hikes.guideLake District

498 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

Castle How (Raw Pike)

Castle How at 498m (1,634ft) is a Birkett top on the rough fell ground above Grasmere and Easedale, its rocky summit giving views across the Grasmere valley and towards the Central Fells.

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

Home › Fells › Castle How (Raw Pike)

Written and walked by Lee McCoy · Last reviewed

498 mBirkett — Central (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 498 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Tue 28 Jul): 16° to 14°C, gusts to 33 mph, 11.5 mm of rain forecast.

Tue 28 Jul
🌧️
16° / 14°
💨 33 mph
🌧 11.5 mm (100%)
Wed 29 Jul
🌧️
16° / 12°
💨 28 mph
🌧 3.3 mm (100%)
Thu 30 Jul
🌦️
13° / 6°
💨 28 mph
🌧 1.3 mm (78%)
Fri 31 Jul
🌤️
15° / 3°
💨 24 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (78%)
Sat 1 Aug
🌦️
15° / 5°
💨 15 mph
🌧 3.6 mm (54%)
Sun 2 Aug
🌫️
17° / 7°
💨 19 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (24%)
Mon 3 Aug
🌦️
17° / 7°
💨 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 498 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

Castle How (Raw Pike)

Castle How at 498m (1,634ft) is a Birkett top on the rough fell ground above Grasmere and Easedale, its rocky summit giving views across the Grasmere valley and towards the Central Fells. Part of the complex fell country between the Langdales and Grasmere. A short ascent from the Easedale direction gives good views of the famous Grasmere vale.

Routes up Castle How (Raw Pike)

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

Castle How & Lang How - Birketts
10.9 km · ~2.9 hr
Classifications & hill data
Birkett
Synge
498 m
Height
1,634 ft
In feet
NY 3077 0760
Grid ref

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Stickle Ghyll / New Dungeon Ghyll (NT, paid), about 2.2 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Castle How (Raw Pike) (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.

0.9 km SESwinescar Pike411 m · Central
1.2 km ESELang How414 m · Central
2.4 km NWCodale Head732 m · Central
2.7 km SSWSide Pike362 m · Central
2.8 km WThorn Crag644 m · Central

Routes over Castle How (Raw Pike)

Castle How & Lang How - BirkettsPlanned
10.91 km · ~445 m ascent · loop · ~2.5–4 h
Summits: Lang HowSwinescar PikeCastle How (Raw Pike)

⬇️ 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.

Terrain & access

A near-path top (about 498 m): a mapped path comes within about 90 m of the summit, with a last stretch of open ground (about 22 m of ascent, up to ~17°). 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; Copernicus GLO-30. See the terrain & access report for how this is worked out across all 145 fells.

Best parking to hike Castle How (Raw Pike)

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

Stickle Ghyll / New Dungeon Ghyll (NT, paid) — 2.2 km from summit (straight line)
Direct start up Stickle Ghyll for the Langdale Pikes.
Directions
🚺 Public toilets (640m) — Free🚺 Public toilets (770m) — Free
Old Dungeon Ghyll (NT, paid) — 2.7 km from summit (straight line)
Head of Great Langdale — Bowfell, Crinkle Crags, Pike o' Blisco, the Langdale Pikes.
Directions
🚺 Public toilets (510m) — Free🚺 Public toilets (649m) — Free🍺 Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel🍺 Sticklebarn

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 Castle How & Lang How - Birketts route:

🛖 map (42 m)🚌 Stock Lane at School (17 m)🚌 School (69 m)🚌 map (255 m)🚌 Daffodil House for Dove Cottage (313 m)

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

Buses to Castle How (Raw Pike) from Penrith / Ambleside / Windermere

Stagecoach 516 “Langdale Rambler”
Ambleside – Skelwith Bridge – Elterwater – New Dungeon Ghyll – Old Dungeon Ghyll
Catch it from: Ambleside · Windermere (change at Ambleside)
The Langdale bus — Pikes, Bowfell, Crinkle Crags, Pike o' Blisco all walkable from the Dungeon Ghyll stops. Seasonal frequency varies; check before relying on the last bus back.

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

My hikes over Castle How (Raw Pike) (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 Castle How (Raw Pike)

Maps & guidebooks for Castle How (Raw Pike)

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