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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 → Parking & buses →

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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 (Fri 11 Sep): 14° to 9°C, gusts to 26 mph, 1.1 mm of rain forecast.

Fri 11 Sep
🌦️
14° / 9°
💨 26 mph
🌧 1.1 mm (100%)
Sat 12 Sep
🌧️
17° / 10°
💨 41 mph
🌧 13.1 mm (100%)
Sun 13 Sep
☁️
14° / 9°
💨 19 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (62%)
Mon 14 Sep
🌧️
16° / 10°
💨 32 mph
🌧 7.0 mm (100%)
Tue 15 Sep
🌦️
15° / 9°
💨 35 mph
🌧 4.4 mm (89%)
Wed 16 Sep
🌦️
12° / 10°
💨 32 mph
🌧 1.0 mm (78%)
Thu 17 Sep
🌦️
12° / 10°
💨 37 mph
🌧 4.2 mm (92%)

Forecast snapshot from 11 Sep 2026, 08:30 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

Bracken How at a glance

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
Ten Birkett tops strung along the Dodds above Ullswater, from Low How and Randerside over Great Dodd and Stybarrow Dodd — 16.4 km and 694 m across eleven stages. Rated hard to navigate and easy for exposure; about 4.4 hours.

Classifications & hill data

Birkett
Synge
373 m
Height
1,224 ft
In feet
NY 3929 2105
Grid ref

The short answers

Is Bracken How a Wainwright?

Bracken How is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list and the Synge list.

Where do you park for Bracken How?

The nearest car park we hold is High Cascades (NT, paid), about 0.4 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Bracken How, north car park, 0.5 km out. 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.

How hard is Bracken How?

The shortest way up we hold is Birketts above Ullswater — 16.5 km, 694 m of ascent, about 4.4 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is navigation — Hard.

All axes: navigation: Hard · length: Hard · terrain: Moderate · steepness: Moderate · exposure: Easy.

Parking & buses for Bracken How

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).

High Cascades (NT, paid) — 0.4 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Low How, High Brow, Randerside and Great Dodd — the 'Birketts above Ullswater' route starts 21 m away. Fees: £6 for 2 hours; £8 for 4 hours; £9.50 all day. Compacted surface (OSM-tagged). Free for NT members (checked Aug 2026).
Directions Something changed here?
Bracken How, north car park — 0.5 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: Bracken How (0.5 km), Round How (0.8 km), Gowbarrow Fell (Wainwright summit) (1.5 km). Compacted surface (OSM-tagged). Fee not verified — check signage on arrival.
Directions Something changed here?
Dockray (roadside) — 0.6 km from summit (straight line)
Verge parking for the Dodds and Matterdale Common.
Directions Something changed here?
Park Brow (NT, paid) — 0.6 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Low How, High Brow, Randerside and Great Dodd — the 'Birketts above Ullswater' route starts 455 m away. Also serves 'Gowbarrow Fell and Little Mell Fell'. Fees: £6 for 2 hours; £8 for 4 hours; £9.50 all day. Free for National Trust members. 508/509 bus stop nearby. Free for NT members (checked Aug 2026).
Directions Something changed here?
Aira Force (NT, paid) — 0.7 km from summit (straight line)
For Gowbarrow Fell and the path toward Great Dodd via Dockray. Fees: pay and display (LDNP directory, checked Aug 2026). Open Toilets open 10am-3pm; accessible toilet 24hrs (LDNP directory, checked Aug 2026).
🕑 Typically full before 09:00 on fine weekends, Apr-Oct — Lee McCoy, local observation, 2026-08-09.
Directions Something changed here?
🚺 Aira Force Car Park (~606 m straight line) — Free · Accessible☕ Aira Force Tearooms

Positions are approximate — zoom the map to confirm.

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.

Getting to Bracken How by bus

The 509 stops at Dockray, outside The Royal Hotel, 750 m from the start of Birketts above Ullswater. The last bus is 19:09 towards Troutbeck (UB1) and 18:02 towards Grasmere (559) and 16:12 towards Keswick (509), 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.

Stagecoach 509
Penrith ↔ Keswick around Ullswater — calls at Pooley Bridge, Watermillock, Glenridding, Patterdale, Hartsop, Dockray, Matterdale, Mungrisdale and Threlkeld
Catch it from: Penrith · Keswick
The Ullswater side of the Penrith–Keswick corridor, and a second option where we previously showed only the 508. Reaches Helvellyn and Catstye Cam from Glenridding, Place Fell and Angletarn Pikes from Patterdale, the Hartsop fells, and Gowbarrow from Dockray. Frequency and season are not listed here because we have not verified a timetable — check Stagecoach before you rely on it. Note the Troutbeck on this route is the one on the A66 near Penrith, not the Troutbeck near Windermere.

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

Hazards on Bracken How

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.

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: High Cascades (NT, paid), about 0.4 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)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. How to use this guide.

On the hill: terrain and water on Bracken How

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 144 fells.

Places to stay near this fell

Lowthwaite Bed and Breakfast guest house

about 3.9 km from the start, in a straight line

The only property in the cluster that answers the whole arrival sequence for a family: a drying room in the all-rooms facilities list, a cot and a high chair, children of all ages accepted, and an honest note that its ground-floor room is still reached by steps. It is also the only page in the radius that describes this exact walk from its own door - Gowbarrow Fell to Aira Force and back through Matterdale - and Little Mell Fell, the second summit of one of the routes this start serves, is the fell behind the house.

Most of the furniture in the rooms was made by hand in Tanzania, where the owners used to run a business organising Kilimanjaro climbs.

  • Drying room “The following are available for all rooms: Television,DVD player, Hairdryer, Tea/Coffee making facilities, Use of garden and patio, Use of guidebooks and other books, Maps (for planning and laminated for walks), Drying room, and Fridge (in the Dining Room).”
  • Family rooms “We have a cot, high chair(s) and special cutlery for small children.”
  • Parking “Another alternative is to use what3words where our car park is primed.lavished.amounting”
  • Children “Children Welcome We are very happy to welcome children of all ages.”

Low Gale self-catering

about 4.4 km from the start, in a straight line

The best answer in the cluster for a party with a dog, a small child and tired knees at once: single storey, sleeps seven, cot available, off-road parking, drying facilities and a coin laundry, with hot food available from the hotel kitchen so nobody has to drive at seven in the evening. The price of all that is a three-night minimum with fixed Friday and Monday changeover, which is why the minimum-stay line matters more here than anywhere else in this list.

The Ullswater Steamer jetty at Howtown is reached from the cottage by footpath, so the lake boat can be walked to rather than driven to.

  • Drying room “Ample storage and drying facilites Very spacious, comfortable lounge Fully fitted dining kitchen”
  • Dogs “Low Gale Ullswater is an elevated single storey, dog friendly holiday cottage located just beside Fusedale Beck and can easily accomodate 7 people.”
  • Family rooms “Cot available Dishwasher *Washing Machine 2 bathrooms 1 double bedroom 2 twin rooms 1 single room”
  • Evening meal “visitors can cook local fayre or alternatively take advantage of the dine at home meals available from the Hotel kitchen.”
  • Parking “Facilities Free Superfast Broadband Dog friendly Off road parking Smoke-free Garden / Patios Cot available Dishwasher *Washing Machine”

Worth knowing before you book

These places state on their own site that they do not take children.

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.

Other fells near Bracken How