573 m · Wainwright — Western Fells · Birketts to bag nearby, parking, buses, my hikes and live summit weather.
Blake Fell at 573m (1,880ft) is a broad, heathery summit above Crummock Water and Loweswater, giving fine views of both lakes from its open top.
Modelled guidance for the 573 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
On the summit today (Fri 11 Sep): 12° to 9°C, gusts to 25 mph, 3.9 mm of rain forecast.
Forecast snapshot from 11 Sep 2026, 08:30 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 573 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
Blake Fell is a Wainwright. It is also on the Birkett list, the Synge list, the Fellranger list and the Marilyn list.
The nearest car park we hold is High Hows car park (free), about 2.4 km from the summit in a straight line. 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.
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.
The 77 stops at Lanthwaite Green Farm (opp). From there it is 3.2 km and 118 m of ascent to the start of Around Loweswater — a walk in before the walk. Seasonal: the 77 does not run all year. 1 November 2026 is its last day, and it is not daily before then — a bus on 31 of the 56 days from 7 September. We don’t know when it returns. Confirmed with the operator, 29 August 2026. The last bus is 18:03 towards Keswick (77), every day. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 7 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.
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.
A broad, gently-sloping top with little to steer by — easy to lose your bearings and hard to relocate in mist. Navigation here is relatively straightforward even in cloud — but carry map and compass and know how to use them; a low score never means “safe”.
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 Blake Fell compares with all 214 — the Clag Index: navigating in cloud. A relative, deliberately cautious guide; the site can’t navigate for you.
Free mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap (switch layers top-right). Parking positions are approximate.
Nearest parking: High Hows car park (free), about 2.4 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.
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.
A planned line is a suggestion, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate independently and carry a map & compass. How to use this 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. How to use this guide.
A planned line is a suggestion, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate independently and carry a map & compass. How to use this guide.
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.
On the clearest days the far horizon adds: Snowdon (173 km, Wales), Slieve Donard (171 km, Ireland), Carnedd Llewelyn (161 km, Wales), Merrick (95 km, Scotland), Aran Fawddwy (199 km, Wales), Broad Law (104 km, Scotland), Snaefell (78 km, Isle of Man), Cairnsmore of Carsphairn (94 km, Scotland).
Computed from terrain in perfect clarity, not photographed · distances are straight-line.
Computed from Copernicus GLO-30 terrain; distant tops from the Database of British and Irish Hills (opens in new tab) (CC BY 4.0). See how we compute the view · and the summit intervisibility report below.
Blake Fell sits close to the flat-horizon case. Even on its longest wait of the modelled year (on 1 April) first light is only 18 minutes after almanac sunrise, so the published sunrise time is a fair guide here.
| First light | Almanac sunrise | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midsummer | 04:32 BST ±5.0 min | 04:38 | -6 min |
| Equinox | 06:26 GMT ±5.0 min | 06:17 | +9 min |
| Midwinter | 08:45 GMT ±5.0 min | 08:34 | +11 min |
A low, open northern horizon — the ground falls away northwards (mean -0.37°).
Blake Fell holds the light. On not one of the sixteen dates modelled does the sun leave this summit before almanac sunset — the ground falls away westward rather than standing over you, and at midsummer it is still in the sun 4 minutes after the valley has lost it.
| Last light | Almanac sunset | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midsummer | 21:58 BST ±5.0 min | 21:54 | +4 min |
| Equinox | 18:33 GMT ±5.0 min | 18:27 | +6 min |
| Midwinter | 15:57 GMT ±5.0 min | 15:50 | +7 min |
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 Blake Fell. 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. 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.
On the clearest days the view reaches across to Wales, Scotland and the Isle of Man.
Gavel Fell, Burnbank Fell, Hen Comb, Great Borne, Mellbreak (Mellbreak South Top), Starling Dodd, Fellbarrow - Mosser Fell, Crag Fell, Grike, Whiteside (Whiteside West Top), Grasmoor, Red Pike (Buttermere), Whiteless Pike, High Stile, Wandope, Hopegill Head, Lank Rigg, Caw Fell, Grisedale Pike, Steeple, Scoat Fell (Little Scoat Fell), Haycock, Robinson, Graystones (Graystones North Top), Pillar, Whinlatter (Brown How - Whinlatter), Fleetwith Pike, Broom Fell, Ling Fell, Lord's Seat, Dale Head, Kirk Fell, Grey Knotts, Sale Fell, Great Gable, Great End, Ullock Pike, Scafell, Glaramara, Long Side, Rosthwaite Fell - Bessyboot, Carl Side, Skiddaw Little Man, Skiddaw, Sergeant's Crag, Binsey, High Raise (High White Stones), Great Cockup, Meal Fell, Longlands Fell, White Side, Great Sca Fell, Raise, Helvellyn, Brae Fell, Nethermost Pike, Catstye Cam
How Blake Fell’s view compares with all 214 — the View Report: every Wainwright ranked by what you can see from the top.
Sightlines from a bare-earth terrain model (forests and buildings not included), 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.
about 0.9 km from the start, in a straight line
Foulsyke was a 16th-century manor house; the three cottages are its former barn and stables, and you reach the courtyard through an arched carriage entrance dated 1797.
What each place says about itself, quoted from their own site. We have not stayed at any of them, and there are no prices, no booking and no affiliate links. Distances are straight lines from each route start, never walking times. Properties found via OpenStreetMap (opens in new tab).
No steep ground and no scrambling — it is the highest of the quiet Loweswater group, and the walking on it is grass and heather throughout. Our round with Gavel Fell and Hen Comb is 14.0 km with 732 m of ascent.
We grade that round’s navigation hard, and that is the honest difficulty. These are rolling, boggy, sparsely pathed fells where the tops look alike and the valleys between them all run the same way. Lovely on a clear day and genuinely disorienting on a poor one.
Questions drawn from real Google “People also ask” searches; answers written and fact-checked by us. · Reviewed 2026-08-30 · Suggest a question or correction (opens in new tab)