Hart Crag
Hart Crag at 822m (2,697ft) is the rocky summit at the northern end of the Fairfield ridge above Dovedale, giving excellent views down the crag-girt hollow of Dovedale to Hartsop and Brothers Water below.
Is it worth going? — Today’s conditions & 7-day summit forecast
Modelled guidance for the 823 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
On the summit today (Sat 12 Sep): 12° to 6°C, gusts to 47 mph, 32.6 mm of rain forecast.
Forecast snapshot from 12 Sep 2026, 15:36 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 823 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.
Hart Crag at a glance
Hart Crag
Field notes
Most of the autobagging software gives me this peak. But to be honest, at the time I had no idea of anything of bagging, or its mechanics. I was just up there for the journey. The purists amongst you would have fair claim to say that I haven't. I'll just have to go up there again to enjoy the rocky peak and cobbled-together cairn.Routes up Hart Crag
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
Classifications & hill data
The short answers
Is Hart Crag a Wainwright?
Hart Crag is a Wainwright. It is also on the Birkett list, the Synge list, the Nuttall list and the Fellranger list.
Where do you park for Hart Crag?
We hold no car park within 2.5 km of the summit, so there is no short walk-in to recommend here. 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.
My hikes over Hart Crag (Strava)
1 logged hike pass over this summit:
- Bit of a hike in the Lake District (opens in new tab) — 23.0 km · 1488 m ascent · 6h 13m moving · 3 Apr 2023
Interactive route maps and photos load here for visitors with JavaScript. Data from Strava.
Parking & buses for Hart Crag
Best parking to hike Hart Crag
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 Hart Crag by bus
The 508 stops at Hartsop, opposite Cow Bridge, 30 m from the start of Hartsop Fells and Hart Crag. The last bus is 19:51 towards Windermere (508) and 15:14 towards Hartsop (509), every day. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 7 September 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.
Hazards on Hart Crag
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.
Navigating Hart Crag in cloud
SevereA rough, rocky summit ringed by crags, with no single obvious way off in poor visibility. A serious place to be caught in cloud: carry map and compass (or GPS) and know how to use them, or save it for a clear day.
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 Hart Crag compares with all 214 — the Clag Index: navigating in cloud. A relative, deliberately cautious guide; the site can’t navigate for you.
Map & nearby Birketts
Skip mapFree mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap (switch layers top-right). Parking positions are approximate.
Nearest parking: High Hartsop Dodd (layby), about 3.4 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.
Birketts near Hart Crag (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 Hart Crag
A planned line is a suggestion, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate independently and carry a map & compass. How to use this guide.
A planned line is a suggestion, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate independently and carry a map & compass. How to use this guide.
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 Hart Crag
Water & shelter on the way up
On the Fairfield Horseshoe route:
On the Hartsop Fells and Hart Crag route:
On the Long Hike to Fairfield from Ambleside route:
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.
The view from Hart Crag
The 360° skyline from Hart Crag
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.
What you can see from Hart Crag, by direction
- North: Raise (7 km), Green Side (8 km), Stybarrow Dodd (8 km), Great Dodd (10 km), Gategill Fell Top (17 km), Atkinson Pike (18 km)
- East: Thornthwaite Crag (6 km), High Street (7 km), Rampsgill Head (8 km), Kidsty Pike (8 km), High Raise (8 km)
- South-west: Shelter Crags (13 km), Crinkle Crags (13 km), Crinkle Crags (13 km), Crinkle Crags (13 km), Crinkle Crags (14 km), Crinkle Crags South Top (14 km), Great Carrs (14 km), Swirl How (14 km), Brim Fell (16 km), The Old Man of Coniston (16 km)
- West: Bowfell (13 km), Esk Pike (14 km), Great End (14 km), Ill Crag (15 km), Broad Crag (15 km), Green Gable (15 km), Great Gable (16 km), Scafell Pike (16 km), Scafell (17 km), Kirk Fell (17 km), Pillar (20 km), Pillar Rock (20 km), Black Crag (20 km), Red Pike (20 km), Scoat Fell (21 km)
- North-west: High Crag (4 km), Nethermost Pike (4 km), Helvellyn (5 km), White Side (6 km)
On the clearest days the far horizon adds: Snowdon (174 km, Wales), Carnedd Llewelyn (162 km, Wales), Aran Fawddwy (196 km, Wales), Moel Siabod (170 km, Wales), The Cheviot (122 km, England), Arenig Fawr (182 km, Wales), Yr Eifl (194 km, Wales), Craig Cwm Silyn (182 km, Wales).
Computed from terrain in perfect clarity, not photographed · distances are straight-line.
Computed from Copernicus GLO-30 terrain; distant tops from the Database of British and Irish Hills (opens in new tab) (CC BY 4.0). See how we compute the view · and the summit intervisibility report below.
Sunrise and sunset on Hart Crag
Hart Crag catches the sun before the valley does. On not one of the sixteen dates modelled does this summit wait for first light — the eastern horizon falls away rather than standing over you, and at midsummer the light reaches it 5 minutes before almanac sunrise.
| First light | Almanac sunrise | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midsummer | 04:32 BST ±5.0 min | 04:37 | -5 min |
| Equinox | 06:14 GMT ±5.0 min | 06:15 | -1 min |
| Midwinter | 08:29 GMT ±5.0 min | 08:32 | -3 min |
A low, open northern horizon — the ground falls away northwards (mean -0.09°).
Last light — when the sun leaves Hart Crag
Hart Crag loses the sun early. Its earliest evening of the modelled year falls on 1 May, when last light is 20 minutes before almanac sunset — 20:26 against 20:46. The sun goes down to the west-north-west from here (294.3°), and the skyline on that bearing stands at 2.31°.
| Last light | Almanac sunset | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midsummer | 21:44 BST ±5.0 min | 21:52 | -8 min |
| Equinox | 18:28 GMT ±5.0 min | 18:26 | +2 min |
| Midwinter | 15:55 GMT ±5.0 min | 15:49 | +6 min |
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 Hart Crag. 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. 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 Hart Crag
On a clear day — computed sightlines, curvature- and refraction-corrected.On the clearest days the view reaches across to Wales.
- Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) Wales
- Carnedd Llewelyn Wales
- Ingleborough Yorkshire Dales
- Whernside Yorkshire Dales
- Great Dun Fell North Pennines
- Cross Fell North Pennines
- Morecambe Bay bay/estuary
All 79 Wainwrights in clear view (nearest first)
Fairfield, Great Rigg, Hartsop Above How (Gill Crag - Hartsop Above How), St Sunday Crag, Little Hart Crag (Little Hart Crag - West Top), High Hartsop Dodd, Heron Pike (Rydal), Birks, Middle Dodd, Nethermost Pike, Red Screes, Nab Scar, Hartsop Dodd, Arnison Crag, Helvellyn, Catstye Cam, Brock Crags (Wainwright), Angletarn Pikes (Angletarn Pikes North Top), Gray Crag, Silver How, Thornthwaite Crag, Loughrigg Fell, Raise, Tarn Crag (Easedale), Place Fell, Rest Dodd, The Knott (High Street), Froswick, High Street, Blea Rigg, Rampsgill Head, Ill Bell, The Nab, Stybarrow Dodd, Kidsty Pike, High Raise (High Street), Yoke, Hart Side, Sergeant Man, Beda Fell (Beda Head), Pavey Ark, Lingmoor Fell (Brown How), Harter Fell (Mardale), Thunacar Knott, Harrison Stickle, Great Dodd, Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts), Black Fell, Pike of Stickle, Kentmere Pike, Wether Hill, Loadpot Hill, Gowbarrow Fell (Wainwright summit), Shipman Knotts, Holme Fell, Pike of Blisco, Glaramara, Wetherlam, Cold Pike, Bowfell, Arthur's Pike, Allen Crags, Crinkle Crags - Long Top (Second Crinkle), Esk Pike, Little Mell Fell, Great Carrs, Swirl How, Great End, Green Gable, Great Gable, Scafell Pike, Brim Fell, The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man), Scafell, Kirk Fell, Harter Fell (Eskdale), Red Pike (Wasdale), Carrock Fell, Seatallan
How Hart Crag’s view compares with all 214 — the View Report: every Wainwright ranked by what you can see from the top.
Sightlines from a bare-earth terrain model (forests and buildings not included), 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.
Places to stay near this fell
From Rydal: 6 places in Ambleside · From Ambleside or Grasmere: 3 places
Frequently asked questions about Hart Crag
Is Hart Crag hard?
Rough and rocky near the top rather than technically hard. Hart Crag sits between Fairfield and Dove Crag on the high eastern skyline, and the ordinary ways up it are steep pulls on stony ground rather than anything needing hands.
Our shortest round over it is the Hartsop fells, 11.9 km with 765 m of ascent, with steepness graded severe. Taken as part of the Fairfield Horseshoe it is 16.9 km and 925 m, which we rate Moderate.
Questions drawn from real Google “People also ask” searches; answers written and fact-checked by us. · Reviewed 2026-08-30 · Suggest a question or correction (opens in new tab)
Other fells near Hart Crag
- Arnison Crag
- Birkhouse Moor
- Birks
- Catstye Cam
- Clough Head
- Dollywaggon Pike
- Dove Crag
- Fairfield
- Glenridding Dodd
- Gowbarrow Fell (Wainwright summit)
- Great Dodd
- Great Mell Fell
- Great Rigg
- Hart Side
- Hartsop Above How (Gill Crag)
- Helvellyn
- Heron Pike (Rydal)
- High Hartsop Dodd
- High Pike (Scandale)
- Little Hart Crag (West Top)
- Little Mell Fell
- Low Pike
- Middle Dodd
- Nab Scar
- Nethermost Pike
- Raise
- Red Screes
- Seat Sandal
- Sheffield Pike
- St Sunday Crag
- Stone Arthur
- Stybarrow Dodd
- Watson's Dodd
- White Side