⛰️ Great How (Thirlmere)

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

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333 mBirkett — Eastern (not a Wainwright summit)+9 bonus Birketts within 3 km

📖 Key Information

Great How at 391m (1,283ft) above Thirlmere is a small wooded summit in the Wythburn valley, its rocky top giving views across Thirlmere reservoir. Distinct from the Southern Fells' Great How, this is a Birkett fell in the lower country east of the reservoir. The ascent from the Thirlmere shore is short through pleasant woodland and scrub.

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.

1.2 km NECastle Rock339 m · Eastern
1.3 km WNWThe Benn (Sippling Crag)446 m · Eastern
1.4 km WCastle Crag (Shoulthwalte)404 m · Eastern
1.4 km NWren Crag311 m · Eastern
1.7 km SEBrown Crag610 m · Eastern
2.6 km SSWFisher Crag421 m · Central
2.8 km NNWHigh Rigg (High Rigg South Top)343 m · Eastern
2.9 km NELittle Dodd (St John's Common)785 m · Eastern
2.9 km NECalfhow Pike660 m · Eastern

⚠️ Hazard & Incident Information

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🦶 My hikes over Great How (Thirlmere) (Strava)

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🅿️ Potential parking

Legburthwaite (United Utilities, small) — 0.9 km from summit (straight line)
St John's in the Vale — Sticks Pass side, High Rigg, Raven Crag.
Directions ↗
Swirls, Thirlmere (paid) — 1.9 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

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Other fells in this region

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