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

Birkett — Southern (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Great How - Eskdale Fell

At 522 m (1,713 ft), Great How - Eskdale Fell is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells) in the Western Fells — an overlooked summit away from the crowds.

522 m
Height
+7
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX → Parking & buses →
522 mBirkett — Southern (not a Wainwright summit)+7 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 522 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Fri 11 Sep): 12° to 9°C, gusts to 29 mph, 2.0 mm of rain forecast.

Fri 11 Sep
🌦️
12° / 9°
💨 29 mph
🌧 2.0 mm (100%)
Sat 12 Sep
🌧️
14° / 10°
💨 48 mph
🌧 50.0 mm (100%)
Sun 13 Sep
🌦️
13° / 8°
💨 21 mph
🌧 0.4 mm (74%)
Mon 14 Sep
🌧️
15° / 8°
💨 33 mph
🌧 18.7 mm (96%)
Tue 15 Sep
🌧️
14° / 8°
💨 32 mph
🌧 13.2 mm (100%)
Wed 16 Sep
🌦️
11° / 9°
💨 34 mph
🌧 6.0 mm (96%)
Thu 17 Sep
🌦️
11° / 8°
💨 38 mph
🌧 11.6 mm (98%)

Forecast snapshot from 11 Sep 2026, 08:30 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 522 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.

Great How - Eskdale Fell at a glance

Great How - Eskdale Fell

At 522 m (1,713 ft), Great How - Eskdale Fell is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells) in the Western Fells — an overlooked summit away from the crowds. It rises the upper Esk valley. The name combines great (Old English great, great or larger), and how (Old Norse haugr, a hill or rounded mound), and fell (Old Norse fjall, a mountain or hill). It also features on the Fellranger, Synge lists. Its nearest tops are Eskdale Fell - Whinscales (0.7 km S); Dawsonground Crags (1.4 km SE); Slight Side (1.6 km NE) — 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.

Getting there

🅿️ Wha House, Eskdale (NT, free)
Upper Eskdale - Slight Side, Harter Fell and the Scafell approaches.
🅿️ Goat Crag (layby)
Walking base for Green Crag, Harter Fell (Eskdale) and Hard Knott — the 'Alternative Hardknott Round (Green Crag, Harter Fell & Hard Knott)' route starts 25 m away. Free (OSM-tagged). Grass surface (OSM-tagged).

Full parking & bus details ↓

Right now on the summit

🌦️ 12°low 9°C
Gusts29 mph

Full 7-day summit forecast →

Classifications & hill data

Birkett
Fellranger
Synge
522 m
Height
1,713 ft
In feet
NY 1974 0399
Grid ref

The short answers

Is Great How - Eskdale Fell a Wainwright?

Great How - Eskdale Fell is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list, the Synge list and the Fellranger list.

Where do you park for Great How - Eskdale Fell?

We hold no car park within 2.5 km of the summit, so there is no short walk-in to recommend here. 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.

Routes up Great How - Eskdale Fell

No route guide for this fell yet. The nearest routes we publish start close by:

Parking & buses for Great How - Eskdale Fell

Best parking to hike Great How - Eskdale Fell

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

Wha House, Eskdale (NT, free) — 3.1 km from summit (straight line)
Upper Eskdale - Slight Side, Harter Fell and the Scafell approaches.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Goat Crag (layby) — 3.1 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Green Crag, Harter Fell (Eskdale) and Hard Knott — the 'Alternative Hardknott Round (Green Crag, Harter Fell & Hard Knott)' route starts 25 m away. Free (OSM-tagged). Grass surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Goat Crag, south-east (layby) — 3.2 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Green Crag, Harter Fell (Eskdale) and Hard Knott — the 'Alternative Hardknott Round (Green Crag, Harter Fell & Hard Knott)' route starts 204 m away. Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Roadside parking for Horsehow Crags south (free) — 3.3 km from summit (straight line)
Approx 8 spaces. 1.1 km from Horsehow Crags. Added from the 5 Aug 2026 OSM candidate review.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Horsehow Crags (layby) — 3.4 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: Horsehow Crags (0.8 km), Border End (1.2 km), Demming Crag (1.2 km). Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
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 Great How - Eskdale Fell by bus

The nearest bus stop we hold is the 516 at Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel (at), 12.0 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 Great How - Eskdale Fell

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: Wha House, Eskdale (NT, free), about 3.1 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Great How - Eskdale Fell (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 SEskdale Fell - Whinscales425 m · Southern
1.4 km SSEDawsonground Crags397 m · Southern
1.7 km SWhin Crag (Eskdale)358 m · Southern
1.8 km ENEHigh Scarth487 m · Southern
2.3 km SSEGoat Crag312 m · Southern
2.4 km ESilverybield Crag395 m · Southern
3.0 km EThrostlehow Crag404 m · Southern

On the hill: terrain and water on Great How - Eskdale Fell

Terrain & access

A pathless top (about 522 m) — the nearest mapped path is about 626 m away, the open ground you’d cross to the summit (about 40 m of ascent, up to ~23°). The summit is on CRoW open access land.

Computed from open data, not walked — pathless ground needs confident navigation, and mapped paths, barriers and access boundaries can be incomplete. Data © OpenStreetMap contributors (via Overpass); Natural England CRoW Access Land; DoBIH; Copernicus GLO-30. See the terrain & access report for how this is worked out across all 144 fells.

Other fells near Great How - Eskdale Fell