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884 m · Birkett — Eastern (not a Wainwright summit) · Birketts to bag nearby, parking, buses, my hikes and live summit weather.

Birkett — Eastern (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

High Crag (Grisedale)

High Crag at 884m (2,900ft) is a dramatic Birkett top on the ridge between Nethermost Pike and St Sunday Crag above Grisedale in the Eastern Fells, its craggy character giving views into the wild upper Grisedale valley and across Ullswater.

884 m
Height
+3
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX → Parking & buses →

Home › Fells › High Crag (Grisedale)

Written and walked by Lee McCoy

884 mBirkett — Eastern (not a Wainwright summit)+3 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 884 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Sat 12 Sep): 12° to 5°C, gusts to 47 mph, 20.5 mm of rain forecast.

Sat 12 Sep
🌧️
12° / 5°
💨 47 mph
🌧 20.5 mm (100%)
Sun 13 Sep
🌦️
12° / 7°
💨 22 mph
🌧 0.1 mm (12%)
Mon 14 Sep
🌦️
13° / 10°
💨 36 mph
🌧 5.8 mm (100%)
Tue 15 Sep
🌦️
12° / 7°
💨 36 mph
🌧 7.8 mm (98%)
Wed 16 Sep
🌦️
9° / 6°
💨 28 mph
🌧 2.0 mm (54%)
Thu 17 Sep
🌦️
8° / 6°
💨 31 mph
🌧 11.4 mm (97%)
Fri 18 Sep
🌦️
9° / 6°
💨 33 mph
🌧 10.0 mm (92%)

Forecast snapshot from 12 Sep 2026, 15:36 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 884 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.

Pro mountain forecasts: MWIS · Met Office mountain forecast

High Crag (Grisedale) at a glance

High Crag (Grisedale)

High Crag at 884m (2,900ft) is a dramatic Birkett top on the ridge between Nethermost Pike and St Sunday Crag above Grisedale in the Eastern Fells, its craggy character giving views into the wild upper Grisedale valley and across Ullswater. Part of the high ground between Helvellyn and St Sunday Crag. A fine, airy position on one of Lakeland's classic high ridges.

Routes up High Crag (Grisedale)

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

Helvellyn & Nethermost Pike via Seat Sandal
15.7 km · ~5 hr
Helvellyn the steep way — 728 m of climbing inside the first 3.5 km at 21% average, before the ridge eases over Nethermost Pike and Dollywaggon Pike and comes back over Seat Sandal. At 1,121 m of ascent it is the biggest day of this group.

Classifications & hill data

Birkett
Synge
884 m
Height
2,900 ft
In feet
NY 3433 1366
Grid ref

The short answers

Is High Crag (Grisedale) a Wainwright?

High Crag (Grisedale) is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list and the Synge list.

Where do you park for High Crag (Grisedale)?

The nearest car park we hold is Wythburn Church, Thirlmere (paid), about 1.9 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Steel End, Thirlmere (paid), 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 High Crag (Grisedale)?

The shortest way up we hold is Helvellyn & Nethermost Pike via Seat Sandal — 15.7 km, 1121 m of ascent, about 5 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is steepness — Severe.

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

My hikes over High Crag (Grisedale) (Strava)

1 logged hike pass over this summit:

Interactive route maps and photos load here for visitors with JavaScript. Data from Strava.

Parking & buses for High Crag (Grisedale)

Best parking to hike High Crag (Grisedale)

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

Wythburn Church, Thirlmere (paid) — 1.9 km from summit (straight line)
Direct forest path up Helvellyn's south ridge (Comb Crags). Fees: Pay and display, pay by coin only (visitlakedistrict.com) (United Utilities, checked Aug 2026). Lee has parked here and recalls the machine taking coins, which agrees with United Utilities' own listing rather than the National Park directory's “cards only” - carry coins (Lee McCoy, recollection, recorded 12 Aug 2026).
Directions Something changed here?
🚺 Dob Gill Car Park (~957 m straight line) — Free
Steel End, Thirlmere (paid) — 2.4 km from summit (straight line)
South end of Thirlmere for the Wythburn valley and Armboth fells. Fees: pay and display (Lake District National Park car-parks directory, checked Aug 2026). Pay and display (visitlakedistrict.com); named as a UU Thirlmere car park on unitedutilities.com, which states no fee details (United Utilities, checked Aug 2026).
Directions Something changed here?
🚺 Dob Gill Car Park (~1169 m straight line) — Free
Roadside parking for Steel Fell (free) — 2.6 km from summit (straight line)
0.9 km from Steel Fell. Added from the 5 Aug 2026 OSM candidate review.
Directions Something changed here?
Dob Gill, Thirlmere (United Utilities, paid) — 2.8 km from summit (straight line)
West shore of Thirlmere - Harrop Tarn and Ullscarf. Fees: pay and display; coins and cards (LDNP directory, checked Aug 2026). Open Closed until Easter 2026; pedestrian access allowed (LDNP directory, checked Aug 2026). Pay and display (visitlakedistrict.com) (United Utilities, checked Aug 2026).
Directions Something changed here?
If it is full: Steel End, Thirlmere (paid) (1.4 km, 36 m up); Wythburn Church, Thirlmere (paid) (2.5 km, 97 m up)
Steel Fell (layby) — 2.9 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: Steel Fell (Dead Pike - Steel Fell) (1.0 km), Seat Sandal (1.5 km), Gibson Knott (1.7 km). Free (OSM-tagged).
Directions 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 High Crag (Grisedale) by bus

The 555 stops at Thirlmere, at Swirls car park, 280 m from the start of Helvellyn & Nethermost Pike via Seat Sandal. Last bus: Monday to Friday 21:01 towards Keswick (555); Saturday 21:01 towards Keswick (555); Sunday 18:52 towards Keswick (555). Checked against the operator’s timetable, 7 September 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.

Stagecoach 555
Kendal – Staveley – Windermere – Ambleside – Rydal – Grasmere – Thirlmere (Wythburn & Swirls) – Keswick
Catch it from: Windermere · Ambleside
Year-round, roughly hourly. The backbone bus of the A591 — ideal for Helvellyn (Wythburn/Swirls), Fairfield, the Central fells and anything around Grasmere/Rydal. From Penrith, take the X4/X5 to Keswick and change.

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

Hazards on High Crag (Grisedale)

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: Wythburn Church, Thirlmere (paid), about 1.9 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near High Crag (Grisedale) (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.

2.0 km NNWHelvellyn Lower Man924 m · Eastern
2.2 km SECofa Pike823 m · Eastern
3.0 km EGavel Pike784 m · Eastern

Routes over High Crag (Grisedale)

Helvellyn & Nethermost Pike via Seat SandalRevised
15.66 km · ~1121 m ascent · loop · ~5–6.5 h
Summits: HelvellynNethermost PikeHigh Crag (Grisedale)Dollywaggon PikeSeat Sandal

⬇️ Download GPX

Full route guide ↗

🥾 Walked in part — Lee walked this ground in July 2026; km 0.3–2.2, km 6.3–7.7, km 8.7–9.7 of this line are from the map.

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 High Crag (Grisedale)

Water & shelter on the way up

On the Helvellyn & Nethermost Pike via Seat Sandal route:

🛖 map (4 m)🚌 Swirls car park (68 m)

On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.

Places to stay near this fell

Dale Head Hall Lakeside Hotel hotel

about 0.7 km from the start, in a straight line

The nearest documented bed to the Swirls start at 0.70 km, and the only property in the cluster that publishes a room-by-room breakdown of what each family room actually sleeps - so a family can pick the room before it phones. Four of its sixteen rooms take a family, and two of those four are on the ground floor.

A 16th-century hall standing on its own on the Thirlmere shore, inside ground designated as a red squirrel reserve, with Helvellyn - the fell you are here to climb - rising directly behind it. It publishes its front door as a what3words address, CRACKS.DIAMOND.RESPECTED.

  • Family rooms “Room 6 Classic Family Room A warm, traditionally designed family room, with one double and two single beds.”
  • Children “This room can accommodate two extra single beds for a family.”

Fornside Farm Cottages guest house

about 3.8 km from the start, in a straight line

The only property in the cluster that solves a party of six AND an electric car in the same booking. Its four cottages sleep 4, 4, 6 and 6, each number published against a named cottage, and two of the four take up to two dogs - so a family of five with a dog knows exactly which door to knock on before it enquires.

A 17th-century Lakeland hill farm whose four cottages are barns adjoining a grade II listed farmhouse, heated by a ground source heat pump part-powered by solar panels, with a PodPoint car charger reserved for guests and a private farm trail through the farm's own woods and streams.

  • Family rooms “Swaledale Garth was converted from a barn adjoining our 17th century grade II listed farmhouse and sleeps up to six people (and up to two small-medium-sized and well behaved dogs).”

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.

Other fells near High Crag (Grisedale)