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

Birkett — North Western (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Gasgale Crags

Gasgale Crags at 703m (2,306ft) is a dramatic Birkett top on the ridge of Whiteside above the Gasgale Gill ravine in the North Western Fells, its craggy summit giving views into the deep gully below and across to Hopegill Head.

703 m
Height
+10
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX →
703 mBirkett — North Western (not a Wainwright summit)+10 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 703 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Tue 28 Jul): 14° to 13°C, gusts to 38 mph, 4.8 mm of rain forecast.

Tue 28 Jul
🌧️
14° / 13°
💨 38 mph
🌧 4.8 mm (99%)
Wed 29 Jul
🌧️
14° / 10°
💨 28 mph
🌧 14.0 mm (100%)
Thu 30 Jul
🌦️
12° / 4°
💨 29 mph
🌧 3.0 mm (87%)
Fri 31 Jul
🌤️
14° / 2°
💨 22 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (86%)
Sat 1 Aug
🌦️
14° / 4°
💨 15 mph
🌧 2.7 mm (82%)
Sun 2 Aug
☁️
15° / 5°
💨 17 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (35%)
Mon 3 Aug
🌦️
14° / 4°
💨 16 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 703 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

Gasgale Crags

Gasgale Crags at 703m (2,306ft) is a dramatic Birkett top on the ridge of Whiteside above the Gasgale Gill ravine in the North Western Fells, its craggy summit giving views into the deep gully below and across to Hopegill Head. Part of the Coledale Horseshoe ridge. An impressive position above one of the most dramatic side valleys in the district.

Routes up Gasgale Crags

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

Classifications & hill data
Birkett
703 m
Height
2,306 ft
In feet
NY 1783 2220
Grid ref

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Lanthwaite Green (NT), about 2.1 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Gasgale Crags (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.

0.3 km WSWWhiteside East Top (Whiteside) (Gasgale Crags)719 m · North Western
0.8 km NELadyside Pike704 m · North Western
0.9 km ESESand Hill756 m · North Western
1.3 km NWDodd (Lorton)454 m · North Western
1.5 km EHobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)738 m · North Western
1.7 km NSwinside509 m · North Western
1.9 km SEEel Crag (Birkett)807 m · North Western
2.1 km NEHobcarton End634 m · North Western
2.6 km SSEThirdgill Head Man734 m · North Western
3.0 km SSWLad Hows426 m · North Western

Routes over Gasgale Crags

16.17 km · ~1068 m ascent · loop · ~5–6.5 h · Hard

✎️ If you only do one round in the North Western Fells, this is it. Grasmoor is a bigger, wilder mountain than its modest reputation suggests, and the ridge from Whiteside over Gasgale Crags to Hopegill Head is as good as ridge walking gets outside the Langdales. Whiteless Pike at the end is a perfect little peak — and a punishing descent.

⬇️ Download GPX

Best season: Late spring to autumn, in clear conditions. Gasgale Crags is narrow and rocky, and Grasmoor’s summit plateau is a blank, stony expanse that is thoroughly disorientating in cloud.

⚠️ Warnings: The climb straight up Whiteside from Lanthwaite is brutally steep — a relentless, loose, eroded pull with little respite. It is the hardest 500 m on this route and it comes first.; Gasgale Crags is a narrow, rocky ridge. It is not a scramble in the Sharp Edge sense, but it is airy, the rock is loose in places, and it wants care in wind or wet.; Grasmoor’s summit is a featureless stony plateau with crags on three sides. In cloud it is a genuine navigation trap — take a bearing before you leave the cairn.; The descent off Whiteless Pike is a knee-breaker — steep, sustained and relentless, right at the end of a long day. It is one of the steepest sustained descents in the Lakes.; A long day with 1,068 m of ascent and ten tops. Navigation is graded hard: the high ground is broad and the drops are real.

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 703 m top with a mapped path to within about 23 m of the summit. There is steep ground (over 30°) on the direct line — pick your line with care. The summit is on CRoW open access land.

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 Gasgale Crags

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

Lanthwaite Green (NT) — 2.1 km from summit (straight line)
At the foot of Grasmoor and Whiteside, Crummock Water.
Directions (opens in new tab)
Whinlatter Visitor Centre (paid) — 3.3 km from summit (straight line)
Forest centre — Lord's Seat, Barf, Whinlatter fells, Grisedale Pike's back route.
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 Gasgale Crags 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 (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.

Maps & guidebooks for Gasgale Crags

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