Birker Fell - Great Crag
Birker Fell - Great Crag is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells) in the Southern Fells.
Summit conditions on Birker Fell - Great Crag
On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 13° to 7°C, gusts to 45 mph, 2.4 mm of rain forecast over the whole day, midnight to midnight.
The forecast figures are Open-Meteo’s, worked out for the summit’s height. How we check →
Routes up Birker Fell - Great Crag
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
A wild, trackless round over the knobbly tops of Birker Fell, in the empty south-western corner of the Lakes that most walkers never reach.
Distance and climb are measured from the route’s GPX track, and the time from them by Naismith’s rule; the route page says what each grade rests on. How we check →
How hard is Birker Fell - Great Crag?
The shortest way up we hold is Green Crag & Great Whinscale — the wild Birker Fell round — 12.03 km, 544 m of ascent, ~3¼–4½ h. On our scale its hardest axis is terrain — Hard.
All axes: terrain: Hard · length: Moderate · steepness: Moderate · navigation: Moderate · exposure: Not assessed.
These are the route page’s grades, set by the rules on how we grade: length and steepness measured from its GPX track, the others set on the ground, judged from the map or estimated from OpenStreetMap. The route page says which. How we check →
Conditions and 7-day summit forecast
Modelled for the 333 m summit (Open-Meteo). Check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
Full 7-day forecast
Taken 27 October 2026, 08:13 UTC; the live forecast replaces it when it loads. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (opens in new tab)
Parking & buses for Birker Fell - Great Crag
Parking
Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.
2 more places to park near Birker Fell - Great Crag
Positions are approximate.
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 nearest bus stop we hold is the 505 at Coniston, outside The Ruskin Centre, 17.3 km of walking from the start — no bus route we hold serves it.
Getting there across the Lake District: Buses · Parking map · By train · By boat
Hazards on Birker Fell - Great Crag
Notes from a planned route, not walked: Green Crag & Great Whinscale — the wild Birker Fell round
If you need to get off (the leg from Broad Crag - Birker Fell): No way off this moor has been checked for this guide. Great Crag, ahead, leads to the route's own descent, and going back over the bogs is the way you know: judge which from where you are.
Quoted from the route page of a planned route, drawn from the map and not yet walked: the note for the leg that reaches Birker Fell - Great Crag.
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.
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.
From Mountain Rescue England and Wales’s guidance on calling them out (opens in new tab) (read 26 October 2026).
Map, GPX and nearby Birketts
Skip mapFree mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap, with SRTM elevation data (switch layers top-right).
Parking, toilets and buses: Parking & buses ↑.
Birketts within 3 km of Birker Fell - Great Crag
These Birkett tops are not Wainwright summits. Distances are straight lines: check the ground and access on a map before adding one.
Routes over Birker Fell - Great Crag
Park on the verge at the Devoke Water turning on the Birker Fell road between Ulpha and Eskdale — a narrow, remote fell road, so come prepared and don't rely on a phone signal. It's a long walk in across open moor to the first top.
Download GPX Planned route · not yet walked
Route guide: Green Crag & Great Whinscale — the wild Birker Fell round →
Every line here is a guide, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate for yourself and carry a map and compass. How to use this guide.
On the hill: terrain and water on Birker Fell - Great Crag
Terrain & access
A pathless top (about 333 m) — the nearest mapped path is about 558 m away. We have not checked a way from it to the top: the figures here are measured along a straight line on a terrain model, not a route. That line climbs about 93 m. The summit is on CRoW open access land.
Computed from open data, not walked — pathless ground needs confident navigation, and mapped paths, barriers and access boundaries can be incomplete. Data © OpenStreetMap contributors (via Overpass); Natural England CRoW Access Land; DoBIH v18.4 (CC BY 4.0); Copernicus GLO-30. CRoW access layer: © Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. See the terrain & access report for how this is worked out across all 144 fells.
About Birker Fell - Great Crag
Classifications & hill data
Is Birker Fell - Great Crag a Wainwright?
Birker Fell - Great Crag is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list.
Selected lists
This is the summit’s grid reference. If you call from anywhere else, give your own position, not this one.
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 →