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

Brownthwaite Crag, a Lake District fell
Birkett — Far Eastern (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Brownthwaite Crag

Brownthwaite Crag at 444m (1,457ft) is a rocky Birkett top on the ridge above the Swindale valley east of Shap, giving views across the quiet limestone country towards the Pennines.

444 m
Height
+5
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX →

Home › Fells › Brownthwaite Crag

Written and walked by Lee McCoy · Last reviewed

444 mBirkett — Far Eastern (not a Wainwright summit)+5 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 444 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 31 mph, 3.0 mm of rain forecast.

Tue 28 Jul
🌦️
16° / 15°
💨 31 mph
🌧 3.0 mm (98%)
Wed 29 Jul
🌧️
17° / 13°
💨 30 mph
🌧 3.0 mm (98%)
Thu 30 Jul
☁️
16° / 8°
💨 28 mph
🌧 0.1 mm (63%)
Fri 31 Jul
☁️
17° / 4°
💨 25 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (82%)
Sat 1 Aug
🌦️
16° / 3°
💨 11 mph
🌧 6.3 mm (31%)
Sun 2 Aug
🌤️
17° / 4°
💨 18 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (25%)
Mon 3 Aug
🌦️
18° / 8°
💨 12 mph
🌧 0.2 mm (24%)

Forecast snapshot from 28 Jul 2026, 04:58 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 444 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

Brownthwaite Crag

Brownthwaite Crag, a Lake District fell
© Lee McCoy

Brownthwaite Crag at 444m (1,457ft) is a rocky Birkett top on the ridge above the Swindale valley east of Shap, giving views across the quiet limestone country towards the Pennines. Part of the high ground east of Haweswater in the remote Far Eastern fells. A seldom-visited summit in very quiet country.

Routes up Brownthwaite Crag

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

Fusedale Circuit
14.7 km · ~4.4 hr
A quiet ~15 km circuit of the Far Eastern fells from Howtown on Ullswater — Hallin Fell, Steel Knotts, Wether Hill, Loadpot Hill, Arthur's Pike and Bonscale Pike — broad grassy tops with grandstand views over the lake. A fine Steamer-and-walk outing.
Swarth Fell and Loadpot Hill
9.7 km · ~2.9 hr
Classifications & hill data
Birkett
Synge
444 m
Height
1,457 ft
In feet
NY 4430 1735
Grid ref

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Martindale, St Peter's church (free, limited), about 1.8 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Brownthwaite Crag (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.

0.7 km SSEGowk Hill471 m · Far Eastern
2.3 km SSERed Crag711 m · Far Eastern
2.4 km NNESwarth Fell (Ullswater)545 m · Far Eastern
2.5 km NWSleet Fell378 m · Far Eastern
2.9 km WNWHigh Dodd501 m · Far Eastern

Routes over Brownthwaite Crag

Fusedale CircuitRevised
14.68 km · ~856 m ascent · loop · ~4–6 h
Summits: Hallin FellBonscale PikeArthur's PikeLoadpot HillWether HillBrownthwaite CragSteel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts)

⬇️ Download GPX

⚠️ Warnings: Steep crag edges above Ullswater: Bonscale Tower and the western drops off Arthur's Pike and Bonscale Pike are serious — keep well back, especially in cloud or wind.; Boggy, featureless plateau: the Loadpot Hill saddle is peat-hagged and wet, and the broad grassy tops give little to aim for in mist — a compass day if the cloud is down.; Summer bracken + a washed-out descent: the Brock Crag short-cut and the steep drop off Bonscale to Mellguards can be thick, navigation-sapping bracken, with one eroded section underfoot — walking poles help.; Easy-to-miss summits: Wether Hill and Loadpot Hill both have their true top just off the obvious path — step the few metres across to be sure you've actually bagged them.

Full route guide ↗

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

Swarth Fell and Loadpot HillPlanned
9.69 km · ~568 m ascent · loop · ~2.5–4 h
Summits: Swarth Fell (Ullswater)Loadpot HillBrownthwaite CragSteel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts)

⬇️ 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.

Best parking to hike Brownthwaite Crag

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

Martindale, St Peter's church (free, limited) — 1.8 km from summit (straight line)
Quiet side of Ullswater — Hallin Fell, Steel Knotts, Beda Fell, Pikeawassa.
Directions
Patterdale (paid) — 5.3 km from summit (straight line)
For Place Fell, St Sunday Crag, the Grisedale fells.
Directions
🚺 Public toilets (176m) — Free🚺 Public toilets (1579m)🍺 White Lion Inn🍺 Patterdale Hotel

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 the Fusedale Circuit route:

💧 possible water source (99 m)🛖 map (89 m)🚺 map (95 m)🚺 map (99 m)🚌 Hause Farm (166 m)

On the Swarth Fell and Loadpot Hill route:

🚌 Hause Farm (183 m)

💧 Treat water from the fell before you drink it. A mapped point is usually a tap or public supply, but never drink untreated from a beck, stream or tarn — even clear-looking hill water can carry giardia or cryptosporidium from livestock or a carcass upstream and leave you seriously ill. Run it through a filter or purifier (a LifeStraw, Sawyer Squeeze or HydraPak) or bring it to a rolling boil first.

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

Buses to Brownthwaite Crag from Penrith / Ambleside / Windermere

Stagecoach 508 “Ullswater Bus”
Penrith – Pooley Bridge – Aira Force – Glenridding – Patterdale (summer services continue over Kirkstone Pass to Troutbeck and Windermere)
Catch it from: Penrith · Windermere (summer only)
The key route from Penrith for the Eastern and Far Eastern fells: Helvellyn from Glenridding, Place Fell, the Hartsop fells. The summer Kirkstone extension drops you at the pass for Red Screes and Caudale Moor.

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

My hikes over Brownthwaite Crag (Strava)

1 logged hike pass over this summit:

Interactive route maps and photos load here for visitors with JavaScript. Data from Strava.

Other fells near Brownthwaite Crag

Maps & guidebooks for Brownthwaite Crag

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