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931 m · Birkett — Southern (not a Wainwright summit) · Birketts to bag nearby, parking, buses, my hikes and live summit weather.

Birkett — Southern (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Ill Crag

Ill Crag at 935m (3,068ft) is one of the three satellite summits crowning the broad ridge that connects Great End to Scafell Pike.

931 m
Height
+8
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX →
931 mBirkett — Southern (not a Wainwright summit)+8 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 931 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Tue 28 Jul): 13° to 12°C, gusts to 39 mph, 11.9 mm of rain forecast.

Tue 28 Jul
🌧️
13° / 12°
💨 39 mph
🌧 11.9 mm (99%)
Wed 29 Jul
🌧️
12° / 9°
💨 33 mph
🌧 11.9 mm (100%)
Thu 30 Jul
🌧️
10° / 4°
💨 29 mph
🌧 2.9 mm (87%)
Fri 31 Jul
🌤️
12° / 0°
💨 23 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (86%)
Sat 1 Aug
🌦️
12° / 2°
💨 15 mph
🌧 4.5 mm (82%)
Sun 2 Aug
☁️
13° / 4°
💨 19 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (35%)
Mon 3 Aug
🌦️
13° / 4°
💨 16 mph
🌧 0.2 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 931 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.

About the walk

Key information

Ill Crag

Ill Crag at 935m (3,068ft) is one of the three satellite summits crowning the broad ridge that connects Great End to Scafell Pike. Wainwright included it as a separate fell in his Southern Fells guide, noting its rocky, boulder-strewn summit offers an unusual perspective on the Scafell massif. Most walkers pass over it en route to the Pike via the Corridor Route, rarely pausing to acknowledge it as a summit in its own right. The views north to Great Gable and the Gable Crag are excellent. Combined with Broad Crag and Great End, it makes this one of the richest ridge walks in the district.

Classifications & hill data
Birkett
Synge
Nuttall
931 m
Height
3,054 ft
In feet
NY 2231 0735
Grid ref

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Wasdale Head (NT car park), about 4.1 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Ill Crag (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.

0.5 km WNWBroad Crag935 m · Southern
0.6 km SSWPen762 m · Southern
1.4 km ESEPike de Bield810 m · Southern
1.7 km SSEHigh Gait Crags572 m · Southern
2.4 km SScar Lathing439 m · Southern
3.0 km EBuck Pike (Mickleden)606 m · Southern

Terrain & access

A near-path top (about 931 m): a mapped path comes within about 114 m of the summit, with a last stretch of open ground (about 2 m of ascent, up to ~30°). 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; Copernicus GLO-30. See the terrain & access report for how this is worked out across all 145 fells.

Best parking to hike Ill Crag

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

Wasdale Head (NT car park) — 4.1 km from summit (straight line)
National Trust, pay & display (free for members). The classic base for Scafell Pike, Great Gable, Kirk Fell, Yewbarrow. Fills very early.
Directions (opens in new tab)
Seathwaite Farm, Borrowdale (free verge) — 4.9 km from summit (straight line)
Free verge parking on the Seathwaite lane — the honeypot start for the Scafells, Great Gable and Glaramara. Arrive very early.
Directions (opens in new tab)
🚺 Public toilets (opens in new tab) (1002m) — Free

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.

Buses to Ill Crag from Penrith / Ambleside / Windermere

Stagecoach 78 “Borrowdale Rambler”
Keswick – Lodore – Grange – Rosthwaite – Seatoller
Catch it from: Keswick (connect via 555 or X4/X5)
Year-round, frequent in season. Serves all the Borrowdale starts — Glaramara, the Scafells and Great Gable via Seathwaite (alight Seatoller, 20 min walk up the lane).

Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.

Maps & guidebooks for Ill Crag

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