High Crag (Buttermere) Hiking Guide & Routes

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745 mWainwright — Western Fells✓ summit is also a Birkett+7 bonus Birketts within 3 km

📖 Key Information

High Crag at 744m (2,441ft) is the south-eastern anchor of the Buttermere ridge, its dramatic Gamlin End providing the steepest descent in the three-peak circuit. Wainwright described the ascent from Scarth Gap via Gamlin End as one of the best ridge approaches in the Western Fells — steep, direct and immediately rewarding with views of Haystacks opposite. The traverse from High Crag to High Stile and Red Pike via the Buttermere ridge is one of the classic full-day walks in the western Lake District.

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

🎯 Bonus Birketts 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.

0.8 km SESeat561 m · Western

1.3 km NWHigh Stile (Grey Crag - High Stile)806 m · Western

1.9 km SSWPillar Rock780 m · Western

2.3 km SSELooking Stead (Pillar)628 m · Western

2.4 km NWDodd (Buttermere)641 m · North Western

2.7 km SSWBlack Crag828 m · Western

3.0 km NNEHigh Snockrigg526 m · North Western

⚠️ Hazard & Incident Information

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🦶 My hikes over High Crag (Buttermere) (Strava)

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🅿️ Potential parking

Gatesgarth Farm, Buttermere (paid) — 1.8 km from summit (straight line)

Farm car park at the foot of Haystacks, Fleetwith Pike and the High Stile ridge.

Directions ↗

Buttermere village (NT, paid) — 3.0 km from summit (straight line)

For Red Pike, High Stile, Robinson, Rannerdale Knotts.

Directions ↗

Positions are approximate — zoom the map to confirm. Lakeland car parks fill before 9am on fine weekends.

🚌 Buses from Penrith / Ambleside / Windermere

Stagecoach 77 / 77A “Honister Rambler”

Keswick – Portinscale – Hawse End (Catbells) – Grange – Seatoller – Honister Pass – Buttermere – Lorton – Whinlatter – Keswick (circular)

Catch it from: Keswick (connect via 555 from Windermere/Ambleside or X4/X5 from Penrith)

Seasonal (roughly Easter–October). Brilliant for the North Western fells: Catbells, Dale Head from Honister, the Buttermere fells and Whinlatter.

Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com or Traveline before relying on a last bus.

🌦️ 7-day summit forecast

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⛰️ High Crag (Buttermere)