Brown Pike
Brown Pike (682 m / 2,238 ft) is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells), in the Southern Fells. It also features on the Synge list.
Summit conditions on Brown Pike
On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 11° to 4°C, gusts to 55 mph, 4.5 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 Pike
Both start from Walna Scar Road, Coniston (paid, rough track); the last two rows give its parking and bus. Full maps further down.
| Compared | Dow Crag without the Old Man | The Coniston Horseshoe |
|---|---|---|
| Starts from | Walna Scar Road car park | Walna Scar Road car park |
| Distance and climb | 11.88 km, 630 m of climb | 20.8 km, 1,333 m of climb |
| Time, fast to steady | ~3¼–4¾ h | ~6¼–8½ h |
| Scrambling | Hands for a few steps: the last steps to Dow Crag from Goat's Hawse (km 4.6–5.2). | Hands for a few steps: the Prison Band, and the last steps to Dow Crag (km 6.2–8.1 and km 15.6–16.0). 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. |
| Exposure | Not assessed | Not assessed |
| Navigation | Hard | Hard |
| Steepest stretch | Climb of about 27% at 3.7 km (Hard) | Climb of about 31% at 7.8 km (Hard) |
| After the summit | Over Walna Scar and White Maiden | No further tops |
| Walked or planned | Planned: drawn, not yet walked | Walked in part; km 0.0–1.1, km 15.8–20.8 from the map |
| Car park at the start | Walna Scar Road, Coniston (paid, rough track) | Walna Scar Road, Coniston (paid, rough track) |
| Bus to the start | 505, 1.8 km walk from Coniston, outside The Ruskin Centre | 505, 1.8 km walk from Coniston, outside The Ruskin Centre |
Times run from fast to steady pace (Naismith’s rule). Scrambling quotes each route’s own notes; “not mentioned” means they do not say, not that the ground has none. Each route’s page has its map, stages and GPX.
Distance, climb and the steepest stretch are measured from each route’s GPX track; the other grades are set on the ground, judged from the map or estimated from OpenStreetMap, and each route page says which. How we check →
How hard is Brown Pike?
The shortest way up we hold is Dow Crag without the Old Man — 11.88 km, 630 m of ascent, ~3¼–4¾ h. On our scale its hardest axes are steepness and navigation — Hard.
All axes: steepness: Hard · navigation: Hard · length: 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 682 m summit (Open-Meteo). Check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
Full 7-day forecast
Taken 27 October 2026, 08:13 UTC; the live forecast replaces it when it loads. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (opens in new tab)
Parking & buses for Brown Pike
Parking
Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.
2 more places to park near Brown Pike
Positions are approximate.
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 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 route we rate Severe overall (hardest: distance) — a walk in before the walk. And the same back: about 24.3 km in all, with the walk. As timetabled from 27 October to 1 November. Towards Kendal (505): Tuesday to Sunday 20:24. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 12 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 Pike
Notes from the The Coniston Horseshoe route
- Prison Band, the rocky climb from Swirl Hawse onto Swirl How, is steep and eroded with the ground falling away both sides — care needed in mist or wind.
- 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.
If you need to get off (the leg from Buck Pike - Seathwaite Fell): The map shows no mapped way off between Buck Pike and the Walna Scar Road, which the ridge path meets at about 17.3 km, past Brown Pike: back or on, and on it is about 1.1 km to the Walna Scar Road, which the walk then follows down to the car park; not walked for this guide.
Quoted from the route page: its warnings and the note for the leg that reaches Brown Pike.
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.
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. In Environment Agency samples taken near our route The Coniston Horseshoe between 2009 and 2024, no sample put lead or cadmium, the metals that matter for people, above the drinking limit. That is a record of past sampling, not a test of the water today. Treat any hill water before drinking (an ordinary hiking 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).
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 Pike
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 Pike
Lee walked it Wetherlam-first, from Miners Bridge to Dow Crag; the start from the car park and the southern end over Buck Pike, Brown Pike and the Walna Scar Road finish are from the map — 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 Walked in part, August 2024 · km 0.0–1.1, km 15.8–20.8 from the map
The start is the Walna Scar Road car park above Coniston. The climb past Goat's Water and the ridge from Dow Crag to Brown Pike are the same ground as The Coniston Horseshoe; this walk leaves out the Old Man of Coniston.
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 Pike
Water & shelter on the way up
On the The Coniston Horseshoe route:
On the Dow Crag without the Old Man route:
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.
About Brown Pike
Classifications & hill data
Is Brown Pike a Wainwright?
Brown Pike 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
- Bank Ground Farm (opens in new tab) guest houseabout 2.7 km
Also nearby, but not independent
- Coniston Holly How YHA (opens in new tab) hostelabout 1.7 km
- YHA Coppermines (opens in new tab) hostelabout 1.6 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).