High Scarth
High Scarth (487 m / 1,598 ft) is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells), one of the lesser-known Southern tops.
Is it worth going? — Today’s conditions & 7-day summit forecast
Modelled guidance for the 487 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
On the summit today (Fri 11 Sep): 12° to 9°C, gusts to 29 mph, 2.0 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 487 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.
High Scarth at a glance
Getting there
Classifications & hill data
The short answers
Is High Scarth a Wainwright?
High Scarth is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list and the Synge list.
Where do you park for High Scarth?
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.
Routes up High Scarth
No route guide for this fell yet. The nearest routes we publish start close by:
- Alternative Hardknott Round (Green Crag, Harter Fell & Hard Knott) — starts 3.3 km away
- Slight Side & Sca Fell — starts 3.8 km away
- Scafell Pike from Wasdale, by Lingmell Col — starts 4.5 km away
Parking & buses for High Scarth
Best parking to hike High Scarth
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 High Scarth by bus
The nearest bus stop we hold is the 516 at Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel (at), 11.0 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 High Scarth
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: Roadside parking for Horsehow Crags north, about 3.0 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.
Birketts near High Scarth (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.
On the hill: terrain and water on High Scarth
Terrain & access
A pathless top (about 487 m) — the nearest mapped path is about 506 m away, the open ground you’d cross to the summit (about 117 m of ascent, up to ~42°). There is steep ground (over 30°) on the direct line — pick your line with care. 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.
Other fells near High Scarth
- Allen Crags
- Black Fell
- Bowfell
- Brim Fell
- Cold Pike
- Crinkle Crags - Long Top (Second Crinkle)
- Dow Crag
- Esk Pike
- Glaramara
- Great Carrs
- Great End
- Green Crag
- Grey Friar
- Hard Knott
- Harter Fell (Eskdale)
- Holme Fell
- Illgill Head
- Lingmell
- Lingmoor Fell (Brown How)
- Pike of Blisco
- Rossett Pike
- Rosthwaite Fell - Bessyboot
- Scafell
- Scafell Pike
- Seathwaite Fell (Wainwright summit)
- Slight Side
- Swirl How
- The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man)
- Wetherlam
- Whin Rigg (Wasdale)