Gategill Fell Top
At 852 m (2,796 ft), Gategill Fell Top is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells) in the Northern Fells. The name comes from fell (Old Norse fjall, a mountain or hill).
Summit conditions on Gategill Fell Top
On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 9° to 4°C, gusts to 53 mph, 14.8 mm of rain forecast over the whole day, midnight to midnight.
The forecast figures are Open-Meteo’s, worked out for the summit’s height. How we check →
Routes up Gategill Fell Top
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
A shorter, easier way up the great northern fell of Blencathra than my favourite round from Mungrisdale over Souther Fell.
Distance and climb are measured from the route’s GPX track, and the time from them by Naismith’s rule; the route page says what each grade rests on. How we check →
How hard is Gategill Fell Top?
The shortest way up we hold is Blencathra via Blease Fell — 11.88 km, 816 m of ascent, ~3½–5 h. On our scale its hardest axes are steepness and navigation — Hard.
All axes: steepness: Hard · navigation: Hard · length: Moderate · exposure: Easy · terrain: Not assessed.
These are the route page’s grades, set by the rules on how we grade: length and steepness measured from its GPX track, the others set on the ground, judged from the map or estimated from OpenStreetMap. The route page says which. How we check →
Conditions and 7-day summit forecast
Modelled for the 852 m summit (Open-Meteo). Check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
Full 7-day forecast
Taken 27 October 2026, 20:59 UTC; the live forecast replaces it when it loads. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (opens in new tab)
Parking & buses for Gategill Fell Top
Parking
Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.
2 more places to park near Gategill Fell Top
Positions are approximate.
Vehicles are left at their owner’s risk: we list places people park and cannot vouch for any of them. Take valuables with you and leave nothing on show.
Buses
The 509, X4 and X5 stop at Threlkeld, by Village Hall, a 160 m walk from the start of Blencathra via Blease Fell — a route we rate Hard overall (hardest: steepness and navigation). As timetabled from 27 October to 1 November. Towards Keswick (X5): Tuesday to Saturday 22:02; Sunday 19:54. 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.
Getting there across the Lake District: Buses · Parking map · By train · By boat
Hazards on Gategill Fell Top
Notes from a planned route, not walked: Blencathra via Blease Fell
- This route deliberately avoids Sharp Edge — that classic arête is a serious, exposed scramble and a frequent accident spot.
- Steep grass on the descent ridges can be slippery when wet.
If you need to get off (the leg from Knowe Crags): Reversing your route back to Blease Fell and descending the grassy ramp is the better option. Under no circumstances should you attempt to drop down Gategill Edge in bad weather as an escape; it is a steep, loose, and serious scramble.
Quoted from the route page of a planned route, drawn from the map and not yet walked: its warnings and the note for the leg that reaches Gategill Fell Top.
We have not written a hazard card for this fell yet, and that is not a sign that it is low-hazard. Read the warnings on the route pages that climb it, check the forecast, carry a map and compass, and turn back in cloud if the ground is not what you expected. The National Park Authority’s What to pack page, AdventureSmart’s hill walking kit list and Mountain Rescue England and Wales’s safety page are linked from our what to carry guide.
Don’t drink from Gategill Beck
On the way down on our route Blencathra via Blease Fell, you cross Gategill Beck, which runs below the old Threlkeld and Gategill lead mines. In Environment Agency samples from it, the typical levels of dissolved lead and cadmium are above the World Health Organization’s drinking-water guideline — that comparison is ours, not the Agency’s. Those samples were taken between 2010 and 2026 at 6 Agency sampling points 25 to 200 m from the route’s line, the nearest “Gategill Beck downstream of Blue Dam”: a record of past sampling, not a test of the water today. This is not the usual hill-water risk: a squeeze or hollow-fibre filter removes none of these dissolved metals, and boiling only concentrates them. Carry your own water for this walk and don’t refill from the beck.
What’s actually in this beck — we mapped every mine-fed one →
Metal-mine water data © Environment Agency (Open Government Licence v3.0).
If you need Mountain Rescue
Dial 999 or 112 and ask for the Police, then Mountain Rescue.
Before you call, have ready: where you are (a grid reference if you can – the OS Locate app shows yours on your phone), what has happened, how many of you there are, and your mobile number.
Then stay where you are until the rescue team contacts you.
If you cannot make a voice call because of a hearing or speech impairment, emergency SMS works only if you have registered first: text “register” to 999.
From Mountain Rescue England and Wales’s guidance on calling them out (opens in new tab) (read 26 October 2026).
Map, GPX and nearby Birketts
Skip mapFree mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap, with SRTM elevation data (switch layers top-right).
Parking, toilets and buses: Parking & buses ↑.
Birketts within 3 km of Gategill Fell Top
These Birkett tops are not Wainwright summits. Distances are straight lines: check the ground and access on a map before adding one.
Routes over Gategill Fell Top
Download GPX Planned route · not yet walked
Every line here is a guide, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate for yourself and carry a map and compass. How to use this guide.
On the hill: terrain and water on Gategill Fell Top
Water & shelter on the way up
On the Blencathra via Blease Fell route:
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.
About Gategill Fell Top
Classifications & hill data
Is Gategill Fell Top a Wainwright?
Gategill Fell Top is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list, the Synge list and the Nuttall list.
Selected lists
This is the summit’s grid reference. If you call from anywhere else, give your own position, not this one.
Lists, height and summit position from the Database of British and Irish Hills; the feet are converted from its metres and the grid reference from that position. How we check →
Places to stay near this fell
From Threlkeld: 6 places in Keswick