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

Birkett — Eastern (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Castle Rock

Castle Rock at 339m (1,112ft) is a rocky Birkett top above the St John's in the Vale valley between Thirlmere and Blencathra, its dramatic crag face a well-known rock climbing venue.

339 m
Height
+8
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX → Parking & buses →

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339 mBirkett — Eastern (not a Wainwright summit)+8 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 339 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Fri 11 Sep): 14° to 10°C, gusts to 20 mph, 0.5 mm of rain forecast.

Fri 11 Sep
🌦️
14° / 10°
💨 20 mph
🌧 0.5 mm (100%)
Sat 12 Sep
🌧️
16° / 10°
💨 38 mph
🌧 15.6 mm (100%)
Sun 13 Sep
☁️
14° / 8°
💨 16 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (62%)
Mon 14 Sep
🌧️
16° / 8°
💨 32 mph
🌧 10.3 mm (100%)
Tue 15 Sep
🌦️
15° / 10°
💨 33 mph
🌧 10.5 mm (89%)
Wed 16 Sep
🌦️
12° / 10°
💨 33 mph
🌧 3.4 mm (78%)
Thu 17 Sep
🌦️
12° / 10°
💨 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 339 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

Castle Rock at a glance

Castle Rock

Castle Rock at 339m (1,112ft) is a rocky Birkett top above the St John's in the Vale valley between Thirlmere and Blencathra, its dramatic crag face a well-known rock climbing venue. The summit gives views along the valley and towards Blencathra and Helvellyn. A fine viewpoint for appreciating the classic shape of Blencathra across the valley.

Routes up Castle Rock

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

Birketts North of Thirlmere
13.8 km · ~4.3 hr
Castle Rock, Wren Crag and the High Rigg tops above Thirlmere — six summits in 13.8 km with 910 m of climbing, and one stage averaging 28%, the steepest in this group. Hard for exposure; about 4.3 hours.

Classifications & hill data

Birkett
Synge
339 m
Height
1,112 ft
In feet
NY 3216 1966
Grid ref

The short answers

Is Castle Rock a Wainwright?

Castle Rock is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list and the Synge list.

Where do you park for Castle Rock?

The nearest car park we hold is Legburthwaite (United Utilities, small), about 0.4 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is High Bridge End Caravan and Camping Site (free), 0.6 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 Castle Rock?

The shortest way up we hold is Birketts North of Thirlmere — 13.8 km, 910 m of ascent, about 4.3 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is steepness — Severe.

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

Parking & buses for Castle Rock

Best parking to hike Castle Rock

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

Legburthwaite (United Utilities, small) — 0.4 km from summit (straight line)
St John's in the Vale — Sticks Pass side, High Rigg, Raven Crag. Fees: pay and display; coins and cards (Lake District National Park car-parks directory, checked Aug 2026). Pay and display (visitlakedistrict.com) (United Utilities, checked Aug 2026).
Directions Something changed here?
If it is full: Roadside parking for Great How (free) (0.6 km) a few spaces only; Raven Crag car park (1.5 km, 98 m up); Roadside parking for Raven Crag (free) (1.7 km, 105 m up) a few spaces only
🚺 Legburthwaite Car Park (~8 m straight line) — Free
High Bridge End Caravan and Camping Site (free) — 0.6 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Brown Crag, White Side, Raise and Stybarrow Dodd — the 'Brown Crag and Raise' route starts 212 m away. Also serves 'Three Dodds and Calfhow Pike'. Free (OSM-tagged). Ground surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
Castle Rock (layby) — 0.6 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Brown Crag, White Side, Raise and Stybarrow Dodd — the 'Brown Crag and Raise' route starts 213 m away. Also serves 'Three Dodds and Calfhow Pike'. Free (OSM-tagged). Ground surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
Roadside parking for Great How (free) — 0.8 km from summit (straight line)
0.5 km from Great How. Added from the 5 Aug 2026 OSM candidate review.
Directions Something changed here?
Great How (layby) — 0.8 km from summit (straight line)
Community walk pages start here for 'The Dodds and Clough Head, via Sticks Pass and St John's in the Vale' (community walk listings). Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?

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 Castle Rock by bus

The 555 stops at Stanah Dam road end (near), 400 m from the start of Birketts North of Thirlmere. Last bus: Monday to Friday 21:35 towards Ambleside (555) and 20:35 towards Windermere (555) and 18:12 towards Kendal (555); Saturday 21:35 towards Ambleside (555) and 20:35 towards Windermere (555) and 18:12 towards Kendal (555); Sunday 19:42 towards Windermere (555) and 18:12 towards Kendal (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 Castle Rock

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: Legburthwaite (United Utilities, small), about 0.4 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Castle Rock (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 NWWren Crag311 m · Central
1.2 km SWGreat How (Thirlmere)333 m · Central
1.7 km ENELittle Dodd (St John's Common)785 m · Eastern
1.7 km NNECalfhow Pike660 m · Eastern
2.0 km WSWThe Benn (Sippling Crag)446 m · Central
2.1 km SSEBrown Crag610 m · Eastern
2.3 km NWHigh Rigg (High Rigg South Top)343 m · Central
2.3 km WSWCastle Crag (Shoulthwaite)404 m · Central

Routes over Castle Rock

Birketts North of ThirlmerePlanned
13.83 km · ~910 m ascent · loop · ~4–5.5 h
Summits: Castle RockWren CragHigh Rigg (High Rigg South Top)The Benn (Sippling Crag)Castle Crag (Shoulthwaite)Great How (Thirlmere)

⬇️ Download GPX

⚠️ Warnings: Access: The summits of The Benn (Sippling Crag), Castle Crag (Shoulthwalte) and Great How (Thirlmere) lie outside mapped CRoW open-access land. That records no statutory right of access — it is not a statement that access is forbidden, and permissive access is not recorded in that layer. This ground is above Thirlmere, a working reservoir managed by United Utilities, whose car parks at Legburthwaite and Swirls we list under parking. This line is computed rather than walked, so treat the access as unchecked and look for the courteous way through — how we work this out.

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 Castle Rock

Terrain & access

A near-path top (about 339 m): a mapped path comes within about 166 m of the summit, with a last stretch of open ground (about 107 m of ascent, up to ~55°). 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.

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 Birketts North of Thirlmere route:

🛖 map (14 m)🛖 map (111 m)🛖 map (134 m)🚌 Thirlmere Dam Road End (252 m)

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

Access on Castle Rock

Access: Castle Rock stands on United Utilities (Thirlmere estate)’s land, which the landowner manages for public access with permissive paths. This is invited access, not open-access land — the estate can close or re-route paths (storm damage and forestry work are common reasons), so check United Utilities (Thirlmere estate)’s current information before travelling. (Source: UU permissive estate; walkers' path up the east side (front face is a climbing crag), accessed 2026-07-29.)

Closures and re-routes are announced by the landowner, not on the national map.

How we worked this out

Summit and approach positions are tested against Natural England’s CRoW Act 2000 access layer; rights of way and wall or fence detail come from OpenStreetMap. Both are open datasets with known gaps — in our own survey only 4 of 23 wall and fence crossings had a stile or gate mapped within 150 m — so absence of a mapped feature never means absence of a real one. Nothing here is field-verified unless marked, and none of it is legal advice. How we checked 378 fells.

Places to stay near this fell

Fornside Farm Cottages guest house

about 1.1 km from the start, in a straight line

Ranked first on usefulness, not distance. It answers more of a walking family's questions than anything else in the valley: four separate self-catering units sleeping 4 or 6, an EV charger, dogs in two of the four, a private farm trail, and walks from the door onto the Helvellyn range the three routes climb. It is also 1.12 km from the start, so the tiebreak never had to be used.

The four cottages are converted 17th-century barns adjoining a grade II listed farmhouse, heated by a ground source heat pump part-powered by solar panels — and there is a private farm trail through the woods and fields for guests.

  • Family rooms “Rigg Barn was converted from a detached bank barn and sleeps up to six people.”
  • Parking “You can charge your electric vehicle on our PodPoint car charger, available exclusively for our guests.”
  • Children “We have just returned from a week in Swaledale Garth with our toddler.”

Dale Head Hall Lakeside Hotel hotel

about 2.1 km from the start, in a straight line

The only serviced hotel inside two and a half kilometres of the start, and the only property in the cluster offering rooms on the ground floor — which matters to anyone who has just come down Sticks Pass on tired knees, and to a family who would rather not carry a sleeping child upstairs. Several rooms are explicitly convertible to family use with extra single beds.

A 16th-century hall standing alone on the shore of Thirlmere inside a designated red squirrel reserve, with Helvellyn directly behind it; the site publishes its front door as the what3words location CRACKS.DIAMOND.RESPECTED.

  • Family rooms “A warm, traditionally designed family room, with one double and two single beds. Overlooking the back of the hotel.”
  • 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 Castle Rock