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

Birkett — Northern (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Gategill Fell Top

At 852 m (2,795 ft), Gategill Fell Top is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells) in the Northern Fells — an overlooked summit away from the crowds.

852 m
Height
+5
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX →

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852 mBirkett — Northern (not a Wainwright summit)+5 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 852 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Tue 28 Jul): 13° to 12°C, gusts to 31 mph, 7.2 mm of rain forecast.

Tue 28 Jul
🌧️
13° / 12°
💨 31 mph
🌧 7.2 mm (61%)
Wed 29 Jul
🌧️
13° / 9°
💨 30 mph
🌧 11.2 mm (71%)
Thu 30 Jul
🌦️
12° / 4°
💨 31 mph
🌧 1.7 mm (76%)
Fri 31 Jul
🌤️
13° / 0°
💨 24 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (76%)
Sat 1 Aug
🌦️
12° / 2°
💨 15 mph
🌧 2.7 mm (55%)
Sun 2 Aug
☁️
14° / 1°
💨 17 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (28%)
Mon 3 Aug
🌦️
14° / 4°
💨 15 mph
🌧 0.4 mm (22%)

Forecast snapshot from 28 Jul 2026, 04:58 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 852 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

Gategill Fell Top

At 852 m (2,795 ft), Gategill Fell Top is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells) in the Northern Fells — an overlooked summit away from the crowds. It rises the Threlkeld valley. The name comes from fell (Old Norse fjall, a mountain or hill). It also features on the Synge, Nuttall lists. Its nearest tops are Blencathra - Hallsfell Top (0.7 km NE); Knowe Crags (Blease Fell) (0.7 km SW); Doddick Fell (1.1 km E) — 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.

Routes up Gategill Fell Top

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

Blencathra via Blease Fell
11.9 km · ~3.6 hr · Easy
A shorter, easier way up the great northern fell of Blencathra than my favourite round from Mungrisdale over Souther Fell. From Threlkeld it climbs the grassy shoulder of Blease Fell (Knowe Crags) to the summit, with a fine high traverse over Gategill Fell Top, Doddick Fell and Scales Fell, and it avoids the boggy ground of Mungrisdale Common. A grand viewpoint over the northern fells and the Eden valley for relatively modest effort — and well clear of the notorious Sharp Edge.
Classifications & hill data
Birkett
Synge
Nuttall
852 m
Height
2,795 ft
In feet
NY 3178 2735
Grid ref

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Threlkeld village (free/donation), about 1.9 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Gategill Fell Top (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.

0.7 km WSWKnowe Crags (Blease Fell)804 m · Northern
1.1 km ENEDoddick Fell742 m · Northern
1.1 km NNEAtkinson Pike (Foule Crag)845 m · Northern
1.5 km ENEScales Fell682 m · Northern
2.9 km WLonscale Pike (Lonscale Fell East Top)703 m · Northern

Routes over Gategill Fell Top

Blencathra via Blease FellPlanned
11.88 km · ~750 m ascent · loop · ~3.5–5 h · Clockwise · Easy
Summits: Knowe Crags (Blease Fell)Gategill Fell TopBlencathra - Hallsfell TopDoddick FellScales Fell

⬇️ Download GPX

Best season: Any season in good conditions; the grassy ridges are straightforward but exposed.

⚠️ Warnings: 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.

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.

Best parking to hike Gategill Fell Top

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

Threlkeld village (free/donation) — 1.9 km from summit (straight line)
Blencathra via Hall's Fell ridge; Clough Head across the valley.
Directions
🚺 Threlkeld Village Hall (57m) — Free · Accessible☕ Threlkeld Coffee Shop🍺 Horse & Farrier Inn🍺 Salutation Inn
Scales, A66 (layby) — 2.3 km from summit (straight line)
Laybys near the White Horse Inn — Blencathra via Scales Fell or Sharp Edge.
Directions
🚺 Threlkeld Village Hall (1856m) — Free · Accessible

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 the Blencathra via Blease Fell route:

🛖 map (4 m)🚌 War Memorial (W bound) (106 m)🚌 War Memorial (E bound) (114 m)🚌 Horse & Farrier (E bound) (285 m)🚌 West End (E bound) (400 m)

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

Buses to Gategill Fell Top from Penrith / Ambleside / Windermere

Stagecoach X4 / X5
Penrith – Rheged – Threlkeld – Keswick – Braithwaite – Cockermouth – Workington
Catch it from: Penrith
Year-round, frequent. From Penrith this is your way into Keswick and the Northern fells — Threlkeld/Scales stops serve Blencathra directly, Braithwaite serves the Coledale fells.

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

Don’t drink from Gategill Beck

On the way up you cross Gategill Beck, which runs below the old Threlkeld and Gategill lead mines. The Environment Agency records it carrying dissolved lead and cadmium above the level that is safe to drink. This is not the usual hill-water risk: a squeeze or hollow-fibre filter (LifeStraw, Sawyer and the like) 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).

Other fells near Gategill Fell Top

Maps & guidebooks for Gategill Fell Top

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