Great Carrs

Written and walked by Lee McCoy · Summited August 2024

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785 mWainwright — Southern Fells+6 bonus Birketts within 3 km

Great Carrs at 785m (2,575ft) is a Wainwright summit in the Southern Fells, forming the rocky northern arm of the Swirl How ridge above Wrynose Pass. Wainwright noted its fine position above the Greenburn valley and the views of the Coniston fells.

Summit conditions on Great Carrs

On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 10° to 4°C, gusts to 60 mph, 5.7 mm of rain forecast over the whole day, midnight to midnight.

Against our lines, Tuesday 27 October: wind, cold and cloud from the Met Office UKV 2 km model (daylight hours, as in the verdict above); rain from the summit line’s forecast (the whole day). A tile is large when this top is past its line.

Wind on the top

Past the line

72 mph, our estimate for the open top in the worst daylight hour

The Met Office 2 km model’s gust of 57 mph times our exposure factor of 1.26. The summit line above gives Open-Meteo’s highest gust for the whole day, 60 mph, before any exposure factor.

The line Our line: 25 mph, where our wind Scale begins its 25–35 band: “balance affected; buffeting on exposed ground”. MWIS (opens in new tab) describes what wind does to a walker across a range rather than at a line: from about 20–25 mph it starts to affect your balance.

Estimated: it is not calibrated against summit readings, and the two forecasts can disagree by more than a band.

Also checked cold: feels like −1 °C, no ice or snow forecast; cloud: a clear-top reading of 20 out of 100, over our in-cloud line of 20; rain: 5.7 mm in the day, under our 6 mm line. Under a line is not the same as fine: it means only that these figures are under the lines we use.

Not in these tiles Lightning, river levels, snow or ice already lying, and the ground under your feet. A tile cannot see them, so an empty space here never means they are absent.

Snow figures with a second opinion: Powered by Met Office data

Full 7-day summit forecast ↓

Wainwrights are scored for walking conditions each morning from the Met Office’s UK forecast model, read for each summit through Open-Meteo; the forecast figures are Open-Meteo’s, worked out for the summit’s height. How we check →

Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (opens in new tab)

Routes up Great Carrs

Choose the way up before the car park: these three routes start from three places, and the last two rows give the parking and bus at each route’s own start. Full maps further down.

Compared	Coniston Old Man Round	Black Sails & Great How	The Coniston Horseshoe
Starts from	Coniston village	Wrynose Pass Car Park	Walna Scar Road car park
Distance and climb	16.1 km, 1,155 m of climb	10.94 km, 822 m of climb	20.8 km, 1,333 m of climb
Time, fast to steady	~5–7 h	~3½–4¾ h	~6¼–8½ h
Scrambling	Hands for a few steps: the Prison Band, on the descent from Swirl How (km 9.6–11.5). A steep, stony scramble of a ridge linking Swirl How to Swirl Hawse and Wetherlam.	Hands for a few steps: short steps onto Great Carrs, and the Prison Band (km 1.7–2.3 and km 3.5–6.1). A steep, stony scramble of a ridge linking Swirl How to Swirl Hawse and Wetherlam.	Hands for a few steps: the Prison Band, and the last steps to Dow Crag (km 6.2–8.1 and km 15.6–16.0). The short final climb to Dow Crag from Goat's Hawse has scrambly steps with moderate exposure — stay on the path and away from the edge.
Exposure	Moderate	Not assessed	Not assessed
Navigation	Hard	Hard	Hard
Steepest stretch	Climb of about 37% at 3.6 km (Severe)	Descent of about 32% at 4.5 km (Hard)	Climb of about 31% at 7.8 km (Hard)
After the summit	Over Swirl How and Wetherlam	Over Swirl How, Great How (Swirl Band) and Black Sails	Over Grey Friar, Brim Fell, The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man), Dow Crag, Buck Pike - Seathwaite Fell and Brown Pike
Walked or planned	Walked by Lee, August 2024	Planned: drawn, not yet walked	Walked in part; km 0.0–1.1, km 15.8–20.8 from the map
Car park at the start	Coniston Station car park (paid)	Hell Gill Pike (verge, south)	Walna Scar Road, Coniston (paid, rough track)
Bus to the start	505, 520 m walk from Coniston, outside The Ruskin Centre	516, 4.8 km walk from Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel	505, 1.8 km walk from Coniston, outside The Ruskin Centre

Times run from fast to steady pace (Naismith’s rule). Scrambling quotes each route’s own notes; “not mentioned” means they do not say, not that the ground has none. Each route’s page has its map, stages and GPX.

Distance, climb and the steepest stretch are measured from each route’s GPX track; the other grades are set on the ground, judged from the map or estimated from OpenStreetMap, and each route page says which. How we check →

How hard is Great Carrs?

The shortest way up we hold is Black Sails & Great How — 10.94 km, 822 m of ascent, ~3½–4¾ h. On our scale its hardest axes are steepness and navigation — Hard.

All axes: steepness: Hard · navigation: Hard · length: Moderate · terrain: Not assessed · exposure: 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 785 m summit (Open-Meteo). Check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

Full 7-day forecast

Tue 27 Oct

10° / 4°

60 mph

5.7 mm (100%)

Wed 28 Oct

8° / 5°

50 mph

9.5 mm (100%)

Thu 29 Oct

8° / 5°

23 mph

2.7 mm (75%)

Fri 30 Oct

7° / 4°

22 mph

0.0 mm (8%)

Sat 31 Oct

5° / 3°

4 mph

0.0 mm (6%)

Sun 1 Nov

7° / 2°

14 mph

0.3 mm (2%)

Mon 2 Nov

5° / 0°

9 mph

0.0 mm (0%)

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)

Pro mountain forecasts: MWIS · Met Office mountain forecast

Parking & buses for Great Carrs

Parking

Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.

Coniston Station car park (paid) — at the start of Coniston Old Man Round

On the old station site, west of the village. Fees: pay and display; coins and cards; RingGo ID 37306 (LDNPA, checked August 2026).

Directions When people arrive, and what it costs →Something changed here?

If it is full: Coniston, Bluebird Car & Coach Park (paid) (0.6 km, 50 m up); Coniston, Ruskin Avenue (paid) (0.6 km, 52 m up); Walna Scar Road, Coniston (paid, rough track) (1.4 km)

Hell Gill Pike (verge, south) — 0.1 km from the start of Black Sails & Great How (straight line)

1.3 km from Hell Gill Pike.

Directions Something changed here?

Walna Scar Road, Coniston (paid, rough track) — at the start of The Coniston Horseshoe

High paid car park above Coniston — Old Man, Dow Crag, Brown Pike with a head start. Fees: pay and display; cards only; RingGo ID 37321 (LDNPA, checked August 2026).

Directions Something changed here?

Coniston Bridge (~1414 m straight line) Coniston Ruskin Avenue Car Park (~1569 m straight line)

4 more places to park near Great Carrs

Hell Gill Pike (verge) — 1.5 km from summit (straight line)

0.9 km from Hell Gill Pike.

Directions Something changed here?

Three Shire Stone, Wrynose Pass (verge) — 1.9 km from summit (straight line)

High-level start for Pike o' Blisco, Cold Pike, Wet Side Edge and the Greenburn fells.

Directions Something changed here?

Wrynose Fell (layby) — 1.9 km from summit (straight line)

Walking base for Hell Gill Pike, Little Carrs, Great Carrs and Swirl How — the 'Black Sails & Great How' route starts 131 m away. Also serves 'Stonesty Pike, Great Knott & Wrynose Fell'. Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).

Directions Something changed here?

Wrynose Fell - Long Crag (verge, west) — 2.1 km from summit (straight line)

1.2 km from Wrynose Fell - Long Crag.

Directions Something changed here?

Positions are approximate.

Of the pay-and-display machine tickets sold at Coniston Old Station from 17 August 2024 to 31 March 2026, 33% were bought before 10am (our count of FOI/2026.500 ticket data). Contains public sector information provided by the Lake District National Park Authority and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

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 505 stops at Coniston, outside The Ruskin Centre, a 520 m walk and 39 m of ascent from the start of Coniston Old Man Round — a route we rate Severe overall (hardest: steepness). As timetabled from 27 October to 1 November. Towards Kendal (505): Tuesday to Sunday 20:24. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 12 September 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.

Stagecoach 505 “Coniston Rambler”

Windermere – Ambleside – Skelwith Bridge – Hawkshead – Coniston

Catch it from: Windermere · Ambleside

Daily in season (reduced winter service). Best access for the Coniston fells (Old Man, Wetherlam group).

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 Great Carrs

Hazard & Incident Information for Great Carrs

Checked by Lee McCoy, 14 June 2026. Draws on published material from Coniston Mountain Rescue Team. Editorial background, not a live callout feed.

Hazard: Moderate

A high fell on the Coniston (Furness) skyline whose gentle western slopes give no hint of the abrupt drop on its eastern side, where the ground falls away in crags and steep scree into the Greenburn corrie. The summit edge is also the site of a memorial to the crew of a Halifax bomber that crashed here in 1944. Coniston Mountain Rescue Team covers this remote high ground.

The steep eastern edge above Greenburn (and the memorial): Right by the summit the ground drops suddenly in crags and steep scree into the Greenburn corrie — the aircraft memorial sits on this very brink. In wind or cloud keep well back from the edge; the flat top gives almost no warning before the drop.
Navigation on the high plateau in cloud: Great Carrs sits among a confusing tangle of high paths — Swirl How, the Prison Band, Wet Side Edge and Wrynose. In mist it is easy to take the wrong ridge or drift toward the eastern edge. Navigate by compass.
Winter cornices and the steep descents: Cornices build along the eastern edge in winter and can collapse; the Wet Side Edge descent is steep and rough. Full winter kit and competence are needed when there is snow or ice, and extra margin kept from the corniced rim.

Who should attempt this fell: From the west Great Carrs is an easy walk, but the eastern edge is abrupt and unforgiving and the high plateau is a genuine navigation challenge in cloud — keep a compass bearing and stay back from the rim, especially in wind. In winter the corniced edge demands real caution and full kit. It is high, remote ground, so allow time and carry what you need to look after yourself.

What to watch for: Falls over the sudden eastern edge into the Greenburn corrie · Navigation errors on the featureless high plateau in cloud · Cornice collapse and slips on iced ground in winter · Problems compounded by the remoteness and long walk-out

Local Mountain Rescue: Coniston Mountain Rescue Team (opens in new tab)

Safety: Always check current conditions, carry proper navigation equipment, and seek qualified instruction before heading onto the fells. In an emergency, call 999, ask for Police, then Mountain Rescue.

Report incorrect information (opens in new tab)

A note on Church Beck (with Red Dell Beck & Levers Water)

Church Beck (with Red Dell Beck & Levers Water) runs below the old Coniston copper mines and carries mine-derived copper and zinc — enough to matter for river life. In Environment Agency samples taken near our route The Coniston Horseshoe between 2009 and 2024, no sample put lead or cadmium, the metals that matter for people, above the drinking limit. That is a record of past sampling, not a test of the water today. Treat any hill water before drinking (an ordinary hiking filter won’t remove dissolved metals); don’t single this beck out as a clean fill-up.

What’s actually in this beck — we mapped every mine-fed one →

Metal-mine water data © Environment Agency (Open Government Licence v3.0).

Navigating in cloud

Not graded by the model

Our terrain model finds nothing to grade on this summit, so it gives no cloud grade here — that is not a sign of easy navigation. Read this fell’s hazard notes and the route pages before a day in cloud. Carry map and compass, and know how to use them.

In winter — snow, whiteout, cornices, buried features — every top demands full winter navigation skills whatever its band, and a broad, gentle summit can be the worst place of all. See walking in bad weather and the navigation guide.

How Great Carrs compares with all 214: the Clag Index (experimental).

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

Free mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap, with SRTM elevation data (switch layers top-right).

Parking, toilets and buses: Parking & buses ↑.

Birketts within 3 km of Great Carrs

These Birkett tops are not Wainwright summits. Distances are straight lines: check the ground and access on a map before adding one.

0.6 km NLittle Carrs692 m · Southern

0.7 km NNWHell Gill Pike662 m · Southern

1.0 km SSEGreat How (Swirl Band)775 m · Southern

1.2 km EBlack Sails745 m · Southern

2.5 km ENEBirk Fell Man - Birk Fell528 m · Southern

2.9 km ENEHawk Rigg441 m · Southern

Routes over Great Carrs

Black Sails & Great How

Summits: Hell Gill Pike Little CarrsGreat CarrsSwirl How Great How (Swirl Band)Black Sails

Download GPX Planned route · not yet walked

Warnings: Great Carrs sits among a confusing tangle of high paths — Swirl How, the Prison Band, Wet Side Edge and Wrynose. In mist it is easy to take the wrong ridge or drift toward the eastern edge. Navigate by compass. A steep, stony scramble of a ridge linking Swirl How to Swirl Hawse and Wetherlam. Awkward and tiring, especially descending, and parties are often caught out here at dusk. Allow plenty of daylight, take the rock carefully, and do not underestimate it as 'just a path'. Great Carrs: Right by the summit the ground drops suddenly in crags and steep scree into the Greenburn corrie — the aircraft memorial sits on this very brink. In wind or cloud keep well back from the edge; the flat top gives almost no warning before the drop.

From the hazard notes for Great Carrs, each with its sources.

Route guide: Black Sails & Great How →

The Coniston Horseshoe

Summits: Wetherlam Swirl HowGreat CarrsGrey Friar Brim Fell The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man)Dow Crag Buck Pike - Seathwaite Fell Brown Pike

Lee walked it Wetherlam-first, from Miners Bridge to Dow Crag; the start from the car park and the southern end over Buck Pike, Brown Pike and the Walna Scar Road finish are from the map — the full Coniston round over all the major tops, a long and serious mountain day. The trickiest navigation is the Grey Friar–Calf Cove–Levers Hawse traverse and the Lad Stones ground; carry OS Explorer OL6 and a compass for the clag.

Download GPX Walked in part, August 2024 · km 0.0–1.1, km 15.8–20.8 from the map

Warnings: Prison Band, the rocky climb from Swirl Hawse onto Swirl How, is steep and eroded with the ground falling away both sides — care needed in mist or wind. Dow Crag's summit sits above a serious east face over Goat's Water — keep slightly right (west) of the top as you climb south from Goat's Hawse and well back from the gullies and edge, especially in poor visibility. The Grey Friar → Calf Cove → Levers Hawse leg is largely pathless and the round's hardest navigation — careful map-and-compass work in clag. The short final climb to Dow Crag from Goat's Hawse has scrambly steps with moderate exposure — stay on the path and away from the edge. Great Carrs sits among a confusing tangle of high paths — Swirl How, the Prison Band, Wet Side Edge and Wrynose. In mist it is easy to take the wrong ridge or drift toward the eastern edge. Navigate by compass. Grey Friar stands off the main ridge and its paths are faint; the ground between it and Swirl How is awkward, and one onward line from Swirl How appears to head straight over a cliff face. In mist it is easy to lose the route or drift onto steep ground. Navigate by compass and don't trust a vague trod. Great Carrs: Right by the summit the ground drops suddenly in crags and steep scree into the Greenburn corrie — the aircraft memorial sits on this very brink. In wind or cloud keep well back from the edge; the flat top gives almost no warning before the drop.

From the hazard notes for Great Carrs, each with its sources.

Route guide: The Coniston Horseshoe →

Coniston Old Man Round

Summits: The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man)Brim Fell Grey FriarGreat CarrsSwirl How Wetherlam

Download GPX Walked by Lee, August 2024

Best season: Any season in good conditions; rough and rocky, with old mine workings to keep clear of.

Warnings: Disused mine shafts and quarry spoil on the flanks, especially toward the Coppermines valley — keep to the paths. The high ridge is exposed and the broad tops need care in cloud. Grey Friar stands off the main ridge and its paths are faint; the ground between it and Swirl How is awkward, and one onward line from Swirl How appears to head straight over a cliff face. In mist it is easy to lose the route or drift onto steep ground. Navigate by compass and don't trust a vague trod. A steep, stony scramble of a ridge linking Swirl How to Swirl Hawse and Wetherlam. Awkward and tiring, especially descending, and parties are often caught out here at dusk. Allow plenty of daylight, take the rock carefully, and do not underestimate it as 'just a path'. The Coniston-facing side of Brim Fell is all crag, with a spur ending in the broken cliffs of Raven Tor. The rounded grassy top gives little sign of the edge — in mist or wind it is easy to drift east onto steep, dangerous ground. Keep to the crest and well back from the eastern rim.

Route guide: Coniston Old Man Round →

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 Great Carrs

Water & shelter on the way up

On the The Coniston Horseshoe route:

shelter (weather shelter, mapped, not checked; 7 m off the line)

On the Coniston Old Man Round route:

The Ruskin Centre (321 m from the start, straight line) John Ruskin School (W bound) (345 m from the start, straight line) The Crown Inn (353 m from the start, straight line) The Crown Hotel (367 m from the start, straight line)

About Great Carrs

The summit is the site of a 1944 Halifax bomber crash, and wreckage can still be seen. Part of the ridge walk from Swirl How to Grey Friar, with dramatic views of Little Langdale and Wrynose.

Field notes

You don't see many people mention this Wainwright and it's a crying shame that people don't do the Coniston Circuit with this one in mind as the view down the Greenburn valley to the Greenburn Reservoir in the near distance and the Little Landgale Tarn in the far distance is quite stunning. When I was there I was thinking about just continuing down the ridge north to Little Carrs and beyond. I didn't know then that that minor summit and that of Hell Gill Pike were Birkeets and I could have bagged them for little apparent cost.

— Lee McCoy, who walked it on 2 of our routes

My Strava hikes over Great Carrs

1 logged hike pass over this summit:

Awesome trek up Wetherlam, Swirl How, Great Carrs, Grey Friars, Brim Fell, Dow Crag & Old Man of Coniston. (opens in new tab) — 19.2 km · 1417 m ascent · 5h 34m moving · 31 August 2024

Data from Strava.

Classifications & hill data

Is Great Carrs a Wainwright?

Great Carrs is a Wainwright. It is also on the Birkett list, the Synge list, the Nuttall list and the Fellranger list.

Selected lists

785 m

Height

2,575 ft

In feet

NY 2707 0095

Grid ref

This is the summit’s grid reference. If you call from anywhere else, give your own position, not this one.

The summit is also a Birkett.

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 →

The view from Great Carrs

The 360° skyline from Great Carrs

A computed 360° skyline — every visible named top labelled by distance and bearing, from the terrain model in perfect clarity, not photographed. Drag to pan; reveal the far four-nations horizon.

drag to pan · arrow keys

The skyline as a list, by direction

North: Stybarrow Dodd (19 km), Watson's Dodd (20 km), Great Dodd (21 km), Crag Hill (21 km), Grisedale Pike (23 km), Knowe Crags (26 km), Skiddaw Lesser Man (27 km), Skiddaw Little Man (27 km), Gategill Fell Top (27 km), Blencathra (27 km), Skiddaw South Top (28 km), Skiddaw Middle Top (28 km), Skiddaw (28 km), Skiddaw North Top (28 km)
North-east: Fairfield (14 km), Dove Crag (14 km), Hart Crag (14 km), Dollywaggon Pike (14 km), High Crag (15 km), Nethermost Pike (15 km), Helvellyn (16 km), Helvellyn Lower Man (16 km), White Side (17 km), Raise (18 km), High Street (20 km), Rampsgill Head (21 km), High Raise (22 km)
South: Brim Fell (2 km)
North-west: Crinkle Crags South Top (4 km), Crinkle Crags (4 km), Crinkle Crags (4 km), Crinkle Crags (5 km), Crinkle Crags (5 km), Bowfell (6 km), Esk Pike (7 km), Ill Crag (8 km), Scafell Pike (8 km), Broad Crag (8 km), Scafell (8 km), Great End (9 km)

On the clearest days the far horizon adds: Snowdon (161 km, Wales), Carnedd Llewelyn (149 km, Wales), Aran Fawddwy (183 km, Wales), Snaefell (88 km, Isle of Man), Moel Siabod (157 km, Wales), South Barrule (104 km, Isle of Man), Slieve Croob (185 km, Ireland), Yr Eifl (181 km, Wales).

Computed from Copernicus GLO-30 terrain; distant tops from the Database of British and Irish Hills v18.4 (opens in new tab) (CC BY 4.0). See how we compute the view · and the summit intervisibility report below.

Sunrise and sunset on Great Carrs

Great Carrs catches the sun before the valley does. On not one of the sixteen dates modelled does this summit wait for first light — the eastern horizon falls away rather than standing over you, and at midsummer the light reaches it 3 minutes before almanac sunrise.

Midsummer. The filled shape is the skyline as seen from the summit; the line is the sun’s path. Where they meet is first light — everything left of that point is the wait.

Times for 2026, in Lakeland clock time (GMT in winter, BST in summer) — and model outputs rather than observations.
	First light	Almanac sunrise	Difference
Midsummer	04:35 BST ±5.0 min	04:38	-3 min
Equinox	06:13 GMT ±5.0 min	06:16	-3 min
Midwinter	08:27 GMT ±5.0 min	08:32	-5 min

A low, open northern horizon — the ground falls away northwards (mean 0.09°).

Last light — when the sun leaves Great Carrs

The evening here runs close to the flat-horizon case. Even on its earliest evening of the modelled year (on 1 July) last light is only 11 minutes before almanac sunset, so the published sunset time is a fair guide on Great Carrs.

The evening of the same three days. A negative difference means a ridge takes the sun before the valley loses it.
	Last light	Almanac sunset	Difference
Midsummer	21:49 BST ±5.0 min	21:52	-3 min
Equinox	18:32 GMT ±5.0 min	18:26	+6 min
Midwinter	15:58 GMT ±5.0 min	15:50	+8 min

These are daylight figures, not a descent plan: the light goes on fading for a good while after the sun leaves, and going down in it is a decision about your own ground and party, not about this table.

What you can see from Great Carrs

On a clear day — computed sightlines, curvature- and refraction-corrected.

100Wainwrights in view+9 marginal

161 kmFurthest sightlineSnowdon (Yr Wyddfa) · possible under favourable refraction

1Sea in viewIrish Sea

On the clearest days the view reaches across to Wales and the Isle of Man.

Far horizons

Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) WalesSSW · 161 km clear
Carnedd Llewelyn WalesSSW · 145 km clear
Snaefell Isle of ManW · 88 km clear
Ingleborough Yorkshire DalesESE · 54 km clear
Cross Fell North PenninesNE · 53 km clear
Whernside Yorkshire DalesESE · 50 km clear
Irish Sea open waterWSW · 44 km in view

All 100 Wainwrights in clear view (nearest first)

Swirl How, Grey Friar, Wetherlam, Brim Fell, Cold Pike, The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man), Dow Crag, Pike of Blisco, Hard Knott, Crinkle Crags - Long Top (Second Crinkle), Lingmoor Fell (Brown How), Harter Fell (Eskdale), Bowfell, Loft Crag, Pike of Stickle, Harrison Stickle, Rossett Pike, Thunacar Knott, Pavey Ark, Slight Side, Esk Pike, Blea Rigg, Silver How, Sergeant Man, Scafell Pike, Scafell, Great End, High Raise (High White Stones), Loughrigg Fell, Tarn Crag (Easedale), Glaramara, Helm Crag, Gibson Knott, Nab Scar, Illgill Head, Heron Pike (Rydal), Steel Fell (Dead Pike - Steel Fell), Stone Arthur, Ullscarf, Rosthwaite Fell - Bessyboot, Whin Rigg (Wasdale), Low Pike, Great Rigg, Seat Sandal, High Pike (Scandale), Middle Fell, Great Crag (Stonethwaite), Fairfield, Baystones (Wansfell), Dove Crag, Hart Crag, Dollywaggon Pike, Nethermost Pike, Seatallan, Dale Head, Middle Dodd, Grange Fell (Brund Fell), Sour Howes, Helvellyn, Hindscarth, Sallows, White Side, Yoke, Hartsop Dodd, Ill Bell, Raise, Froswick, Thornthwaite Crag, Bleaberry Fell, Gray Crag, Stybarrow Dodd, Watson's Dodd, High Street, Mardale Ill Bell, The Knott (High Street), Sail, Kentmere Pike, Rest Dodd, Scar Crags, Great Dodd, Shipman Knotts, Rampsgill Head, Lank Rigg, Kidsty Pike, High Raise (High Street), Clough Head, Grisedale Pike, Tarn Crag (Sleddale), Grey Crag (Sleddale Fell), Lonscale Fell, Dodd (Skiddaw), Skiddaw Little Man, Carl Side, Blencathra - Hallsfell Top, Long Side, Ullock Pike, Skiddaw, Bannerdale Crags, Knott, Binsey

How the view from Great Carrs compares with all 214 — the View Report: every Wainwright ranked by what you can see from the top.

How the skyline, light and sightlines are computed

Computed, not photographed. First light is the first minute the sun’s upper limb clears this summit’s own skyline and last light the last minute it is still clear of it, both solved against the 360° horizon profile behind The View from Great Carrs. Almanac sunrise and sunset are the flat-horizon convention. Every time carries a ± band from the 30 m elevation model — it smooths arêtes and cornices, so nothing here claims better than five minutes.

Sightlines from the Copernicus GLO-30 elevation model, which is a surface model: each 30 m cell holds the top of whatever stands there, trees and buildings included, rather than bare ground. Corrected for the Earth’s curvature and average atmospheric refraction. “Distant” sightlines and any over 100 km depend on exceptionally clear air. Modelled from Copernicus GLO-30 open elevation data — a guide to the view, not a guarantee of any single one.

Places to stay near this fell

From Wrynose Pass: 2 places in Grasmere

Frequently asked questions about Great Carrs

Is Great Carrs dangerous?

Not on our routes over it, but it has a genuine trap. The western slopes are gentle grass and give no hint of what happens on the other side: the eastern face falls away abruptly in crags and steep ground. A fell that feels this benign underfoot is exactly the sort where a drift in cloud matters.

Our shorter round over it is 10.9 km with 822 m of ascent, and we grade the navigation hard. Keep west of the edge when you cannot see, and it is a straightforward high fell. That edge is right by the summit, where the ground drops suddenly in crags and steep scree into the Greenburn corrie — the aircraft memorial sits on this very brink.

Questions from Google’s “People also ask”. · Last updated 2026-08-30 · Suggest a question or correction (opens in new tab)

Great Carrs

Summit conditions on Great Carrs

Wind on the top

Routes up Great Carrs

How hard is Great Carrs?

Conditions and 7-day summit forecast

Parking & buses for Great Carrs

Parking

Buses

Hazards on Great Carrs

Hazard & Incident Information for Great Carrs

A note on Church Beck (with Red Dell Beck & Levers Water)

Navigating in cloud

If you need Mountain Rescue

Map, GPX and nearby Birketts

Birketts within 3 km of Great Carrs

Routes over Great Carrs

On the hill: terrain and water on Great Carrs

Water & shelter on the way up

About Great Carrs

Field notes

My Strava hikes over Great Carrs

Classifications & hill data

Is Great Carrs a Wainwright?

Selected lists

The view from Great Carrs

The 360° skyline from Great Carrs

Sunrise and sunset on Great Carrs

Last light — when the sun leaves Great Carrs

What you can see from Great Carrs

Places to stay near this fell

Frequently asked questions about Great Carrs

Other fells near Great Carrs