Castle How (Raw Pike)
Castle How at 498m (1,633ft) 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.
Summit conditions on Castle How (Raw Pike)
On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 12° to 6°C, gusts to 54 mph, 11.8 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 Castle How (Raw Pike)
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
Lang How, Swinescar Pike and Castle How on the knolly ground above Grasmere — 10.9 km and 490 m, stages averaging about 10% with a 33% descent over 250 m, and rated hard to navigate among the hummocks.
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 Castle How (Raw Pike)?
The shortest way up we hold is Castle How & Lang How - Birketts — 10.91 km, 490 m of ascent, ~3–4 h. On our scale its hardest axes are steepness and navigation — Hard.
All axes: steepness: Hard · navigation: Hard · length: Moderate · terrain: Not assessed · 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 498 m summit (Open-Meteo). Check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
Full 7-day forecast
Taken 27 October 2026, 20:59 UTC; the live forecast replaces it when it loads. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (opens in new tab)
Parking & buses for Castle How (Raw Pike)
Parking
Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.
3 more places to park near Castle How (Raw Pike)
Positions are approximate.
Of the pay-and-display machine tickets sold at New Dungeon Ghyll from 17 August 2024 to 31 March 2026, 33% were bought before 10am (our count of FOI/2026.500 ticket data). Contains public sector information provided by the Lake District National Park Authority and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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 555 stops at Grasmere, at School, an 80 m walk from the start of Castle How & Lang How - Birketts — a route we rate Hard overall (hardest: steepness and navigation). Last bus: Monday to Friday 20:46 towards Keswick (555); Saturday 20:46 towards Keswick (555); Sunday 18:36 towards Keswick (555). Checked against the operator’s timetable, 12 September 2026; that timetable runs to 1 November 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.
Getting there across the Lake District: Buses · Parking map · By train · By boat
Hazards on Castle How (Raw Pike)
Notes from the Castle How & Lang How - Birketts route
If you need to get off (the leg from Swinescar Pike): If visibility drops completely and navigation fails, retrace your outward line along the ridge toward Swinescar Pike. Avoid descending east toward the crags.
Quoted from the route page: the note for the leg that reaches Castle How (Raw Pike).
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 Castle How (Raw Pike)
These Birkett tops are not Wainwright summits. Distances are straight lines: check the ground and access on a map before adding one.
Routes over Castle How (Raw Pike)
Download GPX Walked in part, March 2025 · km 1.9–3.1, km 5.9–7.0 from the map
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 Castle How (Raw Pike)
Terrain & access
A near-path top (about 498 m): a mapped path comes within about 90 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 22 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.
Water & shelter on the way up
On the Castle How & Lang How - Birketts route:
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.
About Castle How (Raw Pike)
My Strava hikes over Castle How (Raw Pike)
1 logged hike pass over this summit:
- Sunrise Summit Stroll with Chris (opens in new tab) — 17.6 km · 850 m ascent · 4h 59m moving · 23 March 2025
Data from Strava.
Classifications & hill data
Is Castle How (Raw Pike) a Wainwright?
Castle How (Raw Pike) is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list and the Synge list.
Selected lists
This is the summit’s grid reference. If you call from anywhere else, give your own position, not this one.
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 →
Places to stay near this fell
From Grasmere: 10 places