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610 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

Brown Crag

Brown Crag at 610m (2,001ft) is a Birkett top on the broad moorland between Ullswater and the Helvellyn range, its open summit giving views east over the Pennines and across the peaceful Eamont valley.

610 m
Height
+7
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX →

Home › Fells › Brown Crag

Written and walked by Lee McCoy · Last reviewed

610 mBirkett — Eastern (not a Wainwright summit)+7 bonus Birketts within 3 km

Is it worth going? — Today’s conditions & 7-day summit forecast

Modelled guidance for the 610 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Tue 28 Jul): 15° to 14°C, gusts to 34 mph, 3.5 mm of rain forecast.

Tue 28 Jul
🌦️
15° / 14°
💨 34 mph
🌧 3.5 mm (100%)
Wed 29 Jul
🌧️
15° / 11°
💨 31 mph
🌧 4.2 mm (100%)
Thu 30 Jul
🌦️
13° / 4°
💨 29 mph
🌧 2.1 mm (78%)
Fri 31 Jul
🌤️
14° / 2°
💨 23 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (78%)
Sat 1 Aug
🌦️
15° / 3°
💨 14 mph
🌧 5.4 mm (54%)
Sun 2 Aug
🌫️
16° / 3°
💨 18 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (24%)
Mon 3 Aug
🌦️
16° / 4°
💨 12 mph
🌧 0.2 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 610 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

Brown Crag

Brown Crag at 610m (2,001ft) is a Birkett top on the broad moorland between Ullswater and the Helvellyn range, its open summit giving views east over the Pennines and across the peaceful Eamont valley. Part of the high ground above Matterdale, rarely visited in its own right. The approach from Dockray gives a pleasant moorland walk.

Routes up Brown Crag

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

Brown Crag and Raise
10.6 km · ~3.4 hr
Classifications & hill data
Birkett
Synge
610 m
Height
2,001 ft
In feet
NY 3275 1764
Grid ref

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Swirls, Thirlmere (paid), about 1.4 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Brown Crag (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.

1.7 km NWGreat How (Thirlmere)333 m · Eastern
2.1 km NNWCastle Rock339 m · Eastern
2.3 km SSEHelvellyn Lower Man924 m · Eastern
2.6 km WSWFisher Crag421 m · Central
2.7 km ENEGreen Side (White Stones - Green Side)794 m · Eastern
2.8 km NNWWren Crag311 m · Eastern
2.9 km NNELittle Dodd (St John's Common)785 m · Eastern

Routes over Brown Crag

Brown Crag and RaisePlanned
10.64 km · ~749 m ascent · loop · ~3–4.5 h
Summits: Brown CragWhite SideRaise

⬇️ 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 610 m): a mapped path comes within about 67 m of the summit, with a last stretch of open ground (about 9 m of ascent, up to ~11°). 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 Brown Crag

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

Swirls, Thirlmere (paid) — 1.4 km from summit (straight line)
The standard west-side route up Helvellyn via Browncove Crags.
Directions
🚺 The Swirls Car Park (461m) — Free · Accessible · RADAR key🚺 Armbroth Car Park (1587m) — Free
Legburthwaite (United Utilities, small) — 1.6 km from summit (straight line)
St John's in the Vale — Sticks Pass side, High Rigg, Raven Crag.
Directions
🚺 Legburthwaite Car Park (155m) — Free

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.

Water & shelter on the way up

On the Brown Crag and Raise route:

🛖 map (78 m)🚌 Thirlmere Dam Road End (219 m)

On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.

Buses to Brown Crag from Penrith / Ambleside / Windermere

Stagecoach 555
Kendal – Staveley – Windermere – Ambleside – Rydal – Grasmere – Thirlmere (Wythburn & Swirls) – Keswick
Catch it from: Windermere · Ambleside
Year-round, roughly hourly. The backbone bus of the A591 — ideal for Helvellyn (Wythburn/Swirls), Fairfield, the Central fells and anything around Grasmere/Rydal. From Penrith, take the X4/X5 to Keswick and change.

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

My hikes over Brown Crag (Strava)

1 logged hike pass over this summit:

Interactive route maps and photos load here for visitors with JavaScript. Data from Strava.

Other fells near Brown Crag

Maps & guidebooks for Brown Crag

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