Black Combe South Top
Black Combe South Top at 588m (1,929ft) is the subsidiary summit of the Black Combe massif in the far south-west of the Lake District, giving views across the Duddon Sands and towards the Isle of Man and the Mull of Galloway on clear days.
Is it worth going? — Today’s conditions & 7-day summit forecast
Modelled guidance for the 588 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
On the summit today (Sat 12 Sep): 14° to 8°C, gusts to 45 mph, 24.7 mm of rain forecast.
Forecast snapshot from 12 Sep 2026, 18:50 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 588 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.
Black Combe South Top at a glance
Getting there
Classifications & hill data
The short answers
Is Black Combe South Top a Wainwright?
Black Combe South Top is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list.
Where do you park for Black Combe South Top?
The nearest car park we hold is White Hall Knott (layby), about 1.6 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Whitbeck (layby) 3, 2.0 km out. We only look within 2.5 km, measured straight-line: over longer distances a road may cross a pass and the drive bears no relation to the line.
Routes up Black Combe South Top
No route guide for this fell yet. The nearest routes we publish start close by:
- Awkward Around Swinside Fell — starts 4.7 km away
- Around Sele Bottom — starts 4.7 km away
Parking & buses for Black Combe South Top
Best parking to hike Black Combe South Top
Where we have the data, each parking spot also shows the nearest public toilets and facilities (cafés, pubs, shops).
Positions are approximate — zoom the map to confirm. Lakeland car parks fill before 9am on fine weekends.
Tip: pan and zoom the interactive map at the top of this page to spot other potential parking near your route.
Vehicles are left entirely at their owner’s risk. We list places people park; we cannot vouch for any of them. Judge it on the day: take valuables with you, leave nothing on show, and if a spot feels wrong when you get there, park somewhere else.
Getting to Black Combe South Top by bus
We don’t know yet. The path network around this start isn’t mapped well enough for us to measure a walk from the nearest stop. That’s a gap in our data, not a sign that no bus comes here.
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.
Hazards on Black Combe South Top
No hazard card for this fell. The usual open-fell rules apply: check the forecast, carry a map and compass, and turn back in cloud if the ground is not what you expected.
Map & nearby Birketts
Skip mapFree mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap (switch layers top-right). Parking positions are approximate.
Nearest parking: White Hall Knott (layby), about 1.6 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.
Birketts near Black Combe South Top (within 3 km)
These Birkett tops are not Wainwright summits — detour to them on this walk and they are pure profit. Distances are straight-line; allow extra for terrain.
On the hill: terrain and water on Black Combe South Top
Terrain & access
A near-path top (about 588 m): a mapped path comes within about 211 m of the summit, with a last stretch of open ground (about 25 m of ascent, up to ~25°). 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; Copernicus GLO-30. See the terrain & access report for how this is worked out across all 144 fells.
Other fells near Black Combe South Top
- Base Brown
- Blake Fell
- Brandreth
- Buckbarrow
- Burnbank Fell
- Caw Fell
- Crag Fell
- Fellbarrow - Mosser Fell
- Fleetwith Pike
- Gavel Fell
- Great Borne
- Great Gable
- Green Gable
- Grey Knotts
- Grike
- Haycock
- Haystacks (Buttermere)
- Hen Comb
- High Crag (Buttermere)
- High Stile
- Kirk Fell
- Lank Rigg
- Low Fell
- Mellbreak (Mellbreak South Top)
- Middle Fell
- Pillar
- Red Pike (Buttermere)
- Red Pike (Wasdale)
- Scoat Fell (Little Scoat Fell)
- Seatallan
- Starling Dodd
- Steeple
- Yewbarrow