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

Birkett — Western (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Gale Fell

Gale Fell (518 m / 1,699 ft) is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells), one of the lesser-known Western tops.

518 m
Height
+9
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX →

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518 mBirkett — Western (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 518 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Tue 28 Jul): 15° to 14°C, gusts to 34 mph, 2.2 mm of rain forecast.

Tue 28 Jul
🌦️
15° / 14°
💨 34 mph
🌧 2.2 mm (99%)
Wed 29 Jul
🌧️
15° / 12°
💨 27 mph
🌧 12.8 mm (100%)
Thu 30 Jul
🌦️
13° / 5°
💨 28 mph
🌧 2.8 mm (87%)
Fri 31 Jul
🌤️
14° / 3°
💨 22 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (86%)
Sat 1 Aug
🌦️
15° / 6°
💨 15 mph
🌧 1.2 mm (82%)
Sun 2 Aug
🌤️
16° / 5°
💨 16 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (35%)
Mon 3 Aug
🌦️
16° / 5°
💨 17 mph
🌧 0.4 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 518 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

About the walk

Key information

Gale Fell

Gale Fell (518 m / 1,699 ft) is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells), one of the lesser-known Western tops. It rises the south side. The name comes from fell (Old Norse fjall, a mountain or hill). Its nearest tops are Great Borne (1.0 km W); Starling Dodd (1.0 km SE); Floutern Cop (1.5 km NW) — it's usually taken in on a round of these neighbours. It's a worthwhile objective for anyone working through the Birkett list, or as a short extension to a bigger day on the higher neighbouring fells.

Classifications & hill data
Birkett
518 m
Height
1,699 ft
In feet
NY 1338 1637
Grid ref

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Bowness Knott, Ennerdale (Forestry, paid), about 2.6 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Gale 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.

1.5 km NWFloutern Cop451 m · Western
1.6 km WHerdus562 m · Western
1.7 km ESELittle Dodd (Ennerdale)590 m · Western
1.9 km WSWBrown How (Ennerdale)330 m · Western
2.1 km WNWBanna Fell455 m · Western
2.1 km NEScale Knott338 m · Western
2.3 km WSWBowness Knott333 m · Western
2.9 km NNWGavel Fell - High Nook (Gavel Fell North Top)488 m · North Western
2.9 km NLittle Dodd (Loweswater)362 m · North Western

Terrain & access

A near-path top (about 518 m): a mapped path comes within about 194 m of the summit, with a last stretch of open ground (about 12 m of ascent, up to ~10°). The summit is on CRoW open access land. 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 Gale Fell

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

Bowness Knott, Ennerdale (Forestry, paid) — 2.6 km from summit (straight line)
Forestry England car park at the end of the Ennerdale valley road, on the lake's north shore (OS NY 110 154; parking charges apply since 2023) — Great Borne, Starling Dodd, and the long walk-ins to Pillar and Steeple.
Directions
Buttermere village (NT, paid) — 4.1 km from summit (straight line)
For Red Pike, High Stile, Robinson, Rannerdale Knotts.
Directions
🚺 Buttermere village (132m) — Accessible☕ Syke Farm Tea Room☕ Croft House Farm Café🍺 The Buttermere Court Hotel

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 Gale Fell from Penrith / Ambleside / Windermere

Stagecoach 77 / 77A “Honister Rambler”
Keswick – Portinscale – Hawse End (Catbells) – Grange – Seatoller – Honister Pass – Buttermere – Lorton – Whinlatter – Keswick (circular)
Catch it from: Keswick (connect via 555 from Windermere/Ambleside or X4/X5 from Penrith)
Seasonal (roughly Easter–October). Brilliant for the North Western fells: Catbells, Dale Head from Honister, the Buttermere fells and Whinlatter.

Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com or Traveline before relying on a last bus.

Other fells near Gale Fell

Maps & guidebooks for Gale Fell

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