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291 m · Outlying Fell — West Cumbria · Birketts to bag nearby, parking, buses, my hikes and live summit weather.

Outlying Fell — West Cumbria

Cold Fell

Cold Fell at 291m (955ft) is an Outlying Fell in the far west of Cumbria near Cleator Moor, rising above the coastal plain and giving views across the Irish Sea and inland to the Western Fells.

291 m
Height
+4
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX →
291 mOutlying Fell — West Cumbriasummit is not a Birkett top+4 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 291 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, 0.6 mm of rain forecast.

Tue 28 Jul
🌦️
16° / 15°
💨 31 mph
🌧 0.6 mm (90%)
Wed 29 Jul
🌧️
16° / 13°
💨 26 mph
🌧 10.3 mm (100%)
Thu 30 Jul
🌦️
14° / 7°
💨 26 mph
🌧 2.0 mm (75%)
Fri 31 Jul
🌦️
16° / 4°
💨 20 mph
🌧 0.3 mm (76%)
Sat 1 Aug
🌦️
16° / 7°
💨 14 mph
🌧 0.9 mm (73%)
Sun 2 Aug
☁️
17° / 9°
💨 18 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (27%)
Mon 3 Aug
🌦️
17° / 9°
💨 17 mph
🌧 0.4 mm (22%)

Forecast snapshot from 28 Jul 2026, 04:58 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 291 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.

About the walk

Key information

Cold Fell

Cold Fell at 291m (955ft) is an Outlying Fell in the far west of Cumbria near Cleator Moor, rising above the coastal plain and giving views across the Irish Sea and inland to the Western Fells. Wainwright included it in his Outlying Fells guide as part of the West Cumbria group. A quiet, remote fell on the fringes of the national park.

Classifications & hill data
Outlying Fell
West Cumbria
291 m
Height
955 ft
In feet

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Cold Fell road (verge), about 1.6 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Cold Fell (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.

2.3 km ESESwainson Knott345 m · Western
2.4 km ESEStone Pike322 m · Western
2.8 km NELatter Barrow354 m · Western
2.9 km NNESwarth Fell (Kinniside)335 m · Western

Terrain & access

A pathless top (about 291 m) — the nearest mapped path is about 587 m away, the open ground you’d cross to the summit (about 65 m of ascent, up to ~25°). 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. The direct line crosses 3 walls, 3 gates.

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 Cold Fell

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

Cold Fell road (verge) — 1.6 km from summit (straight line)
Verge parking on the Calder Bridge–Ennerdale road for Lank Rigg and Ponsonby Fell.
Directions (opens in new tab)
Wath Brow, Cleator Moor (roadside) — 6.6 km from summit (straight line)
Start of the Nannycatch/Dent paths for the far-western outliers.
Directions (opens in new tab)

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.

Buses to Cold Fell from Penrith / Ambleside / Windermere

No regular bus serves the start points for this fell — this is one for the car (or a long approach from the nearest served valley). The nearest hubs are Penrith (X4/X5 & 508), Ambleside and Windermere (555, 505, 516).

Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.

Maps & guidebooks for Cold Fell

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