Hampsfell (Wainwright summit)
Hampsfell's Wainwright summit, at 220m (722ft), is at the famous Hospice — a stone shelter built in 1846 for the use of walkers — on the fine limestone fell above Grange-over-Sands, whose open top gives outstanding views of Morecambe Bay, the Lakeland fells and the Pennines.
Summit conditions on Hampsfell (Wainwright summit)
On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 14° to 9°C, gusts to 40 mph, 1.6 mm of rain forecast over the whole day, midnight to midnight.
The forecast figures are Open-Meteo’s, worked out for the summit’s height. How we check →
Routes up Hampsfell (Wainwright summit)
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
Distance and climb are measured from the route’s GPX track, and the time from them by Naismith’s rule; the route page says what each grade rests on. How we check →
How hard is Hampsfell (Wainwright summit)?
The shortest way up we hold is Grange-over-Sands to Hampsfell — 5.31 km, 221 m of ascent, ~1¼–2 h. On our scale its hardest axis is navigation — Moderate.
All axes: navigation: Moderate · length: Easy · steepness: Easy · terrain: Not assessed · exposure: Not assessed.
These are the route page’s grades, set by the rules on how we grade: length and steepness measured from its GPX track, the others set on the ground, judged from the map or estimated from OpenStreetMap. The route page says which. How we check →
Conditions and 7-day summit forecast
Modelled for the 220 m summit (Open-Meteo). Check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
Full 7-day forecast
Taken 27 October 2026, 08:13 UTC; the live forecast replaces it when it loads. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (opens in new tab)
Parking & buses for Hampsfell (Wainwright summit)
Parking
Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.
3 more places to park near Hampsfell (Wainwright summit)
Positions are approximate.
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 530 and X6 stop at Grange-over-Sands, at Rail Station, a 190 m walk from the start of Grange-over-Sands to Hampsfell — a route we rate Moderate overall (hardest: navigation). As timetabled from 27 October to 1 November. Towards Clogger Beck (530): Tuesday to Friday 16:36 only. Towards Cartmel (530): Tuesday to Friday 15:16 only. Towards Ulverston (X6): Tuesday to Saturday 23:38; Sunday 18:59 to Ulverston St Mary's. Towards Kendal (X6): Tuesday to Saturday 22:41; Sunday 16:43. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 24 September 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.
By train: Grange-over-Sands station is 1.2 km on foot from the nearest parking for this fell (Hampsfell (layby)). We haven’t mapped a route up it from there, so we can’t tell you the walk to the start.
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.
Getting there across the Lake District: Buses · Parking map · By train · By boat
Hazards on Hampsfell (Wainwright summit)
Notes from a planned route, not walked: Grange-over-Sands to Hampsfell
- The line follows Windermere Road (B5271) for about 0.3 km near the start. OpenStreetMap does not record whether that stretch has a pavement.
- About 0.8 km of the line, in short pieces, follows paths and a service road that OpenStreetMap does not record as public rights of way. The longest are about 0.25 km on the way up near 1.2 km, and about 0.4 km of path, steps and service road coming back into the town between about 4.65 and 5.05 km. The rest is roads, lanes, public footpaths and a public bridleway. That is a map-data note, not a ruling on access: check the access land and rights of way maps before relying on this stretch. Most of this line follows the walk Cumbria County Council published in its leaflet ‘Hampsfell: A walk from Grange-over-Sands station’.
If you need to get off (the leg from Grange-over-Sands station): The map shows the line on town roads to about 0.45 km, then on public footpaths and short paths up to the top. The way off is back the way you came, never more than about 2.3 km to the station; not walked for this guide.
Quoted from the route page of a planned route, drawn from the map and not yet walked: its warnings and the note for the leg that reaches Hampsfell (Wainwright summit).
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.
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.
From Mountain Rescue England and Wales’s guidance on calling them out (opens in new tab) (read 26 October 2026).
Map, GPX and nearby Birketts
Skip mapFree mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap, with SRTM elevation data (switch layers top-right).
Parking, toilets and buses: Parking & buses ↑.
Birketts within 3 km of Hampsfell (Wainwright summit)
No bonus Birketts within 3 km.
Routes over Hampsfell (Wainwright summit)
A planned line, drawn by Lee as a course on the map; not yet walked. The station, the bus stop outside it and the station car park are all within about 70 m of the start.
Download GPX Planned route · not yet walked
Every line here is a guide, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate for yourself and carry a map and compass. How to use this guide.
On the hill: terrain and water on Hampsfell (Wainwright summit)
Terrain & access
A 220 m top with a mapped path to within about 3 m of the summit.
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 v18.4 (CC BY 4.0); Copernicus GLO-30. See the terrain & access report for how this is worked out across all 144 fells.
Water & shelter on the way up
On the Grange-over-Sands to Hampsfell route:
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.
Access on Hampsfell (Wainwright summit)
Access: the summit lies outside mapped open-access land (CRoW). A recorded right of way passes within 120 m of the summit, but we have not checked that it reaches the top itself — keep to rights of way, and check access before you go.
Local restrictions can close open-access areas temporarily — check the official open-access information (opens in new tab) before travelling.
How we worked out the access
Summit and approach positions are tested against Natural England’s CRoW Act 2000 access layer; rights of way and wall or fence detail come from OpenStreetMap. Both are open datasets with known gaps — in our own survey only 4 of 26 wall and fence crossings had a stile or gate mapped within 150 m — so absence of a mapped feature never means absence of a real one. Nothing here is field-verified unless marked, and none of it is legal advice. How we checked 377 fells.
Access land: © Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.
About Hampsfell (Wainwright summit)
Classifications & hill data
Is Hampsfell (Wainwright summit) a Wainwright?
Hampsfell (Wainwright summit) is one of Wainwright's Outlying Fells, not one of the 214 in the Pictorial Guides.
Selected lists
This is the summit’s grid reference. If you call from anywhere else, give your own position, not this one.
The summit is not a Birkett top.
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 →
Places to stay near this fell
- Kents Bank Holiday Cottage (opens in new tab) self-cateringabout 2.8 km
We have not stayed at any of them. We take no bookings or affiliate fees. Distances are straight lines from each route start, never walking times. Properties found via OpenStreetMap (opens in new tab).