766 mWainwright — Eastern Fells+2 bonus Birketts within 3 km Fewer traps in Clag
Great Rigg at 766m (2,514ft) is the subsidiary summit on the Fairfield Horseshoe between Fairfield and Heron Pike, a broad ridge top looking down the Rydal valley to the wooded country south towards Ambleside.
Summit conditions on Great Rigg
On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 10° to 4°C, gusts to 57 mph, 16.5 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
68mph, our estimate for the open top in the worst daylight hour
The Met Office 2 km model’s gust of 55 mph times our exposure factor of 1.24. The summit line above gives Open-Meteo’s highest gust for the whole day, 57 mph, before any exposure factor.
under 25
25–35
35–45
45–55
55+
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.
Rain, and the becks
Past the line
16.5mm of rain over the whole day, midnight to midnight
The same figure as the summit line above and the 7-day forecast.
The line Our line: 6 mm in the day, where our scorer counts a day as soaking. We read rainfall, never river levels: becks in spate.
Open-Meteo’s forecast. It says nothing about rain already in the ground.
Also checkedcold: feels like −1 °C, no ice or snow forecast; cloud: a clear-top reading of 21 out of 100, over our in-cloud line of 20. 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
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 →
Choose the way up before the car park: these two routes start from two places, and the last two rows give the parking and bus at each route’s own start. Full maps further down.
Hands for a few steps: High Pike and Low Pike, and a short down-climb by Sweden Crag above Low Sweden Bridge (km 9.4–12.2 and km 13.1–13.5). A little easy scrambling in places, but nothing obligatory.
Hands for a few steps: rocky steps between Dove Crag and Hart Crag (km 10.0–11.4).
Exposure
Hard
Hard
Navigation
Hard
Hard
Steepest stretch
Climb of about 30% at 1.3 km (Hard)
Descent of about 28% at 18.6 km (Hard)
After the summit
Over Fairfield, Hart Crag, Dove Crag, High Pike (Scandale) and Low Pike
Over Heron Pike North Top (Rydal Fell), Heron Pike (Rydal) and Nab Scar
Walked or planned
Walked by Lee, April 2023
Walked by Lee, April 2023
Car park at the start
Pelter Bridge, Rydal (paid)
Ambleside, Lake Road (paid)
Bus to the start
555, 2.3 km walk from Rydal, at White Moss Common
555, 340 m walk from Ambleside, at Hayes Garden 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 →
Is Great Rigg a hard walk?
No — on its own it is a simple grassy rise, and there is nothing on it that needs hands. Almost nobody climbs it alone: it is the shoulder between Heron Pike and Fairfield, and you meet it in the middle of a bigger day.
That day is the measure of it. The Fairfield Horseshoe from Rydal is 16.9 km with 1009 m of ascent and we rate it Hard; the long version from Ambleside over Red Screes is 22.4 km and 1425 m, Severe for length. The care needed is at the far end: Fairfield’s flat top is a well-known trap in cloud, with steep drops to the north. Take your bearing before you leave it.
Ambleside, Lake Road (paid) — 0.2 km from the start of Long Hike to Fairfield from Ambleside (straight line)
South end of town towards Waterhead. Fees: pay and display (Lake District National Park car-parks directory, checked August 2026). 1h £2.60; 2h £4.40; 3h £5.80; 4h £7.40; 6h £8.80; all day £10.60. Early Bird: £1.40 all day if you arrive before 09:00. Motorcycles free. Blue Badge: +1h free. Cash/card/contactless; PayByPhone 9908. 3/7-day passes and permits accepted (W&F council, checked August 2026). Charges apply 08:00-20:00, 7 days a week incl. bank holidays. The council's own page is contradictory about access outside those hours - it says both open all day and open from 8am to 8pm - so do not count on getting in before 08:00 (W&F council, checked August 2026).
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, 516 and 555 stop at Ambleside, at Hayes Garden Centre, a 340 m walk from the start of Long Hike to Fairfield from Ambleside — a route we rate Severe overall (hardest: distance). Last bus: Monday to Friday 22:43 towards Grasmere (555) and 20:29 towards Keswick (555); Saturday 22:43 towards Grasmere (555) and 20:29 towards Keswick (555); Sunday 19:09 towards Grasmere (555) and 18:15 towards Keswick (555). Checked against the operator’s timetable, 7 September 2026; that timetable runs to 1 November 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.
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.
A little easy scrambling in places, but nothing obligatory.
If you need to get off (the leg from Heron Pike North Top): At about 5.5 km, some 200 m before Great Rigg, a sharp left doubles back to the rocky top of Stone Arthur and down to Grasmere; the descent is steep and bracken-covered. Nearer Rydal Fell, the way off is back to Heron Pike and west down to Grasmere.
Quoted from the route page: its warnings and the note for the leg that reaches Great Rigg.
We have not written a hazard card for this fell yet, and that is not a sign that it is low-hazard. Read the warnings on the route pages that climb it, check the forecast, carry a map and compass, and turn back in cloud if the ground is not what you expected. The National Park Authority’s What to pack page, AdventureSmart’s hill walking kit list and Mountain Rescue England and Wales’s safety page are linked from our what to carry guide.
Navigating in cloud
Fewer traps in cloud
Of the three things our terrain model measures, the highest reading here is the amount of walkable ground near the summit that lies close to steep ground or crag. This top is in the lowest of the index’s four bands, and a low band never means “safe”: 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 Rigg 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.
Best season: Any season in good conditions; save the broad, featureless summit for a clear day.
Warnings: Fairfield's broad summit plateau is confusing in cloud — carry a map and compass and take a bearing before descending. A little easy scrambling in places, but nothing obligatory.
Warnings:Red Screes: The summit plateau drops away into steep, loose scree and crags on more than one side. A simple slip near the edge — especially in wind, cloud or with tired legs on descent — can turn into a long, uncontrolled fall over broken ground. Keep back from the rim and don't shortcut down the screes. Fairfield: Featureless and flat, with steep ground on three sides; in mist it is very easy to walk off on the wrong bearing. A compass and the discipline to trust it are essential — don't rely on cairns.
Photo: Mick Knapton at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The summit is usually passed without pausing on the popular Fairfield Horseshoe circuit, but those who linger are rewarded with excellent views of Windermere and the distant sea. A descent from here by Stone Arthur ends in Grasmere, not back at Rydal where our horseshoe starts; we have not mapped that line.
Field notes
Many would have bagged Great Rigg without knowing as the pass through on their route around the Fairfield Horseshoe. But I'm sure it was AW himself that said something about always remember to look behind you as you climb Lakeland fells as there's always a view worth having towards where you've come from - and it's no different with Great Rigg with that stunning view down the length of Windermere.
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 Rigg
The 360° skyline from Great Rigg
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.
East: Dove Crag (2 km), Red Screes (4 km), Rampsgill Head (9 km), High Raise (10 km), Harter Fell (10 km)
South-west: Crinkle Crags (12 km), Shelter Crags (12 km), Crinkle Crags (12 km), Crinkle Crags (12 km), Crinkle Crags (12 km), Crinkle Crags South Top (12 km), Great Carrs (13 km), Swirl How (13 km), Brim Fell (15 km), The Old Man of Coniston (15 km)
West: Bowfell (12 km), Esk Pike (12 km), Great End (13 km), Ill Crag (14 km), Broad Crag (14 km), Green Gable (14 km), Scafell Pike (14 km), Great Gable (14 km), Scafell (15 km), Pillar (18 km), Pillar Rock (18 km), Black Crag (19 km), Red Pike (19 km), High Stile (19 km), High Stile (19 km), Scoat Fell (20 km), Steeple (20 km)
North-west: Crag Hill (19 km), Eel Crag (20 km), Grisedale Pike (20 km), Grasmoor (21 km)
On the clearest days the far horizon adds: Snowdon (173 km, Wales), Carnedd Llewelyn (161 km, Wales), Aran Fawddwy (194 km, Wales), Moel Siabod (169 km, Wales), Cairnsmore of Carsphairn (116 km, Scotland), Corserine (115 km, Scotland), Arenig Fawr (181 km, Wales), Yr Eifl (193 km, Wales).
Great Rigg sits close to the flat-horizon case. Even on its longest wait of the modelled year (on 1 June) first light is only 15 minutes after almanac sunrise, so the published sunrise time is a fair guide here.
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
04:37 BST ±5.0 min
04:37
—
Equinox
06:19 GMT ±5.0 min
06:15
+4 min
Midwinter
08:29 GMT ±5.0 min
08:32
-3 min
The northern horizon stands at about 1.88° from here.
Last light — when the sun leaves Great Rigg
The evening here runs close to the flat-horizon case. Even on its earliest evening of the modelled year (on 1 March) last light is only 6 minutes before almanac sunset, so the published sunset time is a fair guide on Great Rigg.
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
21:59 BST ±5.0 min
21:52
+7 min
Equinox
18:26 GMT ±5.0 min
18:26
—
Midwinter
15:55 GMT ±5.0 min
15:49
+6 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 Rigg
On a clear day — computed sightlines, curvature- and refraction-corrected.
95Wainwrights in view+11 marginal
173 kmFurthest sightlineSnowdon (Yr Wyddfa) · possible under favourable refraction
2Sea in viewSolway Firth, Morecambe Bay
On the clearest days the view reaches across to Wales and Scotland.
How the view from Great Rigg 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 Rigg. 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.
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