Black Crags (Mickleden)
Black Crags at 588m (1,929ft) is a rocky Birkett top on the northern side of Mickleden, at the head of Great Langdale, on the ridge running north-east from Rossett Pike (0.8 km SW) towards the Stake Pass, with views across Mickleden to Bow Fell.
Summit conditions on Black Crags (Mickleden)
On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 12° to 6°C, gusts to 55 mph, 14.5 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 Black Crags (Mickleden)
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
The full Langdale Horseshoe — fifteen tops and 1,770 m of ascent.
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 Black Crags (Mickleden)?
The shortest way up we hold is Langdale Horseshoe — 20.9 km, 1770 m of ascent, ~7–9½ h. On our scale its hardest axes are distance and steepness — Severe.
All axes: length: Severe · steepness: Severe · terrain: Hard · navigation: Hard · exposure: Hard.
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 588 m summit (Open-Meteo). Check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
Full 7-day forecast
Taken 27 October 2026, 20:59 UTC; the live forecast replaces it when it loads. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (opens in new tab)
Parking & buses for Black Crags (Mickleden)
Parking
Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.
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 516 stops at New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel (opposite), a 290 m walk from the start of Langdale Horseshoe — a route we rate Severe overall (hardest: distance and steepness). Return buses leave from New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel, across the road. As timetabled from 27 October to 1 November. Towards Kendal (516): Tuesday to Thursday, Sunday 20:13; Friday and Saturday 22:33. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 23 September 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.
Getting there across the Lake District: Buses · Parking map · By train · By boat
Hazards on Black Crags (Mickleden)
Notes from a planned route, not walked: Langdale Horseshoe
- 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 round its west side, on your right as you come south off Long Top — 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.
- 21 km, 1,660 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.
If you need to get off (the leg from Pike of Stickle): Turn left (South-East) at Stake Pass for a zig-zag descent into Mickleden valley.
Quoted from the route page of a planned route, drawn from the map and not yet walked: its warnings and the note for the leg that reaches Black Crags (Mickleden).
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 Black Crags (Mickleden)
These Birkett tops are not Wainwright summits. Distances are straight lines: check the ground and access on a map before adding one.
Routes over Black Crags (Mickleden)
Download GPX Planned route · not yet walked
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 Black Crags (Mickleden)
Terrain & access
A near-path top (about 588 m): a mapped path comes within about 64 m of the summit. 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 4 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.
Water & shelter on the way up
On the Langdale Horseshoe route:
Treat water from the fell before you drink it. A mapped point is not proof the water is drinkable, so carry your own or use a supply you know is safe. Never drink untreated from a beck, stream or tarn — even clear-looking hill water can carry giardia or cryptosporidium from livestock upstream and leave you seriously ill. Use a treatment method suited to what might be in the water, and follow the device’s own instructions. Boiling and ordinary filters do not make water with dissolved metals or chemicals safe: where that is possible, choose another source.
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.
About Black Crags (Mickleden)
Classifications & hill data
Is Black Crags (Mickleden) a Wainwright?
Black Crags (Mickleden) is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list and the Synge 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 →
Places to stay near this fell
From Great Langdale: 3 places in Grasmere