524 mWainwright — Far Eastern Fells+2 bonus Birketts within 3 km Severe in cloud
Bonscale Pike at 524m (1,719ft) stands above Ullswater's eastern shore, its grassy summit giving fine views of the lake's southern reach and across to the Helvellyn range. Wainwright included it in his Far Eastern Fells guide.
Summit conditions on Bonscale Pike
On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 12° to 6°C, gusts to 53 mph, 11.8 mm of rain forecast over the whole day, midnight to midnight.
Against our lines, Tuesday 27 October: wind, cold and cloud from the Met Office UKV 2 km model (daylight hours, as in the verdict above); rain from the summit line’s forecast (the whole day). A tile is large when this top is past its line.
Wind on the top
Past the line
52mph, our estimate for the open top in the worst daylight hour
The Met Office 2 km model’s gust of 46 mph times our exposure factor of 1.12. The summit line above gives Open-Meteo’s highest gust for the whole day, 53 mph, before any exposure factor.
under 25
25–35
35–45
45–55
55+
The line Our line: 25 mph, where our wind Scale begins its 25–35 band: “balance affected; buffeting on exposed ground”. MWIS (opens in new tab) describes what wind does to a walker across a range rather than at a line: from about 20–25 mph it starts to affect your balance.
Estimated: it is not calibrated against summit readings, and the two forecasts can disagree by more than a band.
Rain, and the becks
Past the line
11.8mm of rain over the whole day, midnight to midnight
The same figure as the summit line above and the 7-day forecast.
The line Our line: 6 mm in the day, where our scorer counts a day as soaking. We read rainfall, never river levels: becks in spate.
Open-Meteo’s forecast. It says nothing about rain already in the ground.
Also checkedcold: feels like 3 °C, no ice or snow forecast; cloud: a clear-top reading of 42 out of 100, over our in-cloud line of 20. Under a line is not the same as fine: it means only that these figures are under the lines we use.
Not in these tiles Lightning, river levels, snow or ice already lying, and the ground under your feet. A tile cannot see them, so an empty space here never means they are absent.
Snow figures with a second opinion: Powered by Met Office data
Wainwrights are scored for walking conditions each morning from the Met Office’s UK forecast model, read for each summit through Open-Meteo; the forecast figures are Open-Meteo’s, worked out for the summit’s height. How we check →
14.68 km · ~888 m ascent · ~4¼–6 h · loop · 7 summits
Hard effortSevere: steepness
Park: unnamed car park south-east of Hallin Fell (free) · Bus: UB1, 540 m walk from Martindale Cattle Grid (near)
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 Bonscale Pike?
Straightforward as a climb, awkward as a summit. The pull up from Howtown is steep grass for around 400 m of ascent — hard work but never difficult, with no scrambling on the walkers' line. The confusion comes at the top: the highest point is an unassuming rise, while the two stone pillars people photograph stand lower down the edge, out toward Ullswater. Plenty of walkers tick the pillars and miss the summit. Our walked Fusedale circuit takes it in as part of 14.7 km with 888 m of ascent.
Howtown is the natural start — but parking there is very limited and informal, and the lane in from Pooley Bridge is narrow. The considerate alternative is genuinely lovely: take the Ullswater Steamer from Glenridding or Pooley Bridge to Howtown pier and walk up from the boat. Martindale's church parking is the other option for a longer approach.
Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.
Hallin Fell, south-east car park (free) — at the start of Fusedale Circuit
Walking base for Hallin Fell, Sleet Fell, Low Birk Fell and Birk Fell (Bleaberry Knott - Birk Fell) — the 'Hallin Fell' route starts 8 m away. Also serves 'Birketts to the South of Ullswater'. Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
Hallin Fell (layby) — 1.6 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Swarth Fell (Ullswater), Loadpot Hill, Brownthwaite Crag and Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts) — the 'Swarth Fell and Loadpot Hill' route starts 421 m away. Also serves 'Hallin Fell'. Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
Hallin Fell car park (free) — 2.0 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Swarth Fell (Ullswater), Loadpot Hill, Brownthwaite Crag and Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts) — the 'Swarth Fell and Loadpot Hill' route starts 6 m away. Also serves 'Hallin Fell'. Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
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 UB1 stops at Martindale Cattle Grid (near), a 540 m walk and 74 m of ascent from the start of Fusedale Circuit — a route we rate Severe overall (hardest: steepness).Seasonal: the UB1 does not run all year. 1 November 2026 is its last day. It returns on 22 March 2027. Confirmed with the operator: its last day on 9 October 2026, its return on 16 October 2026. We haven’t published its last bus times, so check the timetable before you rely on getting back — times here are a guide, not a promise.
Ullswater Hopper UB1
Troutbeck (Basecamp North Lakes) – Aira Force – Watermillock – Pooley Bridge – Howtown pier – The Hause (Martindale)
Catch it from: Pooley Bridge · Penrith (change to the 508 or 509)
The community hopper run for SITU by Stagecoach, a seasonal service: weekends and bank holidays from 28 March to 1 November 2026, and weekdays too from 26 to 29 May and from 29 June to 25 September (Stagecoach's 2026 timetable, read 9 October 2026). Calls at the steamer piers, the campsites and the hotels around the northern half of the lake, and the driver will stop anywhere safe on request. £3 single, dogs welcome, no bike trailer in 2026. With the 508 it gives Gowbarrow, Little Mell Fell and the Pooley Bridge end of the High Street ridge a second option.
Steep crag edges above Ullswater: Bonscale Tower and the western drops off Arthur's Pike and Bonscale Pike are serious — keep well back, especially in cloud or wind.
Boggy, featureless plateau: the Loadpot Hill saddle is peat-hagged and wet, and the broad grassy tops give little to aim for in mist — a compass day if the cloud is down.
Summer bracken + a washed-out descent: the Brock Crag short-cut and the steep climb from Mellguards up Bonscale Pike can be thick, navigation-sapping bracken, with one eroded section underfoot — walking poles help.
Easy-to-miss summits: Wether Hill and Loadpot Hill both have their true top just off the obvious path — step the few metres across to be sure you've actually bagged them.
If you need to get off (the leg from Hallin Fell): From Mellguards you can abort the climb entirely and retrace your steps along the lane back to Howtown.
Quoted from the route page: its warnings and the note for the leg that reaches Bonscale Pike.
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.
Navigating in cloud
Severe
Of the three things our terrain model measures, the highest reading here is the amount of near-level ground around the summit. A serious place to be caught in cloud: carry map and compass (or GPS) and know how to use them, or save it for a clear day.
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 Bonscale Pike compares with all 214: the Clag Index (experimental).
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.
Come by boat if you can. Howtown has almost nowhere to park and the eastern-shore lane is long and narrow, but the Ullswater Steamer pier is about 1 km from this start as the crow flies — sail in, walk the round, sail back, and the car never comes down the lane at all. If you are going back by boat, pick your return sailing before you set off, and allow for the whole walk, the walk to and from the pier and a margin; have a plan if you miss it. Sailings are seasonal, so check the timetable before you build a day around it. (Checked 4 Aug 2026; we don’t publish times here because a stale one would be worse than none.)
Warnings: Steep crag edges above Ullswater: Bonscale Tower and the western drops off Arthur's Pike and Bonscale Pike are serious — keep well back, especially in cloud or wind. Boggy, featureless plateau: the Loadpot Hill saddle is peat-hagged and wet, and the broad grassy tops give little to aim for in mist — a compass day if the cloud is down. Summer bracken + a washed-out descent: the Brock Crag short-cut and the steep climb from Mellguards up Bonscale Pike can be thick, navigation-sapping bracken, with one eroded section underfoot — walking poles help. Easy-to-miss summits: Wether Hill and Loadpot Hill both have their true top just off the obvious path — step the few metres across to be sure you've actually bagged them.
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.
This is the summit’s grid reference. If you call from anywhere else, give your own position, not this one.
The summit is also a Birkett.
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 →
The view from Bonscale Pike
The 360° skyline from Bonscale Pike
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.
drag to pan · arrow keys
The skyline as a list, by direction
South: High Raise (7 km), Rampsgill Head (7 km), The Knott (8 km), Gray Crag (9 km), Stony Cove Pike (11 km), Caudale Moor (11 km)
South-west: Gavel Pike (10 km), St Sunday Crag (11 km), Helvellyn (12 km), Hart Crag (12 km), Cofa Pike (12 km), Nethermost Pike (12 km), Dove Crag (12 km), Fairfield (13 km), High Crag (13 km), Red Screes (13 km), Dollywaggon Pike (13 km)
West: Birkett Fell (9 km), Hart Side (10 km), Green Side (10 km), Randerside (10 km), Stybarrow Dodd (11 km), Great Dodd (11 km), Catstye Cam (11 km), Raise (11 km), White Side (12 km), Clough Head (12 km), Helvellyn Lower Man (12 km), Skiddaw Lesser Man (20 km), Skiddaw Little Man (20 km)
North-west: Blencathra (15 km), Atkinson Pike (15 km), Gategill Fell Top (15 km), Knowe Crags (16 km), Bowscale Fell (16 km), Knott (20 km), Skiddaw South Top (21 km), Skiddaw Middle Top (21 km), Skiddaw (21 km), Skiddaw North Top (21 km)
On the clearest days the far horizon adds: Broad Law (108 km, Scotland), Tinto (125 km, Scotland), Green Lowther (107 km, Scotland), White Coomb (99 km, Scotland), Queensberry (92 km, Scotland), Ettrick Pen (91 km, Scotland), Cairn Table (127 km, Scotland), Wisp Hill (80 km, Scotland).
Bonscale Pike waits for the sun. Its longest wait of the modelled year falls at midwinter, when the sun is up for 28 minutes before it clears this skyline — first light 09:00 against an almanac sunrise of 08:32. You are standing in shadow while the valley below is already lit. The sun comes up to the south-east from here (137.5°), and the skyline on that bearing stands at 2.61°.
Midsummer. The filled shape is the skyline as seen from the summit; the line is the sun’s path. Where they meet is first light — everything left of that point is the wait.
Times for 2026, in Lakeland clock time (GMT in winter, BST in summer) — and model outputs rather than observations.
First light
Almanac sunrise
Difference
Midsummer
04:37 BST ±5.0 min
04:35
+2 min
Equinox
06:25 GMT ±5.0 min
06:14
+11 min
Midwinter
09:00 GMT ±5.0 min
08:32
+28 min
A low, open northern horizon — the ground falls away northwards (mean -0.19°).
Last light — when the sun leaves Bonscale Pike
The evening here runs close to the flat-horizon case. Even on its earliest evening of the modelled year (on 1 December) last light is only 15 minutes before almanac sunset, so the published sunset time is a fair guide on Bonscale Pike.
The evening of the same three days. A negative difference means a ridge takes the sun before the valley loses it.
Last light
Almanac sunset
Difference
Midsummer
21:48 BST ±5.0 min
21:52
-4 min
Equinox
18:15 GMT ±5.0 min
18:25
-10 min
Midwinter
15:35 GMT ±5.0 min
15:48
-13 min
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.
What you can see from Bonscale Pike
On a clear day — computed sightlines, curvature- and refraction-corrected.
How the view from Bonscale Pike compares with all 214 — the View Report: every Wainwright ranked by what you can see from the top.
How the skyline, light and sightlines are computed
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 Bonscale Pike. 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.
Sightlines from the Copernicus GLO-30 elevation model, which is a surface model: each 30 m cell holds the top of whatever stands there, trees and buildings included, rather than bare ground. 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.
We have not stayed at any of them. We take no bookings or affiliate fees. Distances are straight lines from each route start, never walking times. Properties found via OpenStreetMap (opens in new tab).
No — it is a steep grass slog rather than a technical climb. There is nothing to scramble and the paths are reasonable. What makes it feel harder than its 524 m is that the climbing is front-loaded: you gain most of the height in the first stretch above Howtown, on ground that does not let up. Take it slowly and it is a comfortable half-day.
Is Bonscale Pike a Wainwright?
Yes — 524 m in Wainwright's Far Eastern Fells, on the quiet Ullswater flank above Howtown. It is really a shoulder of Loadpot Hill rather than a mountain in its own right, but its position over the lake earns it a chapter, and most people walk it with Arthur's Pike next door.
What can you see from Bonscale Pike?
The reason to come: the full length of Ullswater, seen end-on from a high shoulder, with the Helvellyn range walling the far side and the lake steamers crossing far below. It is one of the best views of the lake from anywhere, and much of it is available from the stone pillars on the edge rather than the summit itself — unusually, the photograph and the top are in different places.
