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

Birkett — Eastern (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Bracken How

Bracken How (373 m / 1,224 ft) is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells), one of the lesser-known Eastern tops.

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

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373 mBirkett — Eastern (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 373 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Tue 28 Jul): 18° to 15°C, gusts to 34 mph, 2.3 mm of rain forecast.

Tue 28 Jul
🌦️
18° / 15°
💨 34 mph
🌧 2.3 mm (100%)
Wed 29 Jul
🌧️
18° / 13°
💨 26 mph
🌧 2.4 mm (100%)
Thu 30 Jul
🌦️
15° / 7°
💨 29 mph
🌧 0.8 mm (78%)
Fri 31 Jul
🌤️
16° / 5°
💨 24 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (78%)
Sat 1 Aug
🌦️
16° / 8°
💨 12 mph
🌧 5.1 mm (54%)
Sun 2 Aug
☁️
17° / 6°
💨 18 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (24%)
Mon 3 Aug
🌦️
17° / 7°
💨 15 mph
🌧 0.4 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 373 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

Bracken How

Bracken How (373 m / 1,224 ft) is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells), one of the lesser-known Eastern tops. It rises the busy Glenridding valley. The name comes from how (Old Norse haugr, a hill or rounded mound). It also features on the Synge list. Its nearest tops are Round How (0.3 km SW); Common Fell (1.2 km SW); Green Hill - Gowbarrow Park (1.6 km E) — it's usually taken in on a round of these neighbours. It's a worthwhile objective for anyone working through the Birkett list, or as a short extension to a bigger day on the higher neighbouring fells.

Routes up Bracken How

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

Birketts above Ullswater
16.5 km · ~4.4 hr
Classifications & hill data
Birkett
Synge
373 m
Height
1,224 ft
In feet
NY 3929 2105
Grid ref

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Dockray (roadside), about 0.6 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Bracken How (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.

0.3 km SSWRound How387 m · Eastern
1.2 km WSWCommon Fell552 m · Eastern
1.6 km EGreen Hill - Gowbarrow Park439 m · Eastern
1.9 km WNWLow How497 m · Eastern
1.9 km SWSwineside Knott553 m · Eastern
2.2 km SWBrown Hills551 m · Eastern
2.5 km ENEGreat Meldrum437 m · Eastern
2.5 km WHigh Brow575 m · Eastern
2.7 km SELow Birk Fell373 m · Far Eastern
3.0 km SSEBirk Fell (Bleaberry Knott - Birk Fell)512 m · Far Eastern

Routes over Bracken How

Birketts above UllswaterPlanned
16.45 km · ~694 m ascent · loop · ~4–6 h
Summits: Low HowHigh BrowRandersideGreat DoddStybarrow DoddHart SideBirkett FellBrown HillsRound HowBracken How

⬇️ Download GPX

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 373 m): a mapped path comes within about 174 m of the summit, with a last stretch of open ground (about 16 m of ascent, up to ~9°). 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 Bracken How

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

Dockray (roadside) — 0.6 km from summit (straight line)
Verge parking for the Dodds and Matterdale Common.
Directions
Aira Force (NT, paid) — 0.8 km from summit (straight line)
For Gowbarrow Fell and the path toward Great Dodd via Dockray.
Directions
🚺 Aira Force Car Park (130m) — Free · Accessible☕ Aira Force Tearooms

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.

Buses to Bracken How from Penrith / Ambleside / Windermere

Stagecoach 508 “Ullswater Bus”
Penrith – Pooley Bridge – Aira Force – Glenridding – Patterdale (summer services continue over Kirkstone Pass to Troutbeck and Windermere)
Catch it from: Penrith · Windermere (summer only)
The key route from Penrith for the Eastern and Far Eastern fells: Helvellyn from Glenridding, Place Fell, the Hartsop fells. The summer Kirkstone extension drops you at the pass for Red Screes and Caudale Moor.

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

Other fells near Bracken How

Maps & guidebooks for Bracken How

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