hikes.guideLake District

588 m · Birkett — Southern (not a Wainwright summit) · Birketts to bag nearby, parking, buses, my hikes and live summit weather.

Birkett — Southern (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Black Crags (Mickleden)

Black Crags at 588m (1,929ft) is a rocky Birkett top on the southern rim of the Great Langdale valley above Mickleden, giving excellent views across the valley floor to the Langdale Pikes and up into the wild upper reaches towards Bow Fell.

588 m
Height
+10
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX →

Home › Fells › Black Crags (Mickleden)

588 mBirkett — Southern (not a Wainwright summit)+10 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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 (Tue 28 Jul): 15° to 14°C, gusts to 40 mph, 9.8 mm of rain forecast.

Tue 28 Jul
🌧️
15° / 14°
💨 40 mph
🌧 9.8 mm (99%)
Wed 29 Jul
🌧️
15° / 11°
💨 31 mph
🌧 8.2 mm (100%)
Thu 30 Jul
🌦️
13° / 5°
💨 28 mph
🌧 1.3 mm (87%)
Fri 31 Jul
🌤️
14° / 2°
💨 24 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (86%)
Sat 1 Aug
🌦️
14° / 4°
💨 15 mph
🌧 3.6 mm (82%)
Sun 2 Aug
🌫️
16° / 6°
💨 19 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (35%)
Mon 3 Aug
🌦️
16° / 6°
💨 16 mph
🌧 0.2 mm (23%)

Forecast snapshot from 28 Jul 2026, 04:58 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.

Pro mountain forecasts: MWIS · Met Office mountain forecast

About the walk

Key information

Black Crags (Mickleden)

Black Crags at 588m (1,929ft) is a rocky Birkett top on the southern rim of the Great Langdale valley above Mickleden, giving excellent views across the valley floor to the Langdale Pikes and up into the wild upper reaches towards Bow Fell. A fine viewpoint for the classic Langdale scene, though rarely visited as a destination in itself.

Routes up Black Crags (Mickleden)

Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.

Langdale Horseshoe
20.2 km · ~6.5 hr · Severe
The full Langdale Horseshoe — fifteen tops, 1,500 m of ascent and one of the hardest days in the Lakes that involves no rope. The Langdale Pikes, Bowfell, the whole Crinkle Crags ridge and Pike of Blisco in a single round. It is long, rough, and the Crinkles will try to lead you down the wrong side. Do not start it late.
Classifications & hill data
Birkett
Synge
588 m
Height
1,929 ft
In feet
NY 2554 0806
Grid ref

Map & nearby Birketts

Free mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap (switch layers top-right). Parking positions are approximate.

Nearest parking: Old Dungeon Ghyll (NT, paid), about 3.7 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Black Crags (Mickleden) (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.

0.4 km SWBuck Pike (Mickleden)606 m · Southern
1.9 km NWHigh House Tarn Top (High House - Allen Crags)683 m · Southern
2.1 km SSEWhite Stones - The Band568 m · Southern
2.1 km NWRed Beck Top (Glaramara South Top) (Lincomb Head - Glaramara)720 m · Southern
2.3 km WSWPike de Bield810 m · Southern
2.3 km NNWLooking Steads (Glaramara)774 m · Southern
2.6 km ESEThorn Crag644 m · Central
2.8 km SShelter Crags815 m · Southern
2.9 km NNWCombe Head735 m · Southern
3.0 km SCrinkle Crags - Gunson Knott (Fifth Crinkle)822 m · Southern

Routes over Black Crags (Mickleden)

Langdale HorseshoePlanned
20.2 km · ~1497 m ascent · loop · ~6.5–8.5 h · Severe
Summits: Pavey ArkHarrison StickleThorn CragLoft CragPike of StickleBlack Crags (Mickleden)Rossett PikeBowfellShelter CragsCrinkle Crags - Gunson Knott (Fifth Crinkle)Crinkle Crags - Fourth CrinkleCrinkle Crags - Long Top (Second Crinkle)Crinkle Crags South Top (First Crinkle)Cold PikePike of Blisco

⬇️ Download GPX

⚠️ Warnings: The Bad Step (Crinkle Crags, Long Top). A short, awkward rock step that turns a walk into a scramble and regularly stops people dead. There is a bypass path to the left — use it if you are unsure.; Do not attempt Jack’s Rake on Pavey Ark unless you know what you are taking on. It is a graded scramble with real exposure, not a path. The walkers’ line goes round.; 20 km, 1,497 m and fifteen tops. This is a full, committing day. Start early, and decide your turn-back time before you leave the car.; The Crinkles are the classic place to descend the wrong side in cloud. Know which valley you want before you are in it.

Full route guide ↗

✎️ Planned route — drawn but not personally walked or checked yet.

A planned line is a suggestion, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate independently and carry a map & compass.

Terrain & access

A near-path top (about 588 m): a mapped path comes within about 64 m of the summit, with a last stretch of open ground (about 4 m of ascent, up to ~29°). 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 145 fells.

Best parking to hike Black Crags (Mickleden)

Where we have the data, each parking spot also shows the nearest public toilets and facilities (cafés, pubs, shops).

Old Dungeon Ghyll (NT, paid) — 3.7 km from summit (straight line)
Head of Great Langdale — Bowfell, Crinkle Crags, Pike o' Blisco, the Langdale Pikes.
Directions
🚺 Public toilets (510m) — Free🚺 Public toilets (649m) — Free🍺 Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel🍺 Sticklebarn
Stickle Ghyll / New Dungeon Ghyll (NT, paid) — 4.0 km from summit (straight line)
Direct start up Stickle Ghyll for the Langdale Pikes.
Directions
🚺 Public toilets (640m) — Free🚺 Public toilets (770m) — Free

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.

Water & shelter on the way up

On the Langdale Horseshoe route:

💧 possible water source (5 m)💧 possible water source (6 m)💧 possible water source (81 m)🚺 map (10 m)🚺 map (11 m)🚌 New Dungeon Ghyll (144 m)

💧 Treat water from the fell before you drink it. A mapped point is usually a tap or public supply, but never drink untreated from a beck, stream or tarn — even clear-looking hill water can carry giardia or cryptosporidium from livestock or a carcass upstream and leave you seriously ill. Run it through a filter or purifier (a LifeStraw, Sawyer Squeeze or HydraPak) or bring it to a rolling boil first.

On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.

Buses to Black Crags (Mickleden) from Penrith / Ambleside / Windermere

Stagecoach 516 “Langdale Rambler”
Ambleside – Skelwith Bridge – Elterwater – New Dungeon Ghyll – Old Dungeon Ghyll
Catch it from: Ambleside · Windermere (change at Ambleside)
The Langdale bus — Pikes, Bowfell, Crinkle Crags, Pike o' Blisco all walkable from the Dungeon Ghyll stops. Seasonal frequency varies; check before relying on the last bus back.

Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com or Traveline before relying on a last bus.

Other fells near Black Crags (Mickleden)

Maps & guidebooks for Black Crags (Mickleden)

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases — at no extra cost to you. How affiliate links work →