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

Birkett — Southern (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 → Parking & buses →

Home › Fells › Brown Pike

682 mBirkett — Southern (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 (Fri 11 Sep): 11° to 8°C, gusts to 34 mph, 3.1 mm of rain forecast.

Fri 11 Sep
🌦️
11° / 8°
💨 34 mph
🌧 3.1 mm (95%)
Sat 12 Sep
🌧️
14° / 9°
💨 47 mph
🌧 40.6 mm (100%)
Sun 13 Sep
🌦️
13° / 6°
💨 24 mph
🌧 0.2 mm (50%)
Mon 14 Sep
🌧️
13° / 6°
💨 29 mph
🌧 15.5 mm (88%)
Tue 15 Sep
🌦️
13° / 7°
💨 34 mph
🌧 5.8 mm (84%)
Wed 16 Sep
🌦️
10° / 8°
💨 29 mph
🌧 2.8 mm (84%)
Thu 17 Sep
🌦️
11° / 8°
💨 36 mph
🌧 6.4 mm (83%)

Forecast snapshot from 11 Sep 2026, 08:30 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.

Pro mountain forecasts: MWIS · Met Office mountain forecast

Brown Pike at a glance

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.

The Coniston Horseshoe
20.8 km · ~6.3 hr
The full Coniston Horseshoe — the grand ~21 km, ~1,280 m round of seven Wainwrights above Coniston: Wetherlam, the steep Prison Band onto Swirl How, Great Carrs, Grey Friar, Brim Fell, the Old Man of Coniston and Dow Crag. The big day out; for the shorter version see the [Coniston Old Man round](/routes/coniston-old-man-round.html).

Classifications & hill data

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

The short answers

Is Brown Pike a Wainwright?

Brown Pike is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list and the Synge list.

Where do you park for Brown Pike?

The nearest car park we hold is White Pike (layby), about 2.1 km from the summit in a straight line. 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 Brown Pike?

The shortest way up we hold is The Coniston Horseshoe — 20.8 km, 1279 m of ascent, about 6.3 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is steepness — Severe.

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

Parking & buses for Brown Pike

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).

White Pike (layby) — 2.1 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Walna Scar, White Maiden, White Pike (Seathwaite) and Pikes — the 'Birketts by Dunnerdale Fells' route starts 466 m away. Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
Walna Scar Road, Coniston (paid, rough track) — 2.8 km from summit (straight line)
High paid car park above Coniston — Old Man, Dow Crag, Brown Pike with a head start. Fees: pay and display; cards only; RingGo ID 37321 (LDNPA, checked Aug 2026).
Directions Something changed here?
🚺 Coniston Bridge (~1414 m straight line)🚺 Coniston Ruskin Avenue Car Park (~1569 m straight line)
Tongue House (layby) — 3.1 km from summit (straight line)
0.7 km from the 'Birketts by Dunnerdale Fells' route start. Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
Green Pikes car park — 3.2 km from summit (straight line)
1.3 km from Green Pikes.
Directions Something changed here?
Green Pikes car park (paid) — 3.2 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: Green Pikes (1.2 km), Pikes (1.6 km), Caw (1.6 km). Paid parking (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?

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.

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 Brown Pike by bus

The 505 stops at Coniston, outside The Ruskin Centre. From there it is 1.8 km and 179 m of ascent to the start of The Coniston Horseshoe — a walk in before the walk. The last bus is 20:24 towards Kendal (505) and 18:44 towards Ambleside (505), 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 505 “Coniston Rambler”
Windermere – Ambleside – Skelwith Bridge – Hawkshead – Coniston
Catch it from: Windermere · Ambleside
Daily in season (reduced winter service). Best access for the Coniston fells (Old Man, Wetherlam group).

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

Hazards on Brown Pike

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.

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).

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: White Pike (layby), about 2.1 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 · Southern
1.6 km SWWhite Pike (Seathwaite)600 m · Southern
1.7 km SHigh Pike Haw354 m · Southern

Routes over Brown Pike

The Coniston HorseshoeRevised
20.8 km · ~1279 m ascent · loop · ~6–8.5 h
Summits: WetherlamSwirl HowGreat CarrsGrey FriarBrim FellThe Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man)Dow CragBuck Pike - Seathwaite FellBrown Pike

✎️ 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. How to use this guide.

On the hill: terrain and water on Brown Pike

Water & shelter on the way up

On the The Coniston Horseshoe route:

🛖 map (7 m)

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

Places to stay near this fell

Bank Ground Farm guest house

about 2.7 km from the start, in a straight line

The strongest single sentence for a family in the whole cluster — "High chairs, cots and stair gates are available on request" — paired with a stated breakfast time, chefs cooking dinner on site, six en-suite B&B rooms plus cottages sleeping 2 to 16, and two EV chargers. The stair gates matter: nobody else within 3 miles mentions them.

Worth knowing: “Pets are more than welcome on the farm, we have purpose built five star accommodation so that you can bring the whole family along, however with the exception of assistant dogs, no pets are allowed inside the cottages and farmhouses.”

Arthur Ransome used the farm as the model for Holly Howe in Swallows and Amazons, and the 1970s film was shot there.

  • Dogs “Pets are more than welcome on the farm, we have purpose built five star accommodation so that you can bring the whole family along, however with the exception of assistant dogs, no pets are allowed inside the cottages and farmhouses.”
  • Family rooms “The traditional farm buildings have been converted into cottages of different sizes, sleeping two to sixteen.”
  • Evening meal “Let our fab chefs prepare you lovely meals, be it breakfast, lunch or dinner.”
  • Children “High chairs, cots and stair gates are available on request.”

Coniston Holly How YHA hostel

about 1.7 km from the start, in a straight line

The cluster's best wet-walker-plus-family combination inside 2 km: a shared drying room, a highchair, all-you-can-eat cooked breakfast with under-10s at £1, a licensed bar, a self-catering kitchen and a bus stop nearby — and unlike Coppermines you can book a single private room rather than the whole building. Carries two restrictions a reader must see before booking: dogs only in the Camping & Cabins, and under-12s barred from dorm rooms.

Worth knowing: “Pets are not permitted at YHA Coniston Holly How, except in our Camping & Cabins accommodation.”

It is a working Mountain Leader training and assessment base, not just a hostel.

  • Drying room “Shared drying room”
  • Family rooms “Bed in a shared room is offered here Private room is offered here Camping & Cabins is offered here”
  • Evening meal “With tasty breakfasts, packed lunches and evening meals, groups are sure to find something delicious to eat at YHA Coniston Holly How”
  • Packed lunch “With tasty breakfasts, packed lunches and evening meals, groups are sure to find something delicious to eat at YHA Coniston Holly How”
  • Parking “The hostel car park is controlled by an ANPR parking system and is free for guests and patrons from check-in at 17:00 to 10:00 on the day of departure, charges apply outside of these times.”
  • Children “People of all ages are welcome at YHA. Guests aged under 16 must be accompanied by an adult aged 18 years or older.”

YHA Coppermines hostel

about 1.6 km from the start, in a straight line

A whole building for one group 500 feet up the Old Man, with a shared drying room, a shared laundry room, a cot, a highchair, ground-floor rooms and free parking — the best answer in the cluster for a large family or a walking group who want the place to themselves. Two conditions decide whether it works: it is exclusive-hire only, so there are no single beds to book, and dogs are only allowed if you take the whole hostel.

Worth knowing: “Pets are not permitted at YHA Coniston Coppermines, except when hiring the whole hostel through YHA Exclusive Hire.”

It sits 500 feet up the mountain already, and they warn that the postcode alone will send your sat nav to somebody's private house.

  • Drying room “Shared drying room”
  • Family rooms “Entire place is offered here Bed in a shared room is not offered here Private room is not offered here”
  • Evening meal “With tasty breakfasts, packed lunches and evening meals, groups are sure to find something delicious to eat at YHA Coniston Coppermines”
  • Packed lunch “With tasty breakfasts, packed lunches and evening meals, groups are sure to find something delicious to eat at YHA Coniston Coppermines”
  • Parking “Free parking is available onsite.”
  • Children “People of all ages are welcome at YHA. Guests aged under 16 must be accompanied by an adult aged 18 years or older.”

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.

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