Buck Barrow
Buck Barrow at 549m (1,801ft) is a rocky, craggy summit on the Black Combe to Whitfell ridge above the Duddon estuary, its crags giving it more character than its western moorland neighbours. Wainwright included it in his Outlying Fells guide.
Summit conditions on Buck Barrow
On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 12° to 6°C, gusts to 55 mph, 1.3 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 Buck Barrow
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
Buck Barrow, Whitfell and Burn Moor on the western fells — 14.3 km and 662 m, the steepest sustained descent about 19%. The difficulty is the ground and the navigation, both rated hard: open, trackless ground. About 3¾–5½ hours.
Distance and climb are measured from the route’s GPX track, and the time from them by Naismith’s rule; the route page says what each grade rests on. How we check →
How hard is Buck Barrow?
The shortest way up we hold is Around Sele Bottom — 14.26 km, 662 m of ascent, ~3¾–5½ h. On our scale its hardest axes are distance, terrain and navigation — Hard.
All axes: length: Hard · terrain: Hard · navigation: Hard · steepness: Moderate · 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 549 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 Buck Barrow
Parking
Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.
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 nearest bus stop we hold is the 505 at Coniston, outside John Ruskin School, 20.4 km of walking from the start — no bus route we hold serves it.
Getting there across the Lake District: Buses · Parking map · By train · By boat
Hazards on Buck Barrow
Notes from a planned route, not walked: Around Sele Bottom
If you need to get off (the leg from the start): Simply turn 180 degrees and head south, using the gentle descent to lead you directly back to the distinctive ribbon of tarmac on the Corney Fell road.
Quoted from the route page of a planned route, drawn from the map and not yet walked: the note for the leg that reaches Buck Barrow.
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.
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 Buck Barrow
These Birkett tops are not Wainwright summits. Distances are straight lines: check the ground and access on a map before adding one.
Routes over Buck Barrow
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 Buck Barrow
Terrain & access
A near-path top (about 549 m): a mapped path comes within about 105 m of the summit. We have not checked a way from it to the top: the figures here are measured along a straight line on a terrain model, not a route. That line climbs about 11 m. The summit is on CRoW open access land.
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 v18.4 (CC BY 4.0); Copernicus GLO-30. CRoW access layer: © Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. See the terrain & access report for how this is worked out across all 144 fells.
About Buck Barrow
Classifications & hill data
Is Buck Barrow a Wainwright?
Buck Barrow is one of Wainwright's Outlying Fells, not one of the 214 in the Pictorial Guides. It is also on the Birkett list, the Synge list and the Fellranger list.
Selected lists
This is the summit’s grid reference. If you call from anywhere else, give your own position, not this one.
The summit is also a Birkett.
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 →