⛰️ Great Dodd

857 m · Wainwright — Eastern Fells · Birketts to bag nearby, parking, buses, my hikes and live summit weather.

Home › Sitemap › Great Dodd

857 mWainwright — Eastern Fells✓ summit is also a Birkett+9 bonus Birketts within 3 km

📖 Key Information

Great Dodd at 857m (2,811ft) is the highest of the northern Dodds, a broad, grassy summit at the head of the Matterdale valley that Wainwright described as a fell of more interest than its rounded outline suggests — the views north to the Pennines and south along the full Helvellyn ridge are outstanding. The summit is usually reached from Dockray via the pleasant ridge walk over Clough Head and Watson's Dodd, or from Sticks Pass. A good viewpoint fell in its own right, though overshadowed by its more dramatic southern neighbours. The approach over the northern Dodds makes for an excellent full-day ridge walk.

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

🎯 Bonus Birketts 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.

0.5 km WSWLittle Dodd (St John's Common)785 m · Eastern
0.9 km NERanderside729 m · Eastern
1.3 km WNWCalfhow Pike660 m · Eastern
2.1 km SSEGreen Side (White Stones - Green Side)794 m · Eastern
2.2 km WSWCastle Rock339 m · Eastern
2.4 km ESEBirkett Fell725 m · Eastern
2.6 km WWren Crag311 m · Eastern
2.7 km ENEHigh Brow575 m · Eastern
2.8 km NNWThrelkeld Knotts514 m · Eastern

⚠️ Hazard & Incident Information

Loading incident data…

🦶 My hikes over Great Dodd (Strava)

Loading hike data…

🅿️ Potential parking

Legburthwaite (United Utilities, small) — 2.7 km from summit (straight line)
St John's in the Vale — Sticks Pass side, High Rigg, Raven Crag.
Directions ↗
Swirls, Thirlmere (paid) — 4.1 km from summit (straight line)
The standard west-side route up Helvellyn via Browncove Crags.
Directions ↗

Positions are approximate — zoom the map to confirm. Lakeland car parks fill before 9am on fine weekends.

🚌 Buses from Penrith / Ambleside / Windermere

Stagecoach 555
Kendal – Staveley – Windermere – Ambleside – Rydal – Grasmere – Thirlmere (Wythburn & Swirls) – Keswick
Catch it from: Windermere · Ambleside
Year-round, roughly hourly. The backbone bus of the A591 — ideal for Helvellyn (Wythburn/Swirls), Fairfield, the Central fells and anything around Grasmere/Rydal. From Penrith, take the X4/X5 to Keswick and change.

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

🌦️ 7-day summit forecast

Loading…

Other fells in this region

Open Great Dodd in the interactive explorer ↗