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

Birkett — Western (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Brown Pike

Brown Pike (682 m / 2,238 ft) is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells), one of the lesser-known Western tops.

682 m
Height
+4
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX →
682 mBirkett — Western (not a Wainwright summit)+4 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 682 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Tue 28 Jul): 14° to 13°C, gusts to 33 mph, 5.2 mm of rain forecast.

Tue 28 Jul
🌧️
14° / 13°
💨 33 mph
🌧 5.2 mm (90%)
Wed 29 Jul
🌦️
14° / 11°
💨 28 mph
🌧 2.6 mm (98%)
Thu 30 Jul
🌦️
13° / 6°
💨 28 mph
🌧 1.4 mm (70%)
Fri 31 Jul
🌤️
14° / 1°
💨 23 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (73%)
Sat 1 Aug
🌦️
14° / 2°
💨 15 mph
🌧 2.1 mm (47%)
Sun 2 Aug
☁️
16° / 6°
💨 18 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (24%)
Mon 3 Aug
🌦️
16° / 6°
💨 15 mph
🌧 0.2 mm (17%)

Forecast snapshot from 28 Jul 2026, 04:58 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 682 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.

About the walk

Key information

Brown Pike

Brown Pike (682 m / 2,238 ft) is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells), one of the lesser-known Western tops. The name comes from pike (Old Norse pík, a peak). It also features on the Synge list. Its nearest tops are Walna Scar (0.4 km SW); Buck Pike - Seathwaite Fell (0.6 km N); White Maiden (1.1 km SW) — 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 Brown Pike

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

Classifications & hill data
Birkett
Synge
682 m
Height
2,238 ft
In feet
SD 2608 9660
Grid ref

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Seathwaite, Duddon Valley (roadside), about 2.8 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Brown Pike (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.

0.6 km NNEBuck Pike - Seathwaite Fell744 m · Southern
1.1 km SWWhite Maiden613 m · Western
1.6 km SWWhite Pike (Seathwaite)600 m · Western
1.7 km SHigh Pike Haw354 m · Western

Routes over Brown Pike

20.8 km · ~1279 m ascent · loop · ~6–8.5 h

✎️ Walked and described first-hand by Lee, Wetherlam-first — the full Coniston round over all the major tops, a long and serious mountain day. The trickiest navigation is the Grey Friar–Calf Cove–Levers Hawse traverse and the Lad Stones ground; carry OS Explorer OL6 and a compass for the clag.

⬇️ Download GPX

⚠️ Warnings: Prison Band, the rocky descent from Black Sails to Swirl Hawse, is steep and eroded with the ground falling away both sides — care needed in mist or wind.; Dow Crag's summit sits above a serious east face over Goat's Water — keep slightly left (west) of the top and well back from the gullies and edge, especially in poor visibility.; The Grey Friar → Calf Cove → Levers Hawse leg is largely pathless and the round's hardest navigation — careful map-and-compass work in clag.; The short final climb to Dow Crag from Goat's Hawse has scrambly steps with moderate exposure — stay on the path and away from the edge.

Full route guide ↗

A planned line is a suggestion, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate independently and carry a map & compass.

Best parking to hike Brown Pike

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

Seathwaite, Duddon Valley (roadside) — 2.8 km from summit (straight line)
Limited roadside parking near the Newfield Inn for the Dunnerdale fells and Walna Scar side.
Directions (opens in new tab)
Walna Scar Road, Coniston (free, rough track) — 2.9 km from summit (straight line)
High free car park above Coniston — Old Man, Dow Crag, Brown Pike with a head start.
Directions (opens in new tab)

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

Buses to Brown Pike from Penrith / Ambleside / Windermere

No regular bus serves the start points for this fell — this is one for the car (or a long approach from the nearest served valley). The nearest hubs are Penrith (X4/X5 & 508), Ambleside and Windermere (555, 505, 516).

Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.

A note on Church Beck (with Red Dell Beck & Levers Water)

Church Beck (with Red Dell Beck & Levers Water) runs below the old Coniston copper mines and carries mine-derived copper and zinc — enough to matter for river life, though the lead and cadmium that would harm a person stay below the drinking limit here. Treat any hill water before drinking (a filter won’t remove dissolved metals); don’t single this beck out as a clean fill-up.

What’s actually in this beck — we mapped every mine-fed one →

Metal-mine water data © Environment Agency (Open Government Licence v3.0).

Maps & guidebooks for Brown Pike

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