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420 m · Outlying Fell — Around Penrith · Birketts to bag nearby, parking, buses, my hikes and live summit weather.

Outlying Fell — Around PenrithAlso a Birkett

Harper Hills

Harper Hills at 420m (1,378ft) is an Outlying Fell above the Lowther valley east of Shap, giving views across the limestone country towards the Pennines and back west to the Haweswater fells.

420 m
Height
+5
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX → Parking & buses →
420 mOutlying Fell — Around Penrith✓ summit is also a Birkett+5 bonus Birketts within 3 km

Is it worth going? — Today’s conditions & 7-day summit forecast

Modelled guidance for the 420 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Fri 11 Sep): 14° to 10°C, gusts to 23 mph, 2.1 mm of rain forecast.

Fri 11 Sep
🌦️
14° / 10°
💨 23 mph
🌧 2.1 mm (98%)
Sat 12 Sep
🌧️
16° / 10°
💨 42 mph
🌧 11.2 mm (100%)
Sun 13 Sep
🌦️
14° / 7°
💨 16 mph
🌧 0.3 mm (26%)
Mon 14 Sep
🌦️
16° / 8°
💨 29 mph
🌧 4.6 mm (94%)
Tue 15 Sep
🌦️
15° / 9°
💨 33 mph
🌧 0.8 mm (77%)
Wed 16 Sep
☁️
13° / 9°
💨 27 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (59%)
Thu 17 Sep
🌦️
13° / 10°
💨 34 mph
🌧 0.6 mm (76%)

Forecast snapshot from 11 Sep 2026, 08:30 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 420 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.

Harper Hills at a glance

Harper Hills

Harper Hills at 420m (1,378ft) is an Outlying Fell above the Lowther valley east of Shap, giving views across the limestone country towards the Pennines and back west to the Haweswater fells. Wainwright included it in his Outlying Fells guide as part of the Around Penrith group. A quiet moorland fell in pleasant pastoral country.

Routes up Harper Hills

Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.

Classifications & hill data

Outlying Fell
Around Penrith
Birkett
Synge
420 m
Height
1,378 ft
In feet
NY 5094 1424
Grid ref

The short answers

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.

Where do you park for Harper Hills?

The nearest car park we hold is Langhowe Pike North Top (layby), about 1.2 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Hugh's Laithes Pike (verge), 1.4 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 Harper Hills?

The shortest way up we hold is West of Wet Sleddale - Birketts — 23.8 km, 856 m of ascent, about 6.2 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is length — Severe.

All axes: length: Severe · steepness: Hard · exposure: Moderate · navigation: Moderate · terrain: Moderate.

Parking & buses for Harper Hills

Best parking to hike Harper Hills

Where we have the data, each parking spot also shows the nearest public toilets and facilities (cafés, pubs, shops).

Langhowe Pike North Top (layby) — 1.2 km from summit (straight line)
1.0 km from Langhowe Pike North Top.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
If it is full: Scalebarrow Knott (layby) (2.9 km, 113 m up)
Hugh's Laithes Pike (verge) — 1.4 km from summit (straight line)
0.3 km from Hugh's Laithes Pike. Gravel lane parking at the road side; Lee added the OSM feature himself.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Naddle Farm Top car park — 1.9 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: Naddle Farm Top (Naddle Horseshoe - 3) (0.9 km), Hugh's Laithes Pike (1.1 km), Pinnacle Howe (1.2 km). Fee not verified — check signage on arrival.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Scalebarrow Knott (layby) — 2.4 km from summit (straight line)
0.9 km from Scalebarrow Knott.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Brown Howe, north-west (layby) — 3.4 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: Brown Howe (Mardale) (0.9 km), Castle Crag (Mardale) (1.0 km), Hare Shaw (1.9 km). Free (OSM-tagged). Ground surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?

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 Harper Hills by bus

The nearest bus stop we hold is the UB2 at Askham, outside Stores, 14.9 km of walking from the start — not realistically reachable without a car. This looks like a seasonal service. Our timetable data has the UB2 stopping on 1 November 2026, but we haven’t confirmed that with the operator — so treat it as a reason to check rather than a date to plan around.

Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.

Hazards on Harper Hills

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

Free mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap (switch layers top-right). Parking positions are approximate.

Nearest parking: Langhowe Pike North Top (layby), about 1.2 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Harper Hills (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.

0.9 km SSWPowleys Hill465 m · Far Eastern
1.0 km NWNaddle Low Forest426 m · Far Eastern
2.5 km SSEGlede Howe476 m · Far Eastern
2.7 km NWFour Stones Hill415 m · Far Eastern
2.7 km NNWPinnacle Howe383 m · Far Eastern

Routes over Harper Hills

23.82 km · ~856 m ascent · loop · ~6–8 h

⬇️ Download GPX

⚠️ Warnings: 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.

Full route guide ↗

✎️ 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.

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, with a last stretch of open ground (about 0 m of ascent, up to ~0°). 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; Copernicus GLO-30. See the terrain & access report for how this is worked out across all 144 fells.

Places to stay near this fell

New Ing Lodge (opens in new tab)

about 4.2 km from the start, in a straight line

The only property in this cluster that answers the family questions from its own copy: family ensuite rooms, free parking, overnight laundry, an EV charger, a play area and a licensed bar, all in Shap village where the shop and the chippy are. It also scales down to camping from GBP 8 a night, so a party arriving late off Wet Sleddale without a room booked still has something. Ranked first on that, not on distance - it is 0.49 km further from the start than the Bothy but is the one that can take a family with a car and wet kit.

The whole lodge can be taken over on exclusive hire from GBP 500 a night, sleeping up to 30, with a sauna and hot tub, games room and firepit - a running club from Marsden books it for the same annual weekend every year.

  • Dogs “Stayed for 3 nights as a family with a German shephard in a family room, spotless, large and comfortable to say the least.”
  • Family rooms “Family Ensuite Rooms Double Ensuite Rooms FULLY LICENSED BAR Overnight Laundry Free Parking”
  • Evening meal “The staff can't help enough and the food is perfect!Log burner in the common room hits the spot every night.”
  • Parking “FULLY LICENSED BAR Overnight Laundry Free Parking GARDEN AREA PLAY AREA”

Shap Fell Bothy (opens in new tab)

about 4.7 km from the start, in a straight line

It is the only bed on this side of the start - on Shap Fell by the A6 rather than in the village - and it is the one place here that states a dog policy outright, in one sentence. It suits a self-sufficient pair or a group taking the whole building; it is emphatically not a wet-arrival option, because there is no running water, the toilet is a Portaloo in the side yard and the sleeping floor is upstairs. Ranked second not on distance but because the family who cannot cook for themselves cannot use it.

The bothy is a converted telephone repeater station, standing at 1,390 ft on Shap Fell with no neighbours for miles; the roof windows are there for star-gazing because the horizon is exceptionally low and wide and there is almost no light pollution.

  • Dogs “Dogs are welcome.”
  • Family rooms “The Bothy accommodates up to 8 people. In the upstairs there are 4 futon mattresses for the first 4 people to sleep on; additional guests can make use of the upstairs seating cushions or bring their own lilos, carrymats etc.”
  • Parking “Two very large lay-bys for ample parking within 70 yards.”
  • Children “The property is completely off-grid i.e. it is not connected to the electricity grid and has no running water.”

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 Harper Hills