770 m · Wainwright — North Western Fells · Birketts to bag nearby, parking, buses, my hikes and live summit weather.
Wainwright — North Western FellsAlso a Birkett
Hopegill Head
Hopegill Head at 770m (2,526ft) is a pointed, airy summit above the head of the Hobcarton valley, its steep sides giving it a dramatic profile from the Whinlatter direction.
770 mWainwright — North Western Fells✓ summit is also a Birkett+11 bonus Birketts within 3 km🌫️ Care needed in cloud
Is it worth going? — Today’s conditions & 7-day summit forecast
Modelled guidance for the 770 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
On the summit today (Sat 12 Sep): 13° to 7°C, gusts to 54 mph, 22.3 mm of rain forecast.
Sat 12 Sep
🌧️
13° / 7°
💨 54 mph
🌧 22.3 mm (100%)
Sun 13 Sep
🌦️
12° / 8°
💨 18 mph
🌧 0.1 mm (6%)
Mon 14 Sep
🌦️
14° / 11°
💨 38 mph
🌧 5.9 mm (100%)
Tue 15 Sep
🌧️
13° / 8°
💨 38 mph
🌧 16.4 mm (98%)
Wed 16 Sep
🌧️
9° / 7°
💨 29 mph
🌧 7.4 mm (70%)
Thu 17 Sep
🌧️
9° / 7°
💨 35 mph
🌧 23.3 mm (100%)
Fri 18 Sep
🌧️
10° / 7°
💨 37 mph
🌧 13.4 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 770 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.
Hopegill Head at 770m (2,526ft) is a pointed, airy summit above the head of the Hobcarton valley, its steep sides giving it a dramatic profile from the Whinlatter direction. Wainwright described it as a summit of character, its sharp ridge crest giving excellent views of the Grisedale Pike-Hobcarton ridge. The traverse via Hobcarton Crag and Sand Hill connects it naturally to Eel Crag on the Coledale Horseshoe. The views north to the Solway and west to the coast are fine from this high, exposed ridge.
Field notes
There's just something about Hopegill Head that I was drawn to. It may have been the drop off to the north as I skirted around Hobcarton Crag; the tight, craggy summit, or the broad open sweep down to Coledale Hause. Perhaps it was just the fact that on a very clear day you an see 68 Wainwrights and parts of another 11. That's almost 1 in 3 of all Wainwrights from his first series of books that can be see from this one summit. My data has it that you can also get a glimpse of Merrick - the mountain in the Galloway Forest Park.
Routes up Hopegill Head
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
Car park for Whiteside — 3.0 km from summit (straight line)
1.6 km from Whiteside. Added from the 5 Aug 2026 OSM candidate review. Fees: £7 up to 2 hours; £8 up to 4 hours; £9.50 all day. Charges apply at all times. Cash at machine; card/phone payment not available in all car parks (NT, checked Aug 2026). Free for NT members (checked Aug 2026). Charges apply at all times. Cash at machine; JustPark app at some car parks; card/phone payment not available in all car parks (NT, checked Aug 2026).
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 Hopegill Head by bus
The 77 stops at Lanthwaite Green Farm (opp), 20 m from the start of The Grasmoor Round.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 18:03 towards Keswick (77), every day. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 12 September 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.
A shapely, rocky summit where three ridges meet at the head of the Coledale fells — and where the ground falls away suddenly into the huge vegetated precipice of Hobcarton Crag. The narrow approach ridges are airy, the junction is a navigation trap in cloud, and the abrupt north-east edge by the summit is genuinely dangerous if you stray onto it. Keswick Mountain Rescue Team covers this ground.
Hobcarton Crag (the north-east precipice): A large, steep, vegetated cliff drops away just beside the summit. Descending south-east you must keep clear of the big drop to your left, and in cloud or wind it is easy to drift toward an edge that gives almost no warning. Stay back from the rim and keep to the path.
The narrow summit ridges: The arêtes leading to the small rocky top — including from Whiteside along Gasgale Crags — are narrow and exposed in places. Straightforward in good conditions for a steady walker, but unnerving in strong wind and treacherous when wet or iced.
The three-way junction in cloud: Ridges to Whiteside, to Grisedale Pike (past Hobcarton) and down to Coledale Hause all meet here. In mist it is easy to set off down the wrong one — or toward the crag. Take a compass bearing before you leave the summit.
Who should attempt this fell: Hopegill Head is a fine, characterful top, but its defining feature — the sudden Hobcarton Crag edge right by the summit — demands respect: keep well back, especially in wind or cloud, and take particular care on the south-east descent. Navigate the junction deliberately in mist to pick the right ridge, take the narrow crests steadily, and treat the corniced edge as serious winter ground when there is snow.
Most common causes: Walkers straying onto or over the Hobcarton Crag edge in poor visibility · Slips on the narrow, exposed approach ridges, especially when wet or windy · Navigation errors at the meeting of three ridges in cloud · Corniced edges and ice above Hobcarton in winter
Safety: Hazard guidance compiled from published Mountain Rescue reports and well-documented accident history - editorial background, not a live feed of callouts. Always check current conditions, carry proper navigation equipment, and seek qualified instruction before heading onto the fells. In an emergency, call 999, ask for Police, then Mountain Rescue.
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.
A rough, rocky summit ringed by crags, with no single obvious way off in poor visibility. Take care in poor visibility — carry map and compass, and know how to use them.
In winter — snow, whiteout, cornices, buried features — every top demands full winter navigation skills whatever its band, and a broad, gentle summit can be the worst place of all. See walking in bad weather and the navigation guide.
How Hopegill Head compares with all 214 — the Clag Index: navigating in cloud. A relative, deliberately cautious guide; the site can’t navigate for you.
Nearest parking: Hobcarton (free), about 2.4 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.
Birketts near Hopegill Head (within 3 km)
These Birkett tops are notWainwright summits — detour to them on this walk and they are pure profit. Distances are straight-line; allow extra for terrain.
✎️ 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.
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.
✎️ If you only do one round in the North Western Fells, this is it. Grasmoor is a bigger, wilder mountain than its modest reputation suggests, and the ridge from Whiteside over Gasgale Crags to Hopegill Head is as good as ridge walking gets outside the Langdales. Whiteless Pike at the end is a perfect little peak — and a punishing descent.
Best season: Late spring to autumn, in clear conditions. Gasgale Crags is narrow and rocky, and Grasmoor’s summit plateau is a blank, stony expanse that is thoroughly disorientating in cloud.
⚠️ Warnings:The climb straight up Whiteside from Lanthwaite is brutally steep — a relentless, loose, eroded pull with little respite. It is the hardest 500 m on this route and it comes first. Gasgale Crags is a narrow, rocky ridge. It is not a scramble in the Sharp Edge sense, but it is airy, the rock is loose in places, and it wants care in wind or wet. Grasmoor’s summit is a featureless stony plateau with crags on three sides. In cloud it is a genuine navigation trap — take a bearing before you leave the cairn. The descent off Whiteless Pike is a knee-breaker — steep, sustained and relentless, right at the end of a long day. It is one of the steepest sustained descents in the Lakes. A long day with 1,068 m of ascent and ten tops. Navigation is graded hard: the high ground is broad and the drops are real.
💧 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.
A computed 360° skyline — every visible named top labelled by distance and bearing, from the terrain model in perfect clarity, not photographed. Drag to pan; reveal the far four-nations horizon.
drag to pan · arrow keys
What you can see from Hopegill Head, by direction
North-east: Skiddaw South Top (10 km), Skiddaw Little Man (10 km), Skiddaw Lesser Man (10 km), Skiddaw Middle Top (10 km), Skiddaw (10 km), Skiddaw North Top (10 km), Jenkin Hill (10 km), Broad End (11 km), Atkinson Pike (15 km)
East: Knowe Crags (14 km), Gategill Fell Top (14 km), Blencathra (15 km), Watson's Dodd (15 km), Great Dodd (16 km), Stybarrow Dodd (16 km), White Side (16 km), Raise (16 km), Catstye Cam (17 km)
South-east: Sail (2 km), Dale Head (8 km), Glaramara (13 km), Looking Steads (13 km), High Raise (16 km), Helvellyn Lower Man (17 km), Helvellyn (17 km), Nethermost Pike (18 km), High Crag (18 km), Dollywaggon Pike (18 km), Seat Sandal (19 km), Cofa Pike (20 km), Fairfield (20 km), Great Rigg (21 km)
South: Crag Hill (2 km), Wandope (2 km), High Crag (8 km), Kirk Fell (12 km), Great Gable (12 km), Scafell Pike (15 km), Scafell (16 km)
South-west: Grasmoor (2 km)
On the clearest days the far horizon adds: Slieve Donard (179 km, Ireland), Merrick (99 km, Scotland), Broad Law (101 km, Scotland), Snaefell (86 km, Isle of Man), Cairnsmore of Carsphairn (96 km, Scotland), The Cheviot (122 km, England), Cairnsmore of Fleet (82 km, Scotland), Corserine (95 km, Scotland).
Computed from terrain in perfect clarity, not photographed · distances are straight-line.
Hopegill Head sits close to the flat-horizon case. Even on its longest wait of the modelled year (at midsummer) first light is only 9 minutes after almanac sunrise, so the published sunrise time is a fair guide here.
Midsummer. The filled shape is the skyline as seen from the summit; the line is the sun’s path. Where they meet is first light — everything left of that point is the wait.
Times for 2026, in Lakeland clock time (GMT in winter, BST in summer) — and model outputs rather than observations.
First light
Almanac sunrise
Difference
Midsummer
04:46 BST ±5.0 min
04:37
+9 min
Equinox
06:14 GMT ±5.0 min
06:16
-2 min
Midwinter
08:30 GMT ±5.0 min
08:34
-4 min
A low, open northern horizon — the ground falls away northwards (mean -0.48°).
Last light — when the sun leaves Hopegill Head
Hopegill Head holds the light. On not one of the sixteen dates modelled does the sun leave this summit before almanac sunset — the ground falls away westward rather than standing over you, and at midsummer it is still in the sun 4 minutes after the valley has lost it.
The evening of the same three days. A negative difference means a ridge takes the sun before the valley loses it.
Last light
Almanac sunset
Difference
Midsummer
21:58 BST ±5.0 min
21:54
+4 min
Equinox
18:33 GMT ±5.0 min
18:27
+6 min
Midwinter
15:57 GMT ±5.0 min
15:49
+8 min
Computed, not photographed. First light is the first minute the sun’s upper limb clears this summit’s own skyline and last light the last minute it is still clear of it, both solved against the 360° horizon profile behind The View from Hopegill Head. Almanac sunrise and sunset are the flat-horizon convention. Every time carries a ± band from the 30 m elevation model — it smooths arêtes and cornices, so nothing here claims better than five minutes. These are daylight figures, not a descent plan: the light goes on fading for a good while after the sun leaves, and going down in it is a decision about your own ground and party, not about this table.
What you can see from Hopegill Head
On a clear day — computed sightlines, curvature- and refraction-corrected.
68Wainwrights in view+11 marginal
100 kmFurthest sightlineMerrick
2Sea in viewIrish Sea, Solway Firth
🌐 On the clearest days the view reaches across to Scotland and the Isle of Man.
How Hopegill Head’s view compares with all 214 — the View Report: every Wainwright ranked by what you can see from the top.
Sightlines from a bare-earth terrain model (forests and buildings not included), corrected for the Earth’s curvature and average atmospheric refraction. “Distant” sightlines and any over 100 km depend on exceptionally clear air. Modelled from Copernicus GLO-30 open elevation data — a guide to the view, not a guarantee of any single one.
Places to stay near this fell
From the Whinlatter Pass road car park (above Braithwaite) start
It takes children but no dogs, and it is the Keswick hotel most likely to be reached for by a walking party because it advertises the thing that is hardest to get in Keswick - its own car park. A party with a dog needs the bar; a party without one needs the parking.
Worth knowing: “Child Policy Children welcome Smoking Policy No smoking Pets No pets Parties Parties not allowed”
It is a three-minute walk from the Keswick Mountain Rescue post and the Theatre by the Lake, and it charges for its car park unless you book direct.
Parking“We also boast our own off-street car park a rarity for hotels and B&B's in Keswick plus we are only a few minutes walk from both the lake and Keswick town square.”
They answer the dog question twice on their own page and the answer is no both times - which matters because everything else about the house (ample private parking, a fenced garden with room for bikes, six large rooms sleeping up to 13) reads as built for exactly the group that turns up with a dog.
Worth knowing: “Do you accept dogs? Unfortunately we do not accept pets.”
A slate-built Victorian town house in a cul-de-sac off Stanger Street whose rooms face two ways - Skiddaw to the north, Borrowdale and Newlands to the south - and whose breakfast meats come from Keswick butchers.
Parking“Ample Private parking and a well established garden with space for bicycles and sports equipment to the rear of the house.”
And a double one. No pets, and no family or triple rooms at all, so a family of three cannot be accommodated even though children are not barred. That second sentence is on the bedrooms page where a family would only find it after choosing the house. Worth knowing that it does have indoor drying facilities, which is why walkers reach for it.
Worth knowing: “For the comfort and safety of all our guests Linnett Hill operates a strict no-smoking policy and unfortunately are unable to accept pets.”
Built in 1812 with a Dutch facade that is unusual in Keswick, it stands opposite Fitz Park looking straight at Latrigg and the Skiddaw range.
Drying room“extensive private parking together with secure cycle storage and indoor drying facilities”
Parking“extensive private parking together with secure cycle storage and indoor drying facilities”
And the reason for the bar is itself the useful fact: they do not take pets because there is a resident cat. That is a warning for a dog owner and, separately, for anyone in the party with a cat allergy - which no dog-policy column alone would ever surface.
Worth knowing: “We are a Non smoking Bed & Breakfast and don't accept pets (although we do have a cat).”
There is a house cat in residence, and one of the four rooms is a double with a private bathroom rather than an en-suite - the two remaining doubles share matching black and brass bedsteads.
No pets - but cots are available on request and one of the two apartments is on the ground floor, so it stays useful to a family without a dog and to anyone who cannot manage stairs.
Worth knowing: “We are afraid we do not accept pets and the properties are strictly no smoking.”
Changeover days move with the season - Fridays and Mondays in the low season, Saturdays from mid-March - and the owners live close enough to be on hand throughout a stay.
Family rooms“Cots are available on request.”
Parking“both of which have off road parking and all modern amenities to make your stay as comfortable as possible”
From the Whinlatter - Forestry Commission Car Park start
The best-answered page inside 2 km of the Whinlatter start, and the only one that solves the wet-boots-and-bikes problem explicitly: off-road parking beside the cottages, secure bike storage, and hosepipes for boots, bikes and paws. It also tells a driver something no sat nav will - that CA12 5SA covers the whole of Thornthwaite and will not find the cottage - and it puts the X5 bus stop outside the door, so a car-free party can reach the Grisedale Pike ground.
An osprey nest sits close enough that the birds can be watched from the cottage grounds between April and August, and the village bus shelter stands directly outside two of the three cottages.
Dogs“All three of our holiday cottages are dog friendly with Jasmine Cottage and Fox Howe being able to accommodate two each and Squirrel Cottage one.”
Family rooms“JASMINE COTTAGE (SLEEPS 4)”
Parking“Private off road parking beside the cottages”
The only true drying room in the whole 3-mile radius, and it is paired with a tumble drier, a 3-bicycle stand and outdoor wash-off for bikes and dogs - the exact list a party coming off a wet Coledale round needs. It is also the only property here that states in its own words that it suits families as well as couples, and it sleeps seven across four bedrooms, so it takes a group that no B&B in the area can. Ranked above much closer properties on that basis; the 3-night minimum is the cost.
It is a former farmhouse still standing on a working farm, so guests share the yard with lambs, calves and horses depending on the season.
Drying room“There is a rear drying room for boots and coats and sportswear and a 3-bicycle stand for secure storage of bikes, plus a tumble drier.”
Dogs“Well-behaved dogs are very welcome and there are several pleasant walks in the nearby area.”
Family rooms“Double bedroom with king size bed and en-suite shower room - spacious electric shower, heated towel rail, washbasin with shaverlight and toilet. Twin-bedded room. Double bedded room. Single room.”
Children“The house is ideal for couples and families alike, sleeping up to 7 people - plenty of rooms but with a cosy atmosphere.”
The one property in the radius that can take a very large party - two of its three cottages connect through a lockable door to sleep eleven or twelve - and the only one with a stated EV charger, which matters for a group driving over Whinlatter Pass. It is on the Lorton side of the pass rather than the Braithwaite side, which is the quieter approach to Grisedale Pike's western Birketts, and the owner is close enough to call on.
The smallest of the three was built as a farm workers' cottage in the 1800s and still has its beamed ceilings; the Farmhouse next door can be linked to it through a lockable connecting door.
Dogs“Dog friendly”
Family rooms“Three Holiday Cottages sleeping 2, 5, or 9 (2 of the cottages can be connected to sleep 11-12)”
Three self-catering cottages 1.82 km from the start, and the only place here whose owner has written down her own judgements rather than a list: go up Melbreak's Nose rather than down it, take Low Fell from Thackthwaite rather than straight up the fence line, walk Loweswater out and back on the far side using the old coffin route. For this start in particular, the fells she names in the view from the front of the house open with Whiteside, Grassmoor and Whiteless Pike - the three summits of the Grasmoor round - though she describes them as a view from the door, not as a walk she writes up. Her own walk pages cover Buttermere, Crummock, Loweswater, Low Fell, Melbreak, Blake Fell and three waterfalls.
The cottages are the converted barn and stables of a 16th-century manor house, reached through a carriage arch with 1797 cut into it.
The largest bed stock in the radius and the only hotel here that publishes both a restaurant and a dog policy - 21 en-suite bedrooms plus 6 self-catering apartments in Buttermere village, with an EV point in the car park. Two things a family should know before booking rather than after: the bedrooms are deliberately unplugged, with no television, no radio and no mobile signal, and the hotel publishes a late-January closure. There is no email address and no contact form anywhere on the cached site, so the only route in is the phone or the booking engine.
It sells the absence of a signal as the point: the bedrooms have no television, no radio and no mobile reception.
Dogs“A true dog-friendly hotel in the Lake District”
Evening meal“Exceptionally friendly and professional service, homemade food, carefully selected local real ales with our staff who naturally go the extra mile to ensure your needs meet your expectations.”
Worth knowing before you book
These places state on their own site that they do not take children.
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 (opens in new tab).
Frequently asked questions about Hopegill Head
Is Hopegill Head hard to climb?
It's a moderate fell — a steady climb on good paths with no obligatory scrambling, but a proper mountain day rather than a stroll. Hopegill Head (770 m / 2,526 ft) sits at the junction of three ridges above Whinlatter, and its summit perches right at the top of the steep cliffs of Hobcarton Crag.
The walking is straightforward; the thing to respect is that sheer northern edge.
What is the best route up Hopegill Head?
A fine compact route is the Hobcarton round from Whinlatter, often combined with Grisedale Pike — about 6.2 miles (9.3 km) with roughly 765 m of ascent. The classic big day is the Coledale Round from Braithwaite, which takes in Hopegill Head among eight Wainwrights over about 10.6 miles.
Either way you climb to the summit on a path that stays safely back from the crag edge.
The Hobcarton round with Grisedale Pike (about 9.3 km, 765 m of ascent) takes around 4–5 hours. The full Coledale Round — roughly 17 km with 1,420 m of ascent over eight summits — is a long day of about 7 hours.
The summit sits directly above Hobcarton Crag, a steep, near-vertical cliff falling away to the north — one of the most abrupt drops on any Wainwright top. The path runs close to but safely back from the edge, so the danger is only if you wander too near, especially in mist, wind or to take a photo.
Keep well back from the brink, take extra care in poor visibility, and keep children and dogs close at the top.
A fit beginner can manage it on a clear day — the paths are good and there's no scrambling required on the normal route. The key thing is the sheer crag edge at the summit and the junction of ridges, which can be confusing in cloud, tempting you down the wrong one toward steep ground.
Go in good visibility, keep back from the Hobcarton Crag edge, and carry a map and compass to pick the right ridge off the top.
For the shorter Hobcarton round, park at Whinlatter (the Forestry England car parks on Whinlatter Pass, near Hobcarton plantation). For the Coledale Round, start from the village of Braithwaite near Keswick.
Both are popular, so arrive early on fine days; note Whinlatter forest car parks usually charge.
Wear proper walking boots for the rough, stony ground, and carry warm and waterproof layers — the summit and ridges are exposed and windy. Bring a map and compass for choosing the right ridge off the top in cloud, plus water, food and a charged phone, and check the mountain forecast.
Keep well clear of the Hobcarton Crag edge, and treat the ridges as serious ground in strong wind or winter conditions.
