Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)
Hobcarton Crag at 738m (2,420ft) is the rocky spur above the Hobcarton valley between Grisedale Pike and Hopegill Head, its crags giving the Coledale Horseshoe much of its character. Most naturally part of the Coledale Horseshoe circuit between Grisedale Pike and Hopegill Head.
Summit conditions on Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)
On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 10° to 4°C, gusts to 67 mph, 8.2 mm of rain forecast over the whole day, midnight to midnight.
The forecast figures are Open-Meteo’s, worked out for the summit’s height. How we check →
Routes up Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)
Choose the way up before the car park: these two routes start from two places, and the last two rows give the parking and bus at each route’s own start. Full maps further down.
| Compared | Coledale Round | Birketts around Grisedale Pike |
|---|---|---|
| Starts from | Whinlatter Pass road car park (above Braithwaite) | Whinlatter - Forestry Commission Car Park |
| Distance and climb | 16.13 km, 1,277 m of climb | 11.7 km, 750 m of climb |
| Time, fast to steady | ~5¼–7¼ h | ~3½–5 h |
| Scrambling | Hands for a few steps: near the top of Grisedale Pike (km 3.1–3.6). Grisedale Pike's upper climb is steep and craggy — you'll want hands on rock near the top. | Easy scramble: the scramble up Hopegill Head from Sand Hill and the down-climb off its north-west ridge (km 4.9–5.8). Dip briefly from Sand Hill into a tiny rocky depression before tackling the short, sharp, hands-on scramble up the blocky slabs to reach the sensational, airy summit peak of Hopegill Head. |
| Exposure | Hard | Not assessed |
| Navigation | Hard | Moderate |
| Steepest stretch | Climb of about 32% at 3.3 km (Hard) | Climb of about 27% at 1.7 km (Hard) |
| After the summit | Over Hopegill Head, Sand Hill, Crag Hill (Eel Crag), Sail, Outerside, Stile End and Barrow | Over Sand Hill, Hopegill Head, Ladyside Pike and Swinside |
| Walked or planned | Walked by Lee, May 2026 | Planned: drawn, not yet walked |
| Car park at the start | Kinn car park | Whinlatter Visitor Centre (paid) |
| Bus to the start | 77, 720 m walk from Braithwaite, at Croft Terrace | 77 at the start. The 77A runs until 1 November 2026, the last day of its season. Seasonal: the 77 does not run all year. 1 November 2026 is its last day. |
Times run from fast to steady pace (Naismith’s rule). Scrambling quotes each route’s own notes; “not mentioned” means they do not say, not that the ground has none. Each route’s page has its map, stages and GPX.
Distance, climb and the steepest stretch are measured from each route’s GPX track; the other grades are set on the ground, judged from the map or estimated from OpenStreetMap, and each route page says which. How we check →
How hard is Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)?
The shortest way up we hold is Birketts around Grisedale Pike — 11.7 km, 750 m of ascent, ~3½–5 h. On our scale its hardest axis is steepness — Hard.
All axes: steepness: Hard · length: Moderate · navigation: Moderate · terrain: Not assessed · exposure: Not assessed.
These are the route page’s grades, set by the rules on how we grade: length and steepness measured from its GPX track, the others set on the ground, judged from the map or estimated from OpenStreetMap. The route page says which. How we check →
Conditions and 7-day summit forecast
Modelled for the 738 m summit (Open-Meteo). Check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
Full 7-day forecast
Taken 27 October 2026, 08:13 UTC; the live forecast replaces it when it loads. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (opens in new tab)
Parking & buses for Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)
Parking
Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.
3 more places to park near Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)
Positions are approximate.
Vehicles are left at their owner’s risk: we list places people park and cannot vouch for any of them. Take valuables with you and leave nothing on show.
Buses
The 77 and 77A stop at Whinlatter, in Visitors Centre, a 90 m walk from the start of Birketts around Grisedale Pike — a route we rate Hard overall (hardest: steepness). The 77A runs until 1 November 2026, the last day of its season. Seasonal: the 77 does not run all year. 1 November 2026 is its last day. It returns on 22 March 2027. Confirmed with the operator: its last day on 29 August 2026, its return on 16 October 2026. The last bus is 17:56 towards Keswick (77A) and 16:45 towards Cockermouth (77), every day. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 12 September 2026; that timetable runs to 1 November 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.
Getting there across the Lake District: Buses · Parking map · By train · By boat
Hazards on Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)
Notes from the Coledale Round route
- 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.
- 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.
If you need to get off (the leg from Grisedale Pike): No confirmed way off leaves this stage directly; continue to the signed path junction beyond Hobcarton Crag and descend towards Coledale Hause, or retrace the ridge over Grisedale Pike to Braithwaite if conditions allow.
Quoted from the route page: its warnings and the note for the leg that reaches Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head).
We have not written a hazard card for this fell yet, and that is not a sign that it is low-hazard. Read the warnings on the route pages that climb it, check the forecast, carry a map and compass, and turn back in cloud if the ground is not what you expected. The National Park Authority’s What to pack page, AdventureSmart’s hill walking kit list and Mountain Rescue England and Wales’s safety page are linked from our what to carry guide.
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. In Environment Agency samples taken near our route Coledale Round between 2007 and 2026, no sample put lead or cadmium, the metals that matter for people, above the drinking limit. That is a record of past sampling, not a test of the water today. Treat any hill water before drinking (an ordinary hiking 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).
If you need Mountain Rescue
Dial 999 or 112 and ask for the Police, then Mountain Rescue.
Before you call, have ready: where you are (a grid reference if you can – the OS Locate app shows yours on your phone), what has happened, how many of you there are, and your mobile number.
Then stay where you are until the rescue team contacts you.
If you cannot make a voice call because of a hearing or speech impairment, emergency SMS works only if you have registered first: text “register” to 999.
From Mountain Rescue England and Wales’s guidance on calling them out (opens in new tab) (read 26 October 2026).
Map, GPX and nearby Birketts
Skip mapFree mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap, with SRTM elevation data (switch layers top-right).
Parking, toilets and buses: Parking & buses ↑.
Birketts within 3 km of Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)
These Birkett tops are not Wainwright summits. Distances are straight lines: check the ground and access on a map before adding one.
Routes over Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)
Download GPX Planned route · not yet walked
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: the start is about 720 m and 87 m of climb up the road from the Croft Terrace stop.
Download GPX Walked by Lee, May 2026
Every line here is a guide, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate for yourself and carry a map and compass. How to use this guide.
On the hill: terrain and water on Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)
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. 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 v18.4 (CC BY 4.0); Copernicus GLO-30. CRoW access layer: © Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. See the terrain & access report for how this is worked out across all 144 fells.
Water & shelter on the way up
On the Birketts around Grisedale Pike route:
On the Coledale Round route:
Treat water from the fell before you drink it. A mapped point is not proof the water is drinkable, so carry your own or use a supply you know is safe. Never drink untreated from a beck, stream or tarn — even clear-looking hill water can carry giardia or cryptosporidium from livestock upstream and leave you seriously ill. Use a treatment method suited to what might be in the water, and follow the device’s own instructions. Boiling and ordinary filters do not make water with dissolved metals or chemicals safe: where that is possible, choose another source.
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.
About Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)
My Strava hikes over Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)
1 logged hike pass over this summit:
- My knees didn't like that (opens in new tab) — 19.0 km · 1421 m ascent · 5h 33m moving · 16 May 2026
Data from Strava.
Classifications & hill data
Is Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head) a Wainwright?
Hobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head) is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list, the Synge list, the Nuttall list and the Hewitt list.
Selected lists
This is the summit’s grid reference. If you call from anywhere else, give your own position, not this one.
Lists, height and summit position from the Database of British and Irish Hills; the feet are converted from its metres and the grid reference from that position. How we check →
Places to stay near this fell
From the Whinlatter Pass road car park (above Braithwaite) start
- Crow Park Hotel (opens in new tab) hotelabout 3.4 km
- Lincoln House Bed & Breakfast (opens in new tab) guest houseabout 3.4 km
- Linnett Hill (opens in new tab) guest houseabout 3.7 km
- Elm Tree Lodge (opens in new tab) guest houseabout 3.8 km
- Acorn Self Catering (opens in new tab) guest houseabout 3.8 km
- George Cottage (opens in new tab) self-cateringabout 3.8 km
- Watendlath Guest House (opens in new tab) guest houseabout 3.9 km
From the Whinlatter - Forestry Commission Car Park start
- Croftlands Cottages (opens in new tab) guest houseabout 1.9 km
- Dancing Gate Cottage (opens in new tab) self-cateringabout 4.2 km
- High Swinside Holiday Cottages (opens in new tab) guest houseabout 3.9 km
Worth knowing before you book
These places state on their own site that they do not take children.
- Abacourt House Bed & Breakfast (opens in new tab)
- Swiss Court Guest House (opens in new tab)
- Sunnyside Guest House (opens in new tab)
- Goodwin House (opens in new tab)
- Herdwick Guest House (opens in new tab)
- Hedgehog Hill (opens in new tab)
- Dolly Waggon (opens in new tab)
- Glencoe (opens in new tab)
- Allerdale House (opens in new tab)
From Whinlatter: 7 places in Keswick
We have not stayed at any of them. We take no bookings or affiliate fees. Distances are straight lines from each route start, never walking times. Properties found via OpenStreetMap (opens in new tab).