Hesk Fell
Hesk Fell at 478m (1,568ft) is a Birkett fell in the West Cumbria group above the Esk estuary and Ravenglass, its open summit giving views across the coastal plain and out to sea.
Is it worth going? — Today’s conditions & 7-day summit forecast
Modelled guidance for the 478 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 28 mph, 0.6 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 478 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.
Hesk Fell at a glance
Routes up Hesk Fell
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
Classifications & hill data
The short answers
Is Hesk Fell a Wainwright?
Hesk Fell is one of Wainwright's Outlying Fells, not one of the 214 in the Pictorial Guides. It is also on the Birkett list, the Synge list and the Fellranger list.
Where do you park for Hesk Fell?
The nearest car park we hold is Hesk Fell (verge), about 1.4 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Informal pull-in on the Birker Fell road (roadside gravel patches only), 2.4 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 Hesk Fell?
The shortest way up we hold is Ulpha Birketts — 15.9 km, 719 m of ascent, about 4.4 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is navigation — Hard.
All axes: navigation: Hard · steepness: Hard · length: Hard · exposure: Moderate · terrain: Moderate.
Parking & buses for Hesk Fell
Best parking to hike Hesk Fell
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 Hesk Fell by bus
The nearest bus stop we hold is the 505 at Coniston, outside The Ruskin Centre, 13.4 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 Hesk Fell
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: Hesk Fell (verge), about 1.4 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.
Birketts near Hesk Fell (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 Hesk Fell
✎️ 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.