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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 → Parking & buses →

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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 (Fri 11 Sep): 13° to 10°C, gusts to 19 mph, 1.0 mm of rain forecast.

Fri 11 Sep
🌦️
13° / 10°
💨 19 mph
🌧 1.0 mm (100%)
Sat 12 Sep
🌧️
15° / 10°
💨 40 mph
🌧 18.9 mm (100%)
Sun 13 Sep
☁️
13° / 7°
💨 15 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (62%)
Mon 14 Sep
🌧️
15° / 8°
💨 32 mph
🌧 10.3 mm (100%)
Tue 15 Sep
🌦️
14° / 9°
💨 33 mph
🌧 10.5 mm (89%)
Wed 16 Sep
🌦️
11° / 9°
💨 33 mph
🌧 3.4 mm (78%)
Thu 17 Sep
🌦️
11° / 9°
💨 38 mph
🌧 7.2 mm (92%)

Forecast snapshot from 11 Sep 2026, 08:30 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

Brown Rigg at a glance

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.

Routes up Brown Rigg

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

Brown Rigg & Blea Tarn
13.5 km · ~3.5 hr
Four tops on the boggy watershed above Thirlmere — Brown Rigg, Shivery Knott, Middle Crag and High Tove — in 13.5 km with 481 m of climbing. Rated hard to navigate, which is the whole character of this ground. About 3.5 hours.

Classifications & hill data

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

The short answers

Is Brown Rigg a Wainwright?

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

Where do you park for Brown Rigg?

The nearest car park we hold is Dob Gill, Thirlmere (United Utilities, paid), about 1.2 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Fisher Crag (layby, south), 1.3 km out. 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 Rigg?

The shortest way up we hold is Brown Rigg & Blea Tarn — 13.5 km, 481 m of ascent, about 3.5 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is navigation — Hard.

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

Parking & buses for Brown Rigg

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).

Dob Gill, Thirlmere (United Utilities, paid) — 1.2 km from summit (straight line)
West shore of Thirlmere - Harrop Tarn and Ullscarf. Fees: pay and display; coins and cards (LDNP directory, checked Aug 2026). Open Closed until Easter 2026; pedestrian access allowed (LDNP directory, checked Aug 2026). Pay and display (visitlakedistrict.com) (United Utilities, checked Aug 2026).
Directions Something changed here?
If it is full: Steel End, Thirlmere (paid) (1.4 km, 36 m up); Wythburn Church, Thirlmere (paid) (2.5 km, 97 m up)
Fisher Crag (layby, south) — 1.3 km from summit (straight line)
0.7 km from Fisher Crag.
Directions Something changed here?
Fisher Crag (layby, north) — 1.3 km from summit (straight line)
0.6 km from Fisher Crag.
Directions Something changed here?
Fisher Crag (verge) — 1.6 km from summit (straight line)
0.4 km from Fisher Crag.
Directions Something changed here?
Wythburn Church, Thirlmere (paid) — 2.2 km from summit (straight line)
Direct forest path up Helvellyn's south ridge (Comb Crags). Fees: Pay and display, pay by coin only (visitlakedistrict.com) (United Utilities, checked Aug 2026). Lee has parked here and recalls the machine taking coins, which agrees with United Utilities' own listing rather than the National Park directory's “cards only” - carry coins (Lee McCoy, recollection, recorded 12 Aug 2026).
Directions Something changed here?
🚺 Dob Gill Car Park (~957 m straight line) — 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.

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 Rigg by bus

The 555 stops at Thirlmere, at Armboth turn. From there it is 1.8 km and 54 m of ascent to the start of Brown Rigg & Blea Tarn — a walk in before the walk. Last bus: Monday to Friday 20:55 towards Keswick (555); Saturday 20:55 towards Keswick (555); Sunday 18:46 towards Keswick (555). Checked against the operator’s timetable, 7 September 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.

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.

Hazards on Brown Rigg

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.

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Dob Gill, Thirlmere (United Utilities, paid), about 1.2 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

Routes over Brown Rigg

Brown Rigg & Blea TarnPlanned
13.49 km · ~481 m ascent · loop · ~3.5–4.5 h
Summits: Brown RiggShivery KnottMiddle CragHigh Tove

⬇️ Download GPX

Full route guide ↗

✎️ Planned route — drawn but not personally walked or checked yet.

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 Rigg

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 144 fells.

Water & shelter on the way up

On the Brown Rigg & Blea Tarn route:

🚺 map (52 m)

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

Places to stay near this fell

Dale Head Hall Lakeside Hotel hotel

about 3.5 km from the start, in a straight line

It is the only property in this cluster whose own site answers a family question. The rooms page names sixteen rooms, numbered Room 2 to Room 17, and states the floor for each: rooms 10, 11, 12 and 13 are ground floor, and of those, Room 10 ("This room can accommodate two extra single beds for a family") and Room 11 ("This room can accommodate one extra bed for families and can be made as a twin") take extra beds - so a party with children and someone who cannot face stairs can be housed in one room without phoning first. Room 11 and Room 12 also state "Private patio space"; Room 10 does not. Against that, the site is silent on everything a wet walker asks - see unknowns - so this is a good family bed and an unproven walking one.

The hotel's grounds are inside a designated red squirrel reserve, and rather than lean on its postcode it publishes its front door as a what3words address, CRACKS.DIAMOND.RESPECTED.

  • Family rooms “A warm, traditionally designed family room, with one double and two single beds.”
  • Evening meal “Why not enjoy a trip out to nearby Keswick for the day before coming back and enjoying a delicious bar meal.”
  • Children “This room can accommodate two extra single beds for a family.”

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.

Other fells near Brown Rigg