Great Whinscale
At 427 m (1,401 ft), Great Whinscale is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells) in the Southern Fells — an overlooked summit away from the crowds.
Is it worth going? — Today’s conditions & 7-day summit forecast
Modelled guidance for the 427 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
On the summit today (Fri 11 Sep): 13° to 10°C, gusts to 27 mph, 1.1 mm of rain forecast.
Forecast snapshot from 11 Sep 2026, 08:30 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 427 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.
Great Whinscale at a glance
Routes up Great Whinscale
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
Classifications & hill data
The short answers
Is Great Whinscale a Wainwright?
Great Whinscale is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list.
Where do you park for Great Whinscale?
The nearest car park we hold is Wha House, Eskdale (NT, free), about 2.0 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Goat Crag, south-east (layby), 2.3 km out. 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 Whinscale?
The shortest way up we hold is Green Crag & Great Whinscale — the wild Birker Fell round — 11.9 km, 478 m of ascent, about 3.2 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is steepness — Hard.
All axes: steepness: Hard · navigation: Moderate · exposure: Moderate · length: Moderate · terrain: Moderate.
Parking & buses for Great Whinscale
Best parking to hike Great Whinscale
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 Whinscale by bus
The nearest bus stop we hold is the 505 at Coniston, outside The Ruskin Centre, 17.3 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 Whinscale
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: Wha House, Eskdale (NT, free), about 2.0 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.
Birketts near Great Whinscale (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 Whinscale
✎️ Park on the verge at the Devoke Water turning on the Birker Fell road between Ulpha and Eskdale — a narrow, remote fell road, so come prepared and don't rely on a phone signal. It's a long walk in across open moor to the first top.
✎️ 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
Worth knowing before you book
These places state on their own site that they do not take children.
- YHA Eskdale (opens in new tab) “Under 12s are not permitted in dorm rooms.”
What each place says about itself, quoted from their own site. We have not stayed at any of them, and there are no prices, no booking and no affiliate links. Distances are straight lines from each route start, never walking times. Properties found via OpenStreetMap (opens in new tab).
Other fells near Great Whinscale
- 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)