Crag Hill (Eel Crag)
Crag Hill at 839m (2,753ft), also known as Eel Crag, is the highest point of the Coledale Horseshoe ridge in the North Western Fells, a broad, rocky summit connecting Grasmoor to Sail and Hopegill Head.
Is it worth going? — Today’s conditions & 7-day summit forecast
Modelled guidance for the 839 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
On the summit today (Sat 12 Sep): 12° to 6°C, gusts to 54 mph, 20.8 mm of rain forecast.
Forecast snapshot from 12 Sep 2026, 18:50 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 839 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.
Crag Hill (Eel Crag) at a glance
Crag Hill (Eel Crag)
Field notes
I summited this one as part of a much larger hike up Grisedale Pike and others, and loved it. The views are immense to the north east and, in fact, all around. It's a barren top of stone, and has its namesake as a Birkett just to the north west, which you may naturally bag if you take the direct route from Coledale Hause. It's a good place to stop and enjoy some lunch. Take your time with this one.Routes up Crag Hill (Eel Crag)
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
Classifications & hill data
The short answers
Is Crag Hill (Eel Crag) a Wainwright?
Crag Hill (Eel Crag) is a Wainwright. It is also on the Birkett list, the Synge list, the Nuttall list, the Fellranger list and the HuMP list.
Where do you park for Crag Hill (Eel Crag)?
The nearest car park we hold is Knott Rigg (layby), about 2.2 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Ard Crags (layby), 2.3 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.
My hikes over Crag Hill (Eel Crag) (Strava)
1 logged hike pass over this summit:
- My knees didn't like that (opens in new tab) — 19.0 km · 1421 m ascent · 5h 33m moving · 16 May 2026
Interactive route maps and photos load here for visitors with JavaScript. Data from Strava.
Parking & buses for Crag Hill (Eel Crag)
Best parking to hike Crag Hill (Eel Crag)
Where we have the data, each parking spot also shows the nearest public toilets and facilities (cafés, pubs, shops).
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 Crag Hill (Eel Crag) by bus
The 77 stops at Buttermere Youth Hostel (near), 250 m from the start of High Snockrigg, Eel Crag & Lad Hows. Seasonal: the 77 does not run all year. 1 November 2026 is its last day, and it is not daily before then — a bus on 31 of the 56 days from 7 September. We don’t know when it returns. Confirmed with the operator, 29 August 2026. The last bus is 18:21 towards Keswick (77), every day. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 7 September 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.
Hazards on Crag Hill (Eel Crag)
Hazard & Incident Information for Crag Hill (Eel Crag)
The high point of the Coledale round, a broad-topped fell whose northern crags — Eel Crag — give it its alternative name, overlooking the head of Coledale. The summit is gentle, but it is ringed and approached by steep, loose, eroded ground: the descent toward Coledale Hause is notoriously slippery and stony, the Eel Crag face drops sharply on the north, and the flat top is a navigation trap in mist. Keswick Mountain Rescue Team covers this ground on the busy Coledale horseshoe.
- Steep, loose descent toward Coledale Hause: The west/south-west ground off Crag Hill is steep, badly eroded and stony, and is a common place for slips and turned ankles — worse when wet. Take it slowly, keep to the worn line, and don't let momentum carry you onto steeper rock.
- Eel Crag (north face above Coledale): The northern crags fall away steeply to the head of Coledale. In cloud the flat summit gives little warning of the edge — keep back from the northern rim and don't drift toward it on a vague bearing.
- The flat summit in cloud / the Sail connecting ridge: The broad top is featureless and easy to misjudge in mist; set a compass bearing before leaving it. The narrow neck linking Crag Hill to Sail is straightforward in the dry but exposed in strong wind.
Most common causes: Slips and ankle injuries on the steep, eroded descents · Navigation errors off the featureless summit in cloud · Walkers straying toward the Eel Crag edge in poor visibility · Falls compounded by wet, slippery rock and scree
Local Mountain Rescue: Keswick Mountain Rescue Team (opens in new tab) · Reviewed 14 Jun 2026
Safety: Hazard guidance compiled from published Mountain Rescue reports and well-documented accident history - editorial background, not a live feed of callouts. Always check current conditions, carry proper navigation equipment, and seek qualified instruction before heading onto the fells. In an emergency, call 999, ask for Police, then Mountain Rescue.
A note on Coledale Beck
Coledale Beck runs below the old Force Crag mine and carries mine-derived zinc — enough to matter for river life, though the lead and cadmium that would harm a person stay below the drinking limit here. Treat any hill water before drinking (a filter won’t remove dissolved metals); don’t single this beck out as a clean fill-up.
What’s actually in this beck — we mapped every mine-fed one →
Metal-mine water data © Environment Agency (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Navigating Crag Hill (Eel Crag) in cloud
SevereA rough, rocky summit ringed by crags, with no single obvious way off in poor visibility. A serious place to be caught in cloud: carry map and compass (or GPS) and know how to use them, or save it for a clear day.
In winter — snow, whiteout, cornices, buried features — every top demands full winter navigation skills whatever its band, and a broad, gentle summit can be the worst place of all. See walking in bad weather and the navigation guide.
How Crag Hill (Eel Crag) compares with all 214 — the Clag Index: navigating in cloud. A relative, deliberately cautious guide; the site can’t navigate for you.
Map & nearby Birketts
Skip mapFree mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap (switch layers top-right). Parking positions are approximate.
Nearest parking: Knott Rigg (layby), about 2.2 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.
Birketts near Crag Hill (Eel Crag) (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.
Routes over Crag Hill (Eel Crag)
✎️ The Whinlatter Pass road car park is small and tucked behind the trees — and the bus to Braithwaite makes this an easy car-free round, adding only a couple of hundred metres of road to reach the start.
A planned line is a suggestion, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate independently and carry a map & compass. How to use this 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 Crag Hill (Eel Crag)
The path beneath your boots
The Coledale side of Crag Hill held the worst historic erosion scar in the Lakes — up to 30 metres wide and 4 metres deep. Fix the Fells has rebuilt the paths across Coledale Hause and Crag Hill to heal it.
Fix the Fells built and maintains this path. How a fell path is made → · Give back (opens in new tab)
Path-repair data © Fix the Fells (National Trust / Lake District National Park). Source (opens in new tab).
Water & shelter on the way up
On the Coledale Round route:
On the High Snockrigg, Eel Crag & Lad Hows route:
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.
The view from Crag Hill (Eel Crag)
The 360° skyline from Crag Hill (Eel Crag)
A computed 360° skyline — every visible named top labelled by distance and bearing, from the terrain model in perfect clarity, not photographed. Drag to pan; reveal the far four-nations horizon.
What you can see from Crag Hill (Eel Crag), by direction
- North-east: Skiddaw Little Man (10 km), Skiddaw Lesser Man (10 km), Skiddaw South Top (11 km), Skiddaw Middle Top (11 km), Skiddaw (11 km), Skiddaw North Top (11 km), Broad End (12 km), Knowe Crags (14 km), Gategill Fell Top (14 km), Blencathra (15 km), Atkinson Pike (15 km)
- East: Great Dodd (15 km), White Side (15 km), Stybarrow Dodd (15 km), Helvellyn Lower Man (15 km), Raise (15 km), Helvellyn (16 km), Catstye Cam (16 km), Nethermost Pike (16 km)
- South-east: High Crag (16 km), Dollywaggon Pike (17 km), Cofa Pike (18 km), Fairfield (19 km)
- South: Pillar (8 km), Black Crag (9 km), Steeple (9 km), Scoat Fell (10 km), Great Gable (10 km), Great End (12 km), Broad Crag (13 km), Scafell Pike (13 km), Ill Crag (13 km), Esk Pike (14 km), Scafell (14 km), Pike de Bield (14 km), Bowfell (15 km), Crinkle Crags (16 km), Swirl How (21 km)
- South-west: High Stile (6 km)
- West: Grasmoor (2 km)
On the clearest days the far horizon adds: Slieve Donard (179 km, Ireland), Merrick (100 km, Scotland), Broad Law (103 km, Scotland), Snaefell (86 km, Isle of Man), Cairnsmore of Carsphairn (98 km, Scotland), Cairnsmore of Fleet (84 km, Scotland), Corserine (96 km, Scotland), Windlestraw Law (124 km, Scotland).
Computed from terrain in perfect clarity, not photographed · distances are straight-line.
Computed from Copernicus GLO-30 terrain; distant tops from the Database of British and Irish Hills (opens in new tab) (CC BY 4.0). See how we compute the view · and the summit intervisibility report below.
Sunrise and sunset on Crag Hill (Eel Crag)
Crag Hill (Eel Crag) catches the sun before the valley does. On not one of the sixteen dates modelled does this summit wait for first light — the eastern horizon falls away rather than standing over you.
| First light | Almanac sunrise | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midsummer | 04:37 BST ±5.0 min | 04:37 | — |
| Equinox | 06:16 GMT ±5.0 min | 06:16 | — |
| Midwinter | 08:29 GMT ±5.0 min | 08:34 | -5 min |
A low, open northern horizon — the ground falls away northwards (mean -0.47°).
Last light — when the sun leaves Crag Hill (Eel Crag)
The evening here runs close to the flat-horizon case. Even on its earliest evening of the modelled year (at the March equinox) last light is only 2 minutes before almanac sunset, so the published sunset time is a fair guide on Crag Hill (Eel Crag).
| Last light | Almanac sunset | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midsummer | 21:59 BST ±5.0 min | 21:54 | +5 min |
| Equinox | 18:25 GMT ±5.0 min | 18:27 | -2 min |
| Midwinter | 15:58 GMT ±5.0 min | 15:49 | +9 min |
Computed, not photographed. First light is the first minute the sun’s upper limb clears this summit’s own skyline and last light the last minute it is still clear of it, both solved against the 360° horizon profile behind The View from Crag Hill (Eel Crag). Almanac sunrise and sunset are the flat-horizon convention. Every time carries a ± band from the 30 m elevation model — it smooths arêtes and cornices, so nothing here claims better than five minutes. These are daylight figures, not a descent plan: the light goes on fading for a good while after the sun leaves, and going down in it is a decision about your own ground and party, not about this table.
What you can see from Crag Hill (Eel Crag)
On a clear day — computed sightlines, curvature- and refraction-corrected.On the clearest days the view reaches across to Scotland and the Isle of Man.
- Merrick Scotland
- Snaefell Isle of Man
- Ingleborough Yorkshire Dales
- Whernside Yorkshire Dales
- Great Dun Fell North Pennines
- Cross Fell North Pennines
- Criffel Scotland
- Solway Firth bay/estuary
- Irish Sea open water
All 105 Wainwrights in clear view (nearest first)
Sail, Wandope, Ard Crags, Knott Rigg, Scar Crags, Grasmoor, Hopegill Head, Outerside, Grisedale Pike, Causey Pike, Whiteside (Whiteside West Top), Robinson, Barrow, Hindscarth, Whinlatter (Brown How - Whinlatter), Mellbreak (Mellbreak South Top), Maiden Moor, Cat Bells (Catbells), Red Pike (Buttermere), Dale Head, High Spy, High Stile, Fleetwith Pike, High Crag (Buttermere), Hen Comb, Graystones (Graystones North Top), Broom Fell, Starling Dodd, Haystacks (Buttermere), Fellbarrow - Mosser Fell, Gavel Fell, Great Borne, Grey Knotts, Grange Fell (Brund Fell), Ling Fell, Pillar, Walla Crag, Brandreth, Dodd (Skiddaw), Steeple, Bleaberry Fell, Base Brown, Scoat Fell (Little Scoat Fell), High Seat, Latrigg, Kirk Fell, Green Gable, Carl Side, Long Side, Ullock Pike, Great Gable, Rosthwaite Fell - Bessyboot, Skiddaw Little Man, Haycock, Skiddaw, Caw Fell, Glaramara, Crag Fell, Armboth Fell (Armboth Fell South Top), Lonscale Fell, Eagle Crag, High Rigg (Naddle Fell), Sergeant's Crag, Lingmell, Great End, Allen Crags, Ullscarf, Lank Rigg, Scafell Pike, Esk Pike, Scafell, High Raise (High White Stones), Rossett Pike, Watson's Dodd, Clough Head, Bowfell, Great Dodd, Blencathra - Hallsfell Top, White Side, Stybarrow Dodd, Thunacar Knott, Raise, Pike of Stickle, Pavey Ark, Binsey, Harrison Stickle, Loft Crag, Helvellyn, Catstye Cam, Nethermost Pike, Crinkle Crags - Long Top (Second Crinkle), Dollywaggon Pike, Longlands Fell, Bowscale Fell, Seat Sandal, Pike of Blisco, Cold Pike, Fairfield, Great Rigg, Heron Pike (Rydal), Great Mell Fell, Swirl How, Wetherlam, Red Screes, Dow Crag
How Crag Hill (Eel Crag)’s view compares with all 214 — the View Report: every Wainwright ranked by what you can see from the top.
Sightlines from a bare-earth terrain model (forests and buildings not included), corrected for the Earth’s curvature and average atmospheric refraction. “Distant” sightlines and any over 100 km depend on exceptionally clear air. Modelled from Copernicus GLO-30 open elevation data — a guide to the view, not a guarantee of any single one.
Places to stay near this fell
From Whinlatter: 9 places in Keswick
Frequently asked questions about Crag Hill (Eel Crag)
Is Crag Hill hard?
The top is not — it is broad and gentle, and the walking on it is straightforward. The Coledale round that takes it in is 16.0 km with 1108 m of ascent, and we rate that day Hard, so the fell is a long outing rather than a hard climb.
What it hides is its northern edge. The crags that give it its other name, Eel Crag, fall straight from close to the summit into the head of Coledale, and the descent toward Coledale Hause is steep and loose. Both matter far more in cloud than on a clear day.
Questions drawn from real Google “People also ask” searches; answers written and fact-checked by us. · Reviewed 2026-08-30 · Suggest a question or correction (opens in new tab)
Other fells near Crag Hill (Eel Crag)
- Ard Crags
- Barf
- Barrow
- Broom Fell
- Castle Crag
- Cat Bells (Catbells)
- Causey Pike
- Dale Head
- Grasmoor
- Graystones (Graystones North Top)
- Grisedale Pike
- High Spy
- Hindscarth
- Hopegill Head
- Knott Rigg
- Ling Fell
- Lord's Seat
- Maiden Moor
- Outerside
- Rannerdale Knotts
- Robinson
- Sail
- Sale Fell
- Scar Crags
- Wandope
- Whinlatter (Brown How)
- Whiteless Pike
- Whiteside (Whiteside West Top)