Brown Crag
Brown Crag at 610m (2,001ft) is a Birkett top on the western flank of the Helvellyn range above Thirlspot, 1.4 km north-west of White Side, its open summit looking west over the Thirlmere valley. Our Brown Crag and Raise route climbs it first, from Legburthwaite.
Summit conditions on Brown Crag
On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 11° to 5°C, gusts to 57 mph, 15.7 mm of rain forecast over the whole day, midnight to midnight.
The forecast figures are Open-Meteo’s, worked out for the summit’s height. How we check →
Routes up Brown Crag
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
Three tops on the western flank of the Helvellyn range, Brown Crag through White Side to Raise.
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 Brown Crag?
The shortest way up we hold is Brown Crag and Raise — 10.76 km, 779 m of ascent, ~3¼–4¾ h. On our scale its hardest axis is steepness — Severe.
All axes: steepness: Severe · length: Moderate · navigation: Moderate · terrain: Not assessed · exposure: Not assessed.
These are the route page’s grades, set by the rules on how we grade: length and steepness measured from its GPX track, the others set on the ground, judged from the map or estimated from OpenStreetMap. The route page says which. How we check →
Conditions and 7-day summit forecast
Modelled for the 610 m summit (Open-Meteo). Check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
Full 7-day forecast
Taken 27 October 2026, 20:59 UTC; the live forecast replaces it when it loads. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (opens in new tab)
Parking & buses for Brown Crag
Parking
Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.
3 more places to park near Brown Crag
Positions are approximate.
Of the pay-and-display machine tickets sold at Station Coppice from 17 August 2024 to 31 March 2026, 15% were bought before 10am (our count of FOI/2026.500 ticket data). Contains public sector information provided by the Lake District National Park Authority and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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 555 stops at Stanah Dam road end (near), a 290 m walk from the start of Brown Crag and Raise — a route we rate Severe overall (hardest: steepness). As timetabled from 27 October to 1 November. Towards Kendal (555): Tuesday to Friday 21:35 to Ambleside, 20:35 to Windermere, 17:42 to Kendal; Saturday 21:35 to Ambleside, 20:35 to Windermere, 18:12 to Kendal; Sunday 19:42 to Windermere, 18:12 to Kendal. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 24 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.
Getting there across the Lake District: Buses · Parking map · By train · By boat
Hazards on Brown Crag
Notes from a planned route, not walked: Brown Crag and Raise
- The Helvellyn range holds hard icy snow well into spring, and cornices form over Keppel Cove. This is full winter mountaineering ground — ice axe, crampons and the skills to use them, and a wide margin kept from the corniced edges.
If you need to get off (the leg from the start): Turn 180 degrees and carefully retrace your steps straight back down the grassy slope.
Quoted from the route page of a planned route, drawn from the map and not yet walked: its warnings and the note for the leg that reaches Brown Crag.
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.
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.
From Mountain Rescue England and Wales’s guidance on calling them out (opens in new tab) (read 26 October 2026).
Map, GPX and nearby Birketts
Skip mapFree mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap, with SRTM elevation data (switch layers top-right).
Parking, toilets and buses: Parking & buses ↑.
Birketts within 3 km of Brown Crag
These Birkett tops are not Wainwright summits. Distances are straight lines: check the ground and access on a map before adding one.
Routes over Brown Crag
Download GPX Planned route · not yet walked
Every line here is a guide, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate for yourself and carry a map and compass. How to use this guide.
On the hill: terrain and water on Brown Crag
Terrain & access
A near-path top (about 610 m): a mapped path comes within about 67 m of the summit. We have not checked a way from it to the top: the figures here are measured along a straight line on a terrain model, not a route. That line climbs about 9 m. 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 v18.4 (CC BY 4.0); Copernicus GLO-30. CRoW access layer: © Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. See the terrain & access report for how this is worked out across all 144 fells.
Water & shelter on the way up
On the Brown Crag and Raise route:
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.
About Brown Crag
My Strava hikes over Brown Crag
1 logged hike pass over this summit:
- A few more Wainwrights in the wind and rain (opens in new tab) — 17.6 km · 1347 m ascent · 4h 27m moving · 16 July 2023
Data from Strava.
Classifications & hill data
Is Brown Crag a Wainwright?
Brown Crag is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list and the Synge list.
Selected lists
This is the summit’s grid reference. If you call from anywhere else, give your own position, not this one.
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 →
Places to stay near this fell
- Fornside Farm Cottages (opens in new tab) guest houseabout 1.1 km
- Dale Head Hall Lakeside Hotel (opens in new tab) hotelabout 2.1 km
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).