hikes.guideLake District

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

Goat Scar - a green valley of fields and walls below craggy fellsides, with distant lakes hazy under grey cloud
Birkett — Far Eastern (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Goat Scar

Goat Scar at 626m (2,054ft) is a Birkett top on the eastern edge of the Far Eastern Fells above the Longsleddale valley, its craggy character giving views across Longsleddale and east towards the Pennines.

626 m
Height
+4
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX → Parking & buses →
626 mBirkett — Far Eastern (not a Wainwright summit)+4 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 626 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Fri 11 Sep): 12° to 8°C, gusts to 20 mph, 2.2 mm of rain forecast.

Fri 11 Sep
🌦️
12° / 8°
💨 20 mph
🌧 2.2 mm (98%)
Sat 12 Sep
🌧️
14° / 8°
💨 45 mph
🌧 30.2 mm (100%)
Sun 13 Sep
🌦️
12° / 8°
💨 17 mph
🌧 0.4 mm (26%)
Mon 14 Sep
🌧️
14° / 7°
💨 34 mph
🌧 9.7 mm (94%)
Tue 15 Sep
🌦️
14° / 8°
💨 34 mph
🌧 2.0 mm (77%)
Wed 16 Sep
🌦️
11° / 8°
💨 32 mph
🌧 1.3 mm (59%)
Thu 17 Sep
🌦️
11° / 8°
💨 36 mph
🌧 1.4 mm (76%)

Forecast snapshot from 11 Sep 2026, 08:30 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 626 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.

Goat Scar at a glance

Goat Scar

Goat Scar - a green valley of fields and walls below craggy fellsides, with distant lakes hazy under grey cloud
© Lee McCoy

Goat Scar at 626m (2,054ft) is a Birkett top on the eastern edge of the Far Eastern Fells above the Longsleddale valley, its craggy character giving views across Longsleddale and east towards the Pennines. Part of the high ground between Kentmere and Longsleddale. A fine viewpoint in quiet, rarely visited country.

Routes up Goat Scar

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

Classifications & hill data

Birkett
Synge
626 m
Height
2,054 ft
In feet
NY 4733 0691
Grid ref

The short answers

Is Goat Scar a Wainwright?

Goat Scar is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list and the Synge list.

Where do you park for Goat Scar?

The nearest car park we hold is Sadgill, Longsleddale (free, limited), about 1.6 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Shipman Knotts (verge), 1.9 km out. We only look within 2.5 km, measured straight-line: over longer distances a road may cross a pass and the drive bears no relation to the line.

How hard is Goat Scar?

The shortest way up we hold is Birketts by Kentmere Horseshoe — 17.6 km, 754 m of ascent, about 4.8 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is navigation — Hard.

All axes: navigation: Hard · steepness: Hard · length: Hard · exposure: Moderate · terrain: Moderate.

My hikes over Goat Scar (Strava)

1 logged hike pass over this summit:

Interactive route maps and photos load here for visitors with JavaScript. Data from Strava.

Parking & buses for Goat Scar

Best parking to hike Goat Scar

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

Sadgill, Longsleddale (free, limited) — 1.6 km from summit (straight line)
Head of Longsleddale — Kentmere Pike, Shipman Knotts, Grey Crag, Tarn Crag.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Shipman Knotts (verge) — 1.9 km from summit (straight line)
1.2 km from Shipman Knotts.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Hollow Moor (layby) — 2.1 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Shipman Knotts, Kentmere Pike, Harter Fell (Mardale) and Little Harter Fell — the 'Longsleddale Round (Kentmere Pike, Tarn Crag, Grey Crag & Shipman Knotts)' route starts 6 m away. Free (OSM-tagged). Ground surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Swinklebank Crag (layby) — 2.8 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: Swinklebank Crag (Ancrow Brow) (1.0 km), Cocklaw Fell (1.4 km), Ancrow Brow North Top (1.7 km). Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Kentmere Institute (donation, very limited) — 3.3 km from summit (straight line)
Tiny — arrive by 8am or use the verges lower down. Kentmere Horseshoe: Yoke, Ill Bell, Froswick, Kentmere Pike. Donation box, about 8 spaces - OSM way/776958525 records note=Donation Box and payment:coins=yes (checked Aug 2026). Around eight spaces; the box is a donation box, not a machine (OSM way/776958525, 2026-07-24 extract).
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?

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.

Vehicles are left entirely at their owner’s risk. We list places people park; we cannot vouch for any of them. Judge it on the day: take valuables with you, leave nothing on show, and if a spot feels wrong when you get there, park somewhere else.

Getting to Goat Scar by bus

The nearest bus stop we hold is the 555 at Staveley, outside Abbey Square, 8.5 km of walking from the start — not realistically reachable without a car.

Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.

Hazards on Goat Scar

No hazard card for this fell. The usual open-fell rules apply: check the forecast, carry a map and compass, and turn back in cloud if the ground is not what you expected.

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Sadgill, Longsleddale (free, limited), about 1.6 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Goat Scar (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.

1.7 km ESEGreat Howe (Longsleddale)494 m · Far Eastern
2.2 km NAdam Seat666 m · Far Eastern
2.6 km NLittle Harter Fell681 m · Far Eastern
2.9 km ENEHarrop Pike637 m · Far Eastern

Routes over Goat Scar

17.58 km · ~754 m ascent · loop · ~4.5–6.5 h

⬇️ Download GPX

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. How to use this guide.

Places to stay near this fell

We have not verified an independent place near this fell — these are the chains and charities that serve it.

Mosedale Cottage (opens in new tab) hut

about 4.0 km from the start, in a straight line

This is the only property inside the radius whose cached page is actually about itself, and it is emphatically not a bed for a family - it is the roof a Harrop Pike walker should know about before committing to a 20.03 km day whose middle third is a bearing across the Bannisdale watershed. It sits on the Mosedale/Swindale side of that watershed rather than on the Longsleddale road, so it is a bail-out and a shelter, not a base: 3.95 km straight-line from Sadgill, which is a number for a map and not a walk-in - the ground between is over the tops and unmeasured by us. What its page does give is usable: a grid reference to put on the map (NY 495 095 on LR90), a stove with the explicit warning that no fuel is available locally, and the MBA's standing party-size restriction with no number attached, which is the one thing a group of four or more should resolve before relying on it. Ranked 1 only because it is the sole row here with evidence; on family usefulness it ranks nowhere.

Its whole facilities list is two lines that contradict each other for anyone planning a night: there is a working stove, and no fuel anywhere near it. Warmth here is something you carry in on your back along with the sleeping bag.

What each place says about itself, quoted from their own site. We have not stayed at any of them, and there are no prices, no booking and no affiliate links. Distances are straight lines from each route start, never walking times. Properties found via OpenStreetMap (opens in new tab).

Other fells near Goat Scar