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180 m · Outlying Fell — South Lakeland · Birketts to bag nearby, parking, buses, my hikes and live summit weather.

Outlying Fell — South Lakeland

Finsthwaite Heights

Finsthwaite Heights is a listed Lakeland top, a quiet South Lakeland top reached by few walkers.

180 m
Height
+0
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX →
180 mOutlying Fell — South Lakelandsummit is not a Birkett top+0 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 180 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Tue 28 Jul): 19° to 16°C, gusts to 27 mph, 1.9 mm of rain forecast.

Tue 28 Jul
🌦️
19° / 16°
💨 27 mph
🌧 1.9 mm (82%)
Wed 29 Jul
🌦️
19° / 15°
💨 26 mph
🌧 0.4 mm (89%)
Thu 30 Jul
🌦️
16° / 9°
💨 27 mph
🌧 0.3 mm (73%)
Fri 31 Jul
☁️
18° / 5°
💨 24 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (65%)
Sat 1 Aug
🌦️
18° / 8°
💨 15 mph
🌧 2.4 mm (41%)
Sun 2 Aug
☁️
20° / 10°
💨 17 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (27%)
Mon 3 Aug
🌦️
20° / 11°
💨 12 mph
🌧 0.2 mm (16%)

Forecast snapshot from 28 Jul 2026, 04:58 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 180 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

Finsthwaite Heights

Finsthwaite Heights is a listed Lakeland top, a quiet South Lakeland top reached by few walkers. The name combines finsthwaite (Old Norse Finn + þveit, Finn's clearing), and heights (Old English hēahðu, high ground). Its nearest tops are Gummer's How (2.9 km E); Staveley Fell (3.2 km SE); Birch Fell (3.5 km E) — usually taken in together. It rewards the list-ticker or anyone exploring this quieter corner of the District.

Classifications & hill data
Outlying Fell
South Lakeland
180 m
Height
591 ft
In feet

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Gummer's How car park (free), about 2.9 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Finsthwaite Heights (within 3 km)

No bonus Birketts within 3 km — every Birkett near here is already a Wainwright summit, so just enjoy the walk.

Terrain & access

A 180 m top with a mapped path to within about 0 m of the summit. The summit is not on CRoW open access land, and the direct approach crosses land that is neither access land nor a right of way — there may be no public right to the top, so check access before you go.

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 Finsthwaite Heights

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

Gummer's How car park (free) — 2.9 km from summit (straight line)
Short, family-grade climb of Gummer's How above Windermere's foot.
Directions (opens in new tab)
Crab Haws car park, Bethecar Moor (free) — 4.6 km from summit (straight line)
Small, free car park about 0.8 miles N of High Nibthwaite (OS SD 296 909; what3words ///fault.swordfish.insect). The hidden entrance is immediately after a field on the right. The natural start for the quiet Bethecar Moor / Blawith Birketts (Low & High Light Haw, Arnsbarrow Hill), with a path up through the woods. High Nibthwaite's own roadside laybys are very limited, so use Crab Haws to avoid blocking farm access.
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 Finsthwaite Heights from Penrith / Ambleside / Windermere

Stagecoach X6
Kendal – Levens – Grange-over-Sands – Ulverston – Barrow (A590 corridor)
Catch it from: Kendal/Windermere (change at Kendal)
Year-round. Handy for the South Lakeland outliers: Whitbarrow (Mill Side area), Gummer's How (Newby Bridge) and Hampsfell (Grange-over-Sands, which also has trains).

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

Maps & guidebooks for Finsthwaite Heights

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