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546 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

Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top)

The Causey Pike spur of Eel Crag at 467m (1,532ft) is a rocky subsidiary summit on the approach ridge to Causey Pike from the Newlands valley, giving views of the Coledale fells and Derwent Water.

546 m
Height
+9
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX →

Home › Fells › Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top)

546 mBirkett — North Western (not a Wainwright summit)+9 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 546 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Tue 28 Jul): 15° to 14°C, gusts to 37 mph, 4.7 mm of rain forecast.

Tue 28 Jul
🌧️
15° / 14°
💨 37 mph
🌧 4.7 mm (99%)
Wed 29 Jul
🌧️
15° / 11°
💨 27 mph
🌧 11.9 mm (100%)
Thu 30 Jul
🌦️
13° / 5°
💨 29 mph
🌧 3.0 mm (87%)
Fri 31 Jul
🌤️
14° / 3°
💨 22 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (86%)
Sat 1 Aug
🌦️
15° / 6°
💨 15 mph
🌧 2.7 mm (82%)
Sun 2 Aug
☁️
16° / 6°
💨 17 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (35%)
Mon 3 Aug
🌦️
15° / 5°
💨 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 546 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

Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top)

The Causey Pike spur of Eel Crag at 467m (1,532ft) is a rocky subsidiary summit on the approach ridge to Causey Pike from the Newlands valley, giving views of the Coledale fells and Derwent Water. A Birkett top on the lower section of the Causey Pike ascent from Stoneycroft. Part of the Coledale Horseshoe approach from the south.

Routes up Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top)

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

Ard Crags & Knott Rigg
19.7 km · ~5.1 hr
Honister to Keswick: over the Newlands fells
19.6 km · ~5.6 hr · Hard
A big Newlands horseshoe walked one–way from the top of Honister Pass to Keswick. You climb straight onto Dale Head, trace the broad grassy tops over Hindscarth and Robinson, drop to Newlands Hause and pick up the quieter Knott Rigg–Ard Crags ridge, then walk out down the Newlands valley into town — six summits and a proper day out, with no car to collect.
Classifications & hill data
Birkett
Synge
546 m
Height
1,791 ft
In feet
NY 1997 1918
Grid ref

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Buttermere village (NT, paid), about 3.3 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top) (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.

1.7 km WNWThirdgill Head Man734 m · North Western
1.8 km NNWEel Crag (Birkett)807 m · North Western
2.4 km SEHigh Crags (Newlands)529 m · Western
2.4 km ESERed Knott452 m · Western
2.6 km ESEScope End412 m · Western
2.6 km SSWHigh Snockrigg526 m · North Western
2.8 km WLad Hows426 m · North Western
2.9 km NNWHobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)738 m · North Western
3.0 km NNWSand Hill756 m · North Western

Routes over Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top)

Ard Crags & Knott RiggPlanned
19.74 km · ~687 m ascent · linear · ~5–7 h
Summits: Ard CragsIll Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top)Knott Rigg

⬇️ 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.

Honister to Keswick: over the Newlands fellsPlanned
19.62 km · ~1035 m ascent · linear · ~5.5–7.5 h · Hard
Summits: Dale HeadHindscarthRobinsonKnott RiggIll Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top)Ard Crags

✎️ Because it finishes in a different valley from where it starts, this one suits a car–free day: the seasonal Honister Rambler (the 77 / 77A) sets you down at Honister Hause and you walk back into Keswick for the bus home. From Penrith it’s the X4 / X5 to Keswick, then the Rambler up to Honister. Check the last bus before you set off — the walk’s long tail down the Newlands valley eats time when legs are tired.

⬇️ Download GPX

Best season: Late spring to autumn, in clear conditions. The steep descent off Robinson to Newlands Hause is rough and slippery when wet, and the broad grassy tops need a compass in mist; in full winter it’s a serious outing.

⚠️ Warnings: The descent off Robinson to Newlands Hause is the crux — steep, eroded and grassy (around a 40–45% pull), and slippery when wet. Take the walkers’ line and keep away from the crags; cross the Buttermere road with care at the bottom.; A long day — nearly 20 km and about 1,035 m of ascent over six tops, with a further long walk–out down the valley at the end. Carry map, compass, food and water, and start early.; The high ridge from Dale Head over Hindscarth and Robinson is broad and grassy — easy to drift off line in cloud, so navigate on a bearing between the tops.; It’s a linear route: fix your return transport (and the last bus time) before you leave, as there’s no loop back to the start.

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.

Best parking to hike Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top)

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

Buttermere village (NT, paid) — 3.3 km from summit (straight line)
For Red Pike, High Stile, Robinson, Rannerdale Knotts.
Directions
🚺 Buttermere village (132m) — Accessible☕ Syke Farm Tea Room☕ Croft House Farm Café🍺 The Buttermere Court Hotel
Little Town, Newlands (paid, small) — 3.4 km from summit (straight line)
Newlands valley — Catbells, Maiden Moor, Hindscarth, Robinson.
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 Ard Crags & Knott Rigg route:

🛖 map (6 m)🚌 Police Station (W bound) (13 m)🚌 Police Station (E bound) (24 m)🚌 Keswick Bus Stn Stand 1 (61 m)🚌 Keswick Bus Stn Stand 2 (75 m)⛺ Keswick YHA (373 m)⛺ Hope Memorial Camp (459 m)

On the Honister to Keswick: over the Newlands fells route:

🚌 Keswick Bus Stn Stand 1 (16 m)🚌 Keswick Bus Stn Stand 2 (25 m)🚌 Keswick Bus Stn Stand 3 (29 m)🚌 Keswick Bus Stn Stand 4 (35 m)⛺ Honister Pass YHA (89 m)⛺ Keswick YHA (422 m)

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

Buses to Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top) 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.

Don’t drink from Yewthwaite Gill

On the way up you cross Yewthwaite Gill, which runs below the old Yewthwaite lead mine. The Environment Agency records it carrying dissolved lead above the level that is safe to drink. This is not the usual hill-water risk: a squeeze or hollow-fibre filter (LifeStraw, Sawyer and the like) removes none of these dissolved metals, and boiling only concentrates them. Carry your own water for this walk and don’t refill from the beck. Coledale Beck and Newlands Beck on the same round is mine-polluted too, though below the level that would harm a person.

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 Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top)

Maps & guidebooks for Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top)

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