Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top)
Ill Crag (Newlands), also listed as Knott Rigg North Top, is a 546 m (1,791 ft) Birkett top on the ridge between Knott Rigg and Ard Crags, above the Newlands valley. It is a different top from the 931 m Ill Crag beside Scafell Pike.
Summit conditions on Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top)
On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 12° to 6°C, gusts to 69 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 Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top)
Choose the way up before the car park: these four routes start from three places, and the last two rows give the parking and bus at each route’s own start. Full maps further down.
| Compared | Ard Crags & Knott Rigg | Knott Rigg & Ard Crags Out-and-Back from Newlands Pass | Newlands Hause to the Coledale Tops | Honister to Keswick: over the Newlands fells |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starts from | Braithwaite village (roadside/small areas) | Newlands Hause | Newlands Hause | Honister Slate Mine |
| Distance and climb | 19.31 km, 708 m of climb | 5.52 km, 355 m of climb | 11.4 km, 1,107 m of climb | 19.62 km, 1,057 m of climb |
| Time, fast to steady | ~5–6¾ h | ~1½–2¼ h | ~4–5½ h | ~5½–7¾ h |
| Scrambling | A narrow grassy ridge with gentle drops to either side; no scrambling. | Not mentioned in the route’s notes | Not mentioned in the route’s notes | Not mentioned in the route’s notes |
| Exposure | Moderate | Not assessed | Not assessed | Not assessed |
| Navigation | Moderate | Hard | Hard | Moderate |
| Steepest stretch | Descent of about 33% at 9.2 km (Hard) | Descent of about 27% at 5.1 km (Hard) | Descent of about 43% at 9.4 km (Severe) | Descent of about 38% at 6.1 km (Severe) |
| After the summit | Over Knott Rigg | Over Ard Crags | Over Ard Crags, Scar Crags, Sail, Crag Hill (Eel Crag), Eel Crag (Birkett), Wandope, Thirdgill Head Man and Whiteless Pike | Over Ard Crags |
| Walked or planned | Planned: drawn, not yet walked | Planned: drawn, not yet walked | Planned: drawn, not yet walked | Planned: drawn, not yet walked |
| Car park at the start | Braithwaite village (roadside/small areas) | Newlands Hause car park (free) | Newlands Hause car park (free) | Honister Pass (paid, slate mine) |
| Bus to the start | 77 at the start | 77, 2.2 km walk from Buttermere Youth Hostel (near). Seasonal: the 77 does not run all year. 1 November 2026 is its last day. | 77, 2.2 km walk from Buttermere Youth Hostel (near). Seasonal: the 77 does not run all year. 1 November 2026 is its last day. | 77 at the start. 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 Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top)?
The shortest way up we hold is Knott Rigg & Ard Crags Out-and-Back from Newlands Pass — 5.52 km, 355 m of ascent, ~1½–2¼ h. On our scale its hardest axes are steepness and navigation — Hard.
All axes: steepness: Hard · navigation: Hard · length: Easy · 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 546 m summit (Open-Meteo). Check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
Full 7-day forecast
Taken 27 October 2026, 20:59 UTC; the live forecast replaces it when it loads. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (opens in new tab)
Parking & buses for Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top)
Parking
Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.
4 more places to park near Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top)
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 X5 stop at Braithwaite, at Croft Terrace, a 30 m walk from the start of Ard Crags & Knott Rigg — a route we rate Hard overall (hardest: distance and steepness). As timetabled from 27 October to 1 November. Towards Keswick (77): Tuesday to Sunday 17:37 to Keswick, 16:37 to Cockermouth. Towards Workington (X5): Tuesday to Thursday 22:27; Friday and Saturday 00:22 (after midnight); Sunday 20:17. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 24 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.
Getting there across the Lake District: Buses · Parking map · By train · By boat
Hazards on Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top)
Notes from a planned route, not walked: Ard Crags & Knott Rigg
If you need to get off (the leg from Ard Crags): Do not try to bail off the sides of this ridge: the terrain drops steeply into the adjacent valleys; if the weather turns aggressively foul, either push on to Knott Rigg, where the route's own path leaves the crest beside the cairn and drops east-north-east to Keskadale Farm, or retreat immediately back over Ard Crags to your ascent route.
Quoted from the route page of a planned route, drawn from the map and not yet walked: the note for the leg that reaches Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top).
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.
Don’t drink from Yewthwaite Gill
On the way down on our route Ard Crags & Knott Rigg, you cross Yewthwaite Gill, which runs below the old Yewthwaite lead mine. In Environment Agency samples from it, the typical level of dissolved lead is above the World Health Organization’s drinking-water guideline — that comparison is ours, not the Agency’s. Those samples were taken between 2011 and 2026 at one Agency sampling point, “Yewthwaite Gill Ford”, 5 m from the route’s line: a record of past sampling, not a test of the water today. This is not the usual hill-water risk: a squeeze or hollow-fibre filter 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, carry mine-derived zinc — enough to matter for river life. In Environment Agency samples from Coledale Beck and Newlands Beck taken near our route Ard Crags & Knott Rigg between 2011 and 2025, 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.
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 Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top)
These Birkett tops are not Wainwright summits. Distances are straight lines: check the ground and access on a map before adding one.
Routes over Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top)
Download GPX Planned route · not yet walked
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 Planned route · not yet walked
A planned line, drawn from the map; not yet walked. It walks the same ridge between Knott Rigg and Ard Crags as our longer walk over these fells from Braithwaite to Keswick, but starts high on the pass, so it has about half the climbing and under a third of the distance.
Download GPX Planned route · not yet walked
Route guide: Knott Rigg & Ard Crags Out-and-Back from Newlands Pass →
The start is the free car park at Newlands Hause, the top of the Newlands Pass road between Buttermere and Newlands. No bus stop is mapped within about 1.5 km.
Download GPX Planned route · not yet walked
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 Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top)
Water & shelter on the way up
On the Ard Crags & Knott Rigg route:
On the Honister to Keswick: over the Newlands fells route:
On the Newlands Hause to the Coledale Tops route:
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.
About Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top)
Classifications & hill data
Is Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top) a Wainwright?
Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top) is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list and the Synge 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 Whinlatter: 9 places in Keswick