hikes.guideLake District

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

Birkett — Central (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Brown Rigg

Brown Rigg at 462m (1,516ft) is a Birkett top on the open moorland between Thirlmere and the Wyth Burn, its grassy summit giving views across the central plateau and towards the Helvellyn range.

462 m
Height
+10
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX →

Home › Fells › Brown Rigg

462 mBirkett — Central (not a Wainwright summit)+10 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 462 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Tue 28 Jul): 16° to 15°C, gusts to 32 mph, 5.2 mm of rain forecast.

Tue 28 Jul
🌦️
16° / 15°
💨 32 mph
🌧 5.2 mm (100%)
Wed 29 Jul
🌧️
16° / 12°
💨 28 mph
🌧 4.9 mm (100%)
Thu 30 Jul
🌦️
14° / 5°
💨 29 mph
🌧 2.0 mm (78%)
Fri 31 Jul
🌤️
15° / 2°
💨 23 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (78%)
Sat 1 Aug
🌦️
16° / 4°
💨 14 mph
🌧 5.4 mm (54%)
Sun 2 Aug
🌫️
16° / 4°
💨 18 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (24%)
Mon 3 Aug
🌦️
17° / 5°
💨 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 462 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 Rigg

Brown Rigg at 462m (1,516ft) is a Birkett top on the open moorland between Thirlmere and the Wyth Burn, its grassy summit giving views across the central plateau and towards the Helvellyn range. Part of the broad fell country south of Armboth, rarely visited except by Birkett baggers crossing the high Central Fells.

Classifications & hill data
Birkett
Synge
462 m
Height
1,516 ft
In feet
NY 3052 1460
Grid ref

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Wythburn Church, Thirlmere (paid), about 2.2 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Brown Rigg (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.

0.8 km WSWBell Crags (Long Moss) (Blea Tarn Fell)559 m · Central
1.6 km SSWStanding Crag611 m · Central
1.6 km NNWArmboth Fell (Birkett)479 m · Central
1.6 km WWatendlath Fell (Long Moss)515 m · Central
1.7 km NFisher Crag421 m · Central
1.8 km WNWShivery Knott491 m · Central
2.1 km NWMiddle Crag484 m · Central
2.2 km SWLow Saddle656 m · Central
2.2 km SSEWythburn Fell508 m · Central
2.3 km SWColdbarrow Fell - High Saddle675 m · Central

Terrain & access

A pathless top (about 462 m) — the nearest mapped path is about 490 m away, the open ground you’d cross to the summit (about 72 m of ascent, up to ~30°). There is steep ground (over 30°) on the direct line — pick your line with care. The summit is on CRoW open access land, but the direct approach crosses land that is neither access land nor a right of way — check access. The direct line crosses 1 wall.

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 Rigg

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

Wythburn Church, Thirlmere (paid) — 2.2 km from summit (straight line)
Direct forest path up Helvellyn's south ridge (Comb Crags).
Directions
🚺 Dob Gill Car Park (931m) — Free
Swirls, Thirlmere (paid) — 2.5 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

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.

Buses to Brown Rigg 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.

Other fells near Brown Rigg

Maps & guidebooks for Brown Rigg

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases — at no extra cost to you. How affiliate links work →