Honister Crag (Black Star)
At 634 m (2,080 ft), Honister Crag (Black Star) is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells) in the Western Fells — an overlooked summit away from the crowds.
Is it worth going? — Today’s conditions & 7-day summit forecast
Modelled guidance for the 634 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
On the summit today (Fri 11 Sep): 12° to 8°C, gusts to 28 mph, 0.7 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 634 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.
Honister Crag (Black Star) at a glance
Routes up Honister Crag (Black Star)
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
Classifications & hill data
The short answers
Is Honister Crag (Black Star) a Wainwright?
Honister Crag (Black Star) is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list, the Synge list and the Nuttall list.
Where do you park for Honister Crag (Black Star)?
The nearest car park we hold is Honister Crag (layby), about 0.7 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Honister Pass (paid, slate mine), 1.3 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 Honister Crag (Black Star)?
The shortest way up we hold is Black Star Brandreth and others — 9.2 km, 597 m of ascent, about 2.8 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is steepness — Severe.
All axes: steepness: Severe · navigation: Hard · exposure: Hard · length: Moderate · terrain: Moderate.
Parking & buses for Honister Crag (Black Star)
Best parking to hike Honister Crag (Black Star)
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.
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 Honister Crag (Black Star) by bus
The 77 stops at Honister Youth Hostel (near), 190 m from the start of Black Star Brandreth and others. Seasonal: the 77 does not run all year. 1 November 2026 is its last day, and it is not daily before then — a bus on 31 of the 56 days from 7 September. We don’t know when it returns. Confirmed with the operator, 29 August 2026. The last bus is 18:33 towards Keswick (77), every day. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 7 September 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.
Hazards on Honister Crag (Black Star)
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: Honister Crag (layby), about 0.7 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.
Birketts near Honister Crag (Black Star) (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.
Routes over Honister Crag (Black Star)
🥾 Walked in part — Lee walked this ground in April 2026; km 0.9–1.7, km 4.7–5.5 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 Honister Crag (Black Star)
Water & shelter on the way up
On the Black Star Brandreth and others route:
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.
Other fells near Honister Crag (Black Star)
- Base Brown
- Blake Fell
- Brandreth
- Buckbarrow
- Burnbank Fell
- Caw Fell
- Crag Fell
- Fellbarrow - Mosser Fell
- Fleetwith Pike
- Gavel Fell
- Great Borne
- Great Gable
- Green Gable
- Grey Knotts
- Grike
- Haycock
- Haystacks (Buttermere)
- Hen Comb
- High Crag (Buttermere)
- High Stile
- Kirk Fell
- Lank Rigg
- Low Fell
- Mellbreak (Mellbreak South Top)
- Middle Fell
- Pillar
- Red Pike (Buttermere)
- Red Pike (Wasdale)
- Scoat Fell (Little Scoat Fell)
- Seatallan
- Starling Dodd
- Steeple
- Yewbarrow