Harper Hills
Harper Hills at 420m (1,378ft) is an Outlying Fell west of Shap, on the moorland between Swindale and Haweswater, with views east towards the Pennines and back west to the Haweswater fells.
Summit conditions on Harper Hills
On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 12° to 7°C, gusts to 51 mph, 12.1 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 Harper Hills
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
Nine tops on the empty Shap fells — Seat Robert, High Wether Howe, Nabs Moor, Selside Pike and Hare Shaw among them — in 23.8 km with 912 m of climbing. Severe for length; about 6¼–8½ hours.
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 Harper Hills?
The shortest way up we hold is West of Wet Sleddale - Birketts — 23.82 km, 912 m of ascent, ~6¼–8½ h. On our scale its hardest axis is distance — Severe.
All axes: length: Severe · steepness: Hard · terrain: Hard · navigation: Moderate · 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 420 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 Harper Hills
Parking
Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.
3 more places to park near Harper Hills
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 nearest bus stop we hold is the UB2 at Askham, outside Stores, 14.9 km of walking from the start — no bus route we hold serves it. It is a seasonal service too: 1 November 2026 is its last day of the year (confirmed with the operator, 9 October 2026); it returns on 22 March 2027.
Getting there across the Lake District: Buses · Parking map · By train · By boat
Hazards on Harper Hills
Notes from a planned route, not walked: West of Wet Sleddale - Birketts
- Classic Shap-fells going: faint trods, tussock and peat with long pathless stretches. The straight sections of the plotted line are bearings, not paths — carry map and compass and expect to weave.
If you need to get off (the leg from Powleys Hill): Retreat: The way back is the way you came. We have not checked a line down into Mosedale from this ridge, so none is offered here.
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 Harper Hills.
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 Harper Hills
These Birkett tops are not Wainwright summits. Distances are straight lines: check the ground and access on a map before adding one.
Routes over Harper Hills
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 Harper Hills
Terrain & access
A near-path top (about 420 m): a mapped path comes within about 61 m of the summit. We have not checked a way from it to the top: the figures here are measured along a straight line on a terrain model, not a route. That line climbs about 0 m. The summit is on CRoW open access land.
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. CRoW access layer: © Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. See the terrain & access report for how this is worked out across all 144 fells.
About Harper Hills
Classifications & hill data
Is Harper Hills a Wainwright?
Harper Hills is one of Wainwright's Outlying Fells, not one of the 214 in the Pictorial Guides. It is also on the Birkett list and the Synge list.
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 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 →
Places to stay near this fell
- New Ing Lodge (opens in new tab)about 4.2 km
- Shap Fell Bothy (opens in new tab)about 4.7 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).