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

Birkett — North Western (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)

Hobcarton Crag at 596m (1,955ft) is the rocky spur above the Hobcarton valley between Grisedale Pike and Hopegill Head, its crags giving the Coledale Horseshoe much of its character.

738 m
Height
+13
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX →

Home › Fells › Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)

Written and walked by Lee McCoy · Last reviewed

738 mBirkett — North Western (not a Wainwright summit)+13 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 738 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Tue 28 Jul): 14° to 12°C, gusts to 38 mph, 4.8 mm of rain forecast.

Tue 28 Jul
🌧️
14° / 12°
💨 38 mph
🌧 4.8 mm (99%)
Wed 29 Jul
🌧️
13° / 10°
💨 28 mph
🌧 14.0 mm (100%)
Thu 30 Jul
🌦️
12° / 4°
💨 29 mph
🌧 3.0 mm (87%)
Fri 31 Jul
🌤️
13° / 1°
💨 22 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (86%)
Sat 1 Aug
🌦️
13° / 4°
💨 15 mph
🌧 2.7 mm (82%)
Sun 2 Aug
☁️
14° / 4°
💨 17 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (35%)
Mon 3 Aug
🌦️
14° / 4°
💨 16 mph
🌧 0.4 mm (23%)

Forecast snapshot from 28 Jul 2026, 04:58 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 738 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

About the walk

Key information

Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)

Hobcarton Crag at 596m (1,955ft) is the rocky spur above the Hobcarton valley between Grisedale Pike and Hopegill Head, its crags giving the Coledale Horseshoe much of its character. Wainwright noted the dramatic valley views from the crag edge. Most naturally part of the Coledale Horseshoe circuit between Grisedale Pike and Hopegill Head. The views down into the Hobcarton valley from the crag rim are impressive.

Routes up Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)

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

Birketts around Grisedale Pike
11.7 km · ~3.3 hr
Coledale Round
16 km · ~5.1 hr · Hard
One of the great north-western horseshoes, and a properly big mountain day from Braithwaite. From the little car park tucked behind the trees on the Whinlatter Pass road — or straight off the bus — a steady wake-up climb leads up over Kinn and Sleet How before Grisedale Pike shows its hand: a steep, craggy pull the map never quite warns you about, with hands needed on rock near the top. From its rocky summit the round opens out — the airy ridge over Hobcarton Crag to Hopegill Head's tiny, wind-blown perch, the broad sweep to Crag Hill and Sail, then a long, satisfying horseshoe back over the quieter tops of Outerside, Stile End and Barrow. Six Wainwrights, a handful of Birkett tops, and some of the best ridge-walking in the Lakes for the effort.
Classifications & hill data
Birkett
Synge
Nuttall
738 m
Height
2,421 ft
In feet
NY 1938 2205
Grid ref

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Whinlatter Visitor Centre (paid), about 2.5 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head) (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.

0.7 km WSWSand Hill756 m · North Western
1.1 km NWLadyside Pike704 m · North Western
1.4 km SSWEel Crag (Birkett)807 m · North Western
1.4 km NHobcarton End634 m · North Western
1.5 km WGasgale Crags703 m · North Western
1.9 km WWhiteside East Top (Whiteside) (Gasgale Crags)719 m · North Western
2.5 km NWSwinside509 m · North Western
2.7 km SSWThirdgill Head Man734 m · North Western
2.7 km WNWDodd (Lorton)454 m · North Western
2.7 km EStile End447 m · North Western
2.8 km ENEKinn374 m · North Western
2.9 km NWhinlatter Top525 m · North Western
2.9 km SSEIll Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top)546 m · North Western

Routes over Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)

Birketts around Grisedale PikePlanned
11.7 km · ~598 m ascent · loop · ~3–4.5 h
Summits: Hobcarton EndGrisedale PikeHobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)Sand HillHopegill HeadLadyside PikeSwinside

⬇️ Download GPX

Full route guide ↗

✎️ 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.

Coledale RoundRevised
16.02 km · ~1108 m ascent · loop · ~5–7 h · Loop · Hard
Summits: KinnGrisedale PikeHobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)Hopegill HeadSand HillCrag Hill (Eel Crag)SailOutersideStile EndBarrow

✎️ The Whinlatter Pass road car park is small and tucked behind the trees — and the bus to Braithwaite makes this an easy car-free round, adding only a couple of hundred metres of road to reach the start.

⬇️ Download GPX

Best season: At its best in clear, settled weather — the airy sections and the broad Crag Hill plateau want good visibility, and they're exactly where care matters most. The lower path up from Braithwaite can be smothered in bracken at the height of summer; in firm winter conditions the Grisedale Pike climb and the exposed tops become a serious proposition for axe-and-crampon walkers only.

⚠️ Warnings: Grisedale Pike's upper climb is steep and craggy — you'll want hands on rock near the top. It's no place to be rushed, or to be in poor conditions.; Along Sand Hill and Hobcarton Crag, keep left in cloud: there's a sharp, rocky drop close on the right that's easy to drift towards.; Hopegill Head's summit is tiny and exposed — in a strong wind you may have to crouch to claim it.; Watch the short grassy ridge at Kinn; a careless step could slide you down the bank. Worth marking on the GPS.; Off Sail, take the switchback path down to the col — the alternative Long Comb line dropping to the right looked treacherous; avoid it.; High Moss is reliably boggy underfoot.

Full route guide ↗

A planned line is a suggestion, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate independently and carry a map & compass.

Terrain & access

A 738 m top with a mapped path to within about 9 m of the summit. 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 145 fells.

Best parking to hike Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)

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

Whinlatter Visitor Centre (paid) — 2.5 km from summit (straight line)
Forest centre — Lord's Seat, Barf, Whinlatter fells, Grisedale Pike's back route.
Directions
🚺 Whinlatter Forest Park Centre (120m) — Free☕ The Cottage in the Wood☕ Cafe Ambio
Lanthwaite Green (NT) — 3.6 km from summit (straight line)
At the foot of Grasmoor and Whiteside, Crummock Water.
Directions

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.

Water & shelter on the way up

On the Birketts around Grisedale Pike route:

💧 possible water source (42 m)🚌 Visitors Centre (53 m)

On the Coledale Round route:

🛖 map (25 m)⛺ Hope Memorial Camp (64 m)

💧 Treat water from the fell before you drink it. A mapped point is usually a tap or public supply, but never drink untreated from a beck, stream or tarn — even clear-looking hill water can carry giardia or cryptosporidium from livestock or a carcass upstream and leave you seriously ill. Run it through a filter or purifier (a LifeStraw, Sawyer Squeeze or HydraPak) or bring it to a rolling boil first.

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

Buses to Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head) 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.

My hikes over Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head) (Strava)

1 logged hike pass over this summit:

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

A note on Coledale Beck

Coledale Beck runs below the old Force Crag mine and carries mine-derived zinc — enough to matter for river life, though the lead and cadmium that would harm a person stay below the drinking limit here. Treat any hill water before drinking (a filter won’t remove dissolved metals); don’t single this beck out as a clean fill-up.

What’s actually in this beck — we mapped every mine-fed one →

Metal-mine water data © Environment Agency (Open Government Licence v3.0).

Other fells near Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)

Maps & guidebooks for Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)

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