is full: Noble Knott, Whinlatter (Forestry England, free) (1.7 km, 72 m up); Revelin Moss, Whinlatter (Forestry England, paid) (3.3 km, 117 m up); Stoneycroft Ghyll, Newlands (free) (2.3 km, 105 m up)
Newlands Hause car park — at the start of Knott Rigg & Ard Crags Out-and-Back from Newlands Pass and Newlands Hause to the Coledale Tops
At Newlands Hause, the top of the Newlands Pass road above Buttermere. The 'Knott Rigg & Ard Crags Out-and-Back from Newlands Pass' route starts here. Added from the 5 August 2026 OSM candidate review.
Honister Pass (paid, slate mine) — 0.1 km from the start of Honister to Keswick: over the Newlands fells (straight line)
Paid parking at the top of the pass — Dale Head, Fleetwith Pike, Grey Knotts with minimal ascent. This is the slate mine's own car park, the WESTERN one; the National Trust car park 170 m east is a separate one. Fees: Day parking GBP 5 per day for visitors; free for all Honister activity guests (honister.com/your-visit/). Overnight parking GBP 15 a night in the large bottom car park, open to campervans, motorhomes and vans, no tent camping, no facilities, no electric hook-ups; book online or pay by QR code on arrival and display confirmation on the dashboard (honister.com/your-visit/overnight-parking) (operator, checked August 2026). You pay by card, inside the building, not at a machine in the car park. The posted opening is 9am but it is often later; the mine is content for you to arrive before it and pay on the way out, and the car park is covered by cameras (Lee McCoy, local observation, recorded 12 August 2026). Pay and display (LDNPA, checked August 2026).
Typically full before 10:00 on fine weekends, Apr-Oct — Lee McCoy, local observation, 9 August 2026.
Robinson (layby) — 2.3 km from summit (straight line)
A lay-by on the Newlands Pass road (way/585193027), 0.3 km east of the top of Newlands Hause, on the Newlands side. The 'Knott Rigg & Ard Crags Out-and-Back from Newlands Pass' and 'Newlands Hause to the Coledale Tops' routes start at Newlands Hause, 0.3 km away in a straight line (this pin sits too far from the mapped paths to measure a walk). Free (OSM-tagged).
Vehicles are left at their owner’s risk: we list places people park and cannot vouch for any of them. Take valuables with you and leave nothing on show.
Buses
The 77 and X5 stop at Braithwaite, at Croft Terrace, a 30 m walk from the start of Ard Crags & Knott Rigg — a route we rate Hard overall (hardest: distance and steepness). As timetabled from 27 October to 1 November. Towards Keswick (77): Tuesday to Sunday 17:37 to Keswick, 16:37 to Cockermouth. Towards Workington (X5): Tuesday to Thursday 22:27; Friday and Saturday 00:22 (after midnight); Sunday 20:17. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 24 September 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.
Catch it from: Keswick (connect via 555 from Windermere/Ambleside or X4/X5 from Penrith)
Seasonal (Summer 2026 timetable: 23 March to 1 November 2026). Brilliant for the North Western fells: Catbells, Dale Head from Honister, the Buttermere fells and Whinlatter.
Notes from a planned route, not walked: Ard Crags & Knott Rigg
If you need to get off (the leg from the start): The way off the ascent is to turn round and retrace the ridge to the valley floor. No line down the steep northern or southern flanks into Keskadale or Sail Beck has been checked: do not bail off them.
Quoted from the route page of a planned route, drawn from the map and not yet walked: the note for the leg that reaches Ard Crags.
We have not written a hazard card for this fell yet, and that is not a sign that it is low-hazard. Read the warnings on the route pages that climb it, check the forecast, carry a map and compass, and turn back in cloud if the ground is not what you expected. The National Park Authority’s What to pack page, AdventureSmart’s hill walking kit list and Mountain Rescue England and Wales’s safety page are linked from our what to carry guide.
Don’t drink from Yewthwaite Gill
On the way down on our route Ard Crags & Knott Rigg, you cross Yewthwaite Gill, which runs below the old Yewthwaite lead mine. In Environment Agency samples from it, the typical level of dissolved lead is above the World Health Organization’s drinking-water guideline — that comparison is ours, not the Agency’s. Those samples were taken between 2011 and 2026 at one Agency sampling point, “Yewthwaite Gill Ford”, 5 m from the route’s line: a record of past sampling, not a test of the water today. This is not the usual hill-water risk: a squeeze or hollow-fibre filter removes none of these dissolved metals, and boiling only concentrates them. Carry your own water for this walk and don’t refill from the beck. Coledale Beck and Newlands Beck, on the same round, carry mine-derived zinc — enough to matter for river life. In Environment Agency samples from Coledale Beck and Newlands Beck taken near our route Ard Crags & Knott Rigg between 2011 and 2025, no sample put lead or cadmium, the metals that matter for people, above the drinking limit. That is a record of past sampling, not a test of the water today.
Of the three things our terrain model measures, the highest reading here is the amount of steep ground within half a kilometre of the summit. This top is in the lowest of the index’s four bands, and a low band never means “safe”: carry map and compass and know how to use them.
In winter — snow, whiteout, cornices, buried features — every top demands full winter navigation skills whatever its band, and a broad, gentle summit can be the worst place of all. See walking in bad weather and the navigation guide.
How Ard Crags compares with all 214: the Clag Index (experimental).
If you need Mountain Rescue
Dial 999 or 112 and ask for the Police, then Mountain Rescue.
Before you call, have ready: where you are (a grid reference if you can – the OS Locate app shows yours on your phone), what has happened, how many of you there are, and your mobile number.
Then stay where you are until the rescue team contacts you.
If you cannot make a voice call because of a hearing or speech impairment, emergency SMS works only if you have registered first: text “register” to 999.
Because it finishes in a different valley from where it starts, this one suits a car–free day: the seasonal Honister Rambler (the 77 / 77A) sets you down at Honister Hause and you walk back into Keswick for the bus home. From Penrith it’s the X4 / X5 to Keswick, then the Rambler up to Honister. Check the last bus before you set off — the walk’s long tail down the Newlands valley eats time when legs are tired.
Best season: Late spring to autumn, in clear conditions. The steep descent off Robinson to Newlands Hause is rough and slippery when wet, and the broad grassy tops need a compass in mist; in full winter it’s a serious outing.
Warnings: The descent off Robinson to Newlands Hause is the crux — steep, eroded and grassy (around a 40–45% pull), and slippery when wet. Take the walkers’ line and keep away from the crags; cross the Buttermere road with care at the bottom. A long day — nearly 20 km and about 1,035 m of ascent over six tops, with a further long walk–out down the valley at the end. Carry map, compass, food and water, and start early. The high ridge from Dale Head over Hindscarth and Robinson is broad and grassy — easy to drift off line in cloud, so navigate on a bearing between the tops. It’s a linear route: fix your return transport (and the last bus time) before you leave, as there’s no loop back to the start. Dale Head: The easy southern slope ends suddenly right at the top, where the ground drops away in crags to Newlands. The cairn sits near this brink. In mist or strong wind it is dangerously easy to step toward the edge — keep well back and don't approach the rim for the view in poor visibility.
From the hazard notes for Dale Head, each with its sources.
A planned line, drawn from the map; not yet walked. It walks the same ridge between Knott Rigg and Ard Crags as our longer walk over these fells from Braithwaite to Keswick, but starts high on the pass, so it has about half the climbing and under a third of the distance.
The start is the free car park at Newlands Hause, the top of the Newlands Pass road between Buttermere and Newlands. No bus stop is mapped within about 1.5 km.
Warnings: OpenStreetMap maps crag edges within about 5 m of the path in four places: on the ridge between Sail and Crag Hill (Scott Crag, near 5.95 km), just past the top of Crag Hill (near 6.3 km), near 7.55 km before Wandope, and on Whiteless Edge (near 8.5 km). Between about 6.7 and 7.0 km, past the Eel Crag top, the line is up to about 130 m from any mapped path. From Whiteless Pike the line goes very steeply down to Sail Beck, about 43% sustained near 9.4 km, the steepest ground of the walk, then climbs about 250 m almost as steeply to the Knott Rigg path: about 50% over 250 m near 10.7 km. The line crosses streams at two points OpenStreetMap maps as fords: below Ard Crags near 3.15 km, and Sail Beck near 10.15 km. About 4.3 km of the line, in pieces, follows paths that OpenStreetMap does not record as public rights of way; the longest are about 1.1 km from the top of Ard Crags towards Scar Crags (about 2.75 to 3.9 km), about 0.9 km from Crag Hill past the Eel Crag top (about 6.15 to 7.0 km) and about 2 km from Whiteless Pike to the Knott Rigg path (about 8.9 to 10.9 km). The rest is public footpaths. That is a map-data note, not a ruling on access: check the access land and rights of way maps before relying on this stretch.
This is the summit’s grid reference. If you call from anywhere else, give your own position, not this one.
The summit is also a Birkett.
Lists, height and summit position from the Database of British and Irish Hills; the feet are converted from its metres and the grid reference from that position. How we check →
The view from Ard Crags
The 360° skyline from Ard Crags
A computed 360° skyline — every visible named top labelled by distance and bearing, from the terrain model in perfect clarity, not photographed. Drag to pan; reveal the far four-nations horizon.
drag to pan · arrow keys
The skyline as a list, by direction
North-east: Skiddaw Little Man (10 km), Skiddaw Lesser Man (10 km), Skiddaw South Top (10 km), Skiddaw Middle Top (10 km), Skiddaw (11 km), Knowe Crags (13 km), Gategill Fell Top (13 km), Blencathra (14 km), Atkinson Pike (14 km)
East: Watson's Dodd (13 km), White Side (14 km), Great Dodd (14 km), Stybarrow Dodd (14 km), Helvellyn Lower Man (14 km), Raise (14 km), Helvellyn (14 km), Catstye Cam (15 km), Nethermost Pike (15 km)
South-east: High Raise (13 km), Harrison Stickle (14 km), High Crag (15 km), Dollywaggon Pike (16 km), Seat Sandal (16 km), Cofa Pike (17 km), Fairfield (17 km), Great Rigg (18 km)
South: Robinson (3 km), Dale Head (5 km), Green Gable (9 km), Great Gable (10 km), Broad Crag (12 km), Ill Crag (12 km), Scafell Pike (13 km)
South-west: High Stile (6 km), Red Pike (6 km), High Stile (6 km), Pillar (8 km), Scoat Fell (10 km)
Ard Crags sits close to the flat-horizon case. Even on its longest wait of the modelled year (at midsummer) first light is only 11 minutes after almanac sunrise, so the published sunrise time is a fair guide here.
Midsummer. The filled shape is the skyline as seen from the summit; the line is the sun’s path. Where they meet is first light — everything left of that point is the wait.
Times for 2026, in Lakeland clock time (GMT in winter, BST in summer) — and model outputs rather than observations.
First light
Almanac sunrise
Difference
Midsummer
04:48 BST ±5.0 min
04:37
+11 min
Equinox
06:22 GMT ±5.0 min
06:16
+6 min
Midwinter
08:40 GMT ±5.0 min
08:34
+6 min
The northern horizon stands at about 4.01° from here.
Last light — when the sun leaves Ard Crags
Ard Crags loses the sun early. Its earliest evening of the modelled year falls at midsummer, when last light is 87 minutes before almanac sunset — 20:26 against 21:53. The sun goes down to the west-north-west from here (297.7°), and the skyline on that bearing stands at 9.7°.
The evening of the same three days. A negative difference means a ridge takes the sun before the valley loses it.
Last light
Almanac sunset
Difference
Midsummer
20:26 BST ±5.0 min
21:53
-87 min
Equinox
17:55 GMT ±5.0 min
18:27
-32 min
Midwinter
15:36 GMT ±5.0 min
15:49
-13 min
These are daylight figures, not a descent plan: the light goes on fading for a good while after the sun leaves, and going down in it is a decision about your own ground and party, not about this table.
What you can see from Ard Crags
On a clear day — computed sightlines, curvature- and refraction-corrected.
How the view from Ard Crags compares with all 214 — the View Report: every Wainwright ranked by what you can see from the top.
How the skyline, light and sightlines are computed
Computed, not photographed. First light is the first minute the sun’s upper limb clears this summit’s own skyline and last light the last minute it is still clear of it, both solved against the 360° horizon profile behind The View from Ard Crags. Almanac sunrise and sunset are the flat-horizon convention. Every time carries a ± band from the 30 m elevation model — it smooths arêtes and cornices, so nothing here claims better than five minutes.
Sightlines from the Copernicus GLO-30 elevation model, which is a surface model: each 30 m cell holds the top of whatever stands there, trees and buildings included, rather than bare ground. Corrected for the Earth’s curvature and average atmospheric refraction. “Distant” sightlines and any over 100 km depend on exceptionally clear air. Modelled from Copernicus GLO-30 open elevation data — a guide to the view, not a guarantee of any single one.
