Great How (Swirl Band)
775 m · Birkett — Southern (not a Wainwright summit) · Birketts to bag nearby, parking, buses and live summit weather.
Is it worth going? — Today’s conditions & 7-day summit forecast
Modelled guidance for the 775 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
On the summit today (Sat 12 Sep): 13° to 6°C, gusts to 50 mph, 42.3 mm of rain forecast.
Forecast snapshot from 12 Sep 2026, 18:50 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 775 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.
Getting there
Routes up Great How (Swirl Band)
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
Classifications & hill data
The short answers
Is Great How (Swirl Band) a Wainwright?
Great How (Swirl Band) is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list and the Synge list.
Where do you park for Great How (Swirl Band)?
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.
How hard is Great How (Swirl Band)?
The shortest way up we hold is Black Sails & Great How — 10.8 km, 773 m of ascent, about 3.4 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is steepness — Severe.
All axes: steepness: Severe · navigation: Hard · exposure: Hard · length: Moderate · terrain: Moderate.
My hikes over Great How (Swirl Band) (Strava)
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 Aug 2024
Interactive route maps and photos load here for visitors with JavaScript. Data from Strava.
Parking & buses for Great How (Swirl Band)
Best parking to hike Great How (Swirl Band)
Where we have the data, each parking spot also shows the nearest public toilets and facilities (cafés, pubs, shops).
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 (Swirl Band) by bus
The 517 stops at Little Langdale, outside Three Shires Inn. From there it is 4.6 km and 352 m of ascent to the start of Black Sails & Great How — a walk in before the walk. We haven’t published last buses, Sunday or winter service yet, so check the timetable before you rely on getting back.
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.
Hazards on Great How (Swirl Band)
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
Skip mapFree mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap (switch layers top-right). Parking positions are approximate.
Nearest parking: Hell Gill Pike (verge), about 2.6 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.
Birketts near Great How (Swirl Band) (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.
Routes over Great How (Swirl Band)
✎️ 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
From Wrynose Pass: 2 places in Grasmere
Other fells near Great How (Swirl Band)
- Allen Crags
- Black Fell
- Bowfell
- Brim Fell
- Cold Pike
- Crinkle Crags - Long Top (Second Crinkle)
- Dow Crag
- Esk Pike
- Glaramara
- Great Carrs
- Great End
- Green Crag
- Grey Friar
- Hard Knott
- Harter Fell (Eskdale)
- Holme Fell
- Illgill Head
- Lingmell
- Lingmoor Fell (Brown How)
- Pike of Blisco
- Rossett Pike
- Rosthwaite Fell - Bessyboot
- Scafell
- Scafell Pike
- Seathwaite Fell (Wainwright summit)
- Slight Side
- Swirl How
- The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man)
- Wetherlam
- Whin Rigg (Wasdale)