hikes.guideLake District

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

Birkett — Central (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Fisher Crag

Fisher Crag at 421m (1,381ft) is a Birkett top above the head of Thirlmere on the Central Fells, its rocky character giving good views across the reservoir and towards the Helvellyn range.

421 m
Height
+9
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX →
421 mBirkett — Central (not a Wainwright summit)+9 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 421 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 32 mph, 4.0 mm of rain forecast.

Tue 28 Jul
🌦️
16° / 15°
💨 32 mph
🌧 4.0 mm (100%)
Wed 29 Jul
🌧️
16° / 13°
💨 30 mph
🌧 4.6 mm (100%)
Thu 30 Jul
🌦️
14° / 5°
💨 29 mph
🌧 2.0 mm (78%)
Fri 31 Jul
🌤️
16° / 3°
💨 23 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (78%)
Sat 1 Aug
🌦️
16° / 4°
💨 14 mph
🌧 5.4 mm (54%)
Sun 2 Aug
🌫️
17° / 5°
💨 18 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (24%)
Mon 3 Aug
🌦️
17° / 5°
💨 12 mph
🌧 0.2 mm (23%)

Forecast snapshot from 28 Jul 2026, 04:58 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 421 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

Fisher Crag

Fisher Crag at 421m (1,381ft) is a Birkett top above the head of Thirlmere on the Central Fells, its rocky character giving good views across the reservoir and towards the Helvellyn range. Part of the fell country between Thirlmere and the Langstrath valley. A pleasant summit giving a good aerial view of the long Thirlmere reservoir.

Routes up Fisher Crag

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

Classifications & hill data
Birkett
Synge
421 m
Height
1,381 ft
In feet
NY 3049 1630
Grid ref

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Swirls, Thirlmere (paid), about 1.2 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Fisher 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.

0.9 km WSWArmboth Fell (Birkett)479 m · Central
1.7 km SBrown Rigg462 m · Central
1.8 km WSWMiddle Crag484 m · Central
1.9 km WSWShivery Knott491 m · Central
2.1 km SSWBell Crags (Long Moss) (Blea Tarn Fell)559 m · Central
2.1 km SWWatendlath Fell (Long Moss)515 m · Central
2.6 km NNEGreat How (Thirlmere)333 m · Eastern
2.6 km NNWCastle Crag (Shoulthwalte)404 m · Eastern
2.6 km ENEBrown Crag610 m · Eastern

Routes over Fisher Crag

23.11 km · ~1047 m ascent · loop · ~6–8.5 h

⬇️ Download GPX

⚠️ Warnings: Access: The summit of Fisher Crag lies 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 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.

Terrain & access

A near-path top (about 421 m): a mapped path comes within about 201 m of the summit, with a last stretch of open ground (about 36 m of ascent, up to ~25°). 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. The direct line crosses 1 wall.

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 Fisher Crag

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

Swirls, Thirlmere (paid) — 1.2 km from summit (straight line)
The standard west-side route up Helvellyn via Browncove Crags.
Directions (opens in new tab)
🚺 The Swirls Car Park (opens in new tab) (461m) — Free · Accessible · RADAR key🚺 Armbroth Car Park (opens in new tab) (1587m) — Free
Watendlath (NT, paid) — 3.1 km from summit (straight line)
End of the narrow Watendlath road — Grange Fell, Great Crag, Armboth fells.
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.

Water & shelter on the way up

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

Buses to Fisher Crag from Penrith / Ambleside / Windermere

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 (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.

Maps & guidebooks for Fisher Crag

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases — at no extra cost to you. How affiliate links work →