hikes.guideLake District

Ill Crag

Short entry: no route or hazard notes for this fell yet.

Nearest route starts ↓
931 mBirkett — Southern (not a Wainwright summit)+8 bonus Birketts within 3 km

Ill Crag at 931m (3,054ft) is one of the three satellite summits crowning the broad ridge that connects Great End to Scafell Pike.

Summit conditions on Ill Crag

On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 9° to 3°C, gusts to 68 mph, 10.6 mm of rain forecast over the whole day, midnight to midnight.

Full 7-day summit forecast ↓

The forecast figures are Open-Meteo’s, worked out for the summit’s height. How we check →

Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (opens in new tab)

Parking & buses

Wasdale Head village green car park (free)
3.8 km from summit (straight line)
Lake Head, Wasdale (NT, paid)
4.1 km from summit (straight line)

Parking & buses ↓

Routes near Ill Crag

No route guide for this fell yet. The nearest route starts we publish, in a straight line from the summit:

Conditions and 7-day summit forecast

Modelled for the 931 m summit (Open-Meteo). Check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

Full 7-day forecast
Tue 27 Oct
9° / 3°
68 mph
10.6 mm (100%)
Wed 28 Oct
7° / 4°
50 mph
11.9 mm (100%)
Thu 29 Oct
7° / 5°
29 mph
1.8 mm (26%)
Fri 30 Oct
6° / 4°
27 mph
0.1 mm (31%)
Sat 31 Oct
8° / -1°
9 mph
0.0 mm (25%)
Sun 1 Nov
6° / -1°
7 mph
0.0 mm (12%)
Mon 2 Nov
5° / -1°
19 mph
0.0 mm (0%)

Taken 27 October 2026, 08:13 UTC; the live forecast replaces it when it loads. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (opens in new tab)

Parking & buses for Ill Crag

Parking

Wasdale Head village green car park (free) — 3.8 km from summit (straight line)
At Wasdale Head, about 0.3 km south of the Wasdale Head Inn; the National Trust's Pillar trail starts here and calls it the Wasdale Head Village Green car park (grid ref NY 1868 0852, read 17 October 2026). The 'Round Kirk Fell from Wasdale Head' and 'Extended Mosedale Horseshoe' routes start here; the Great Gable and Scafell Pike routes start at Lake Head, 1.3 km on foot. Added from the 5 August 2026 OSM candidate review.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Lake Head, Wasdale (NT, paid) — 4.1 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Great Gable, Kirk Fell and Scafell Pike — the 'Great Gable & Kirk Fell' route starts 10 m away. Also serves 'Scafell Pike from Wasdale, by Lingmell Col'. National Trust's access statement records a pay-and-display machine here (National Trust, January 2024) but does not say which payment methods it takes; the same document notes mobile reception is poor across Wasdale, so carry coins as well as a card. Compacted surface (OSM-tagged). Toilets on site. National Trust, pay & display (free for members). The classic base for Scafell Pike, Great Gable, Kirk Fell, Yewbarrow. Fills very early. Fees: £7 up to 2 hours; £8.50 up to 4 hours; £10 all day. Charges apply at all times (NT, checked August 2026). Free for NT members (checked August 2026).
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
If it is full: Overbeck Bridge, Wastwater (NT, paid) (1.8 km, 110 m up); Greendale, Nether Wasdale (roadside, free) (4.9 km, 197 m up)

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

We don’t know yet. Wasdale Explorer (seasonal) serves this area, but we don’t hold its stop positions, so we can’t measure the walk from it — and we won’t tell you to drive on the strength of a gap in our own data. The Wasdale Action Group lists it as running Saturdays, Sundays and bank holiday Mondays from the start of May to the end of August (read 30 September 2026): check before you travel.

Getting there across the Lake District: Buses · Parking map · By train · By boat

Hazards on Ill Crag

We have not written a hazard card for this fell yet, and that is not a sign that it is low-hazard. 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.

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 & nearby Birketts

Free mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap, with SRTM elevation data (switch layers top-right).

Parking, toilets and buses: Parking & buses ↑.

Birketts within 3 km of Ill Crag

These Birkett tops are not Wainwright summits. Distances are straight lines: check the ground and access on a map before adding one.

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 NSeathwaite Fell (Great Slack)631 m · Southern
2.4 km SScar Lathing439 m · Southern
3.0 km EBuck Pike (Mickleden)606 m · Southern

On the hill: terrain and water on Ill Crag

Terrain & access

A near-path top (about 931 m): a mapped path comes within about 114 m of the summit. We have not checked a way from it to the top: the figures here are measured along a straight line on a terrain model, not a route. That line climbs about 2 m. 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 v18.4 (CC BY 4.0); Copernicus GLO-30. CRoW access layer: © Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. See the terrain & access report for how this is worked out across all 144 fells.

About Ill Crag

It is a Birkett and a Nuttall, not a Wainwright, and its rocky, boulder-strewn top gives an unusual view of the Scafell massif. Most walkers pass below it on the path between Scafell Pike and Esk Hause, rarely leaving the path for its rocky top. The views north to Great Gable and the Gable Crag are excellent. Combined with Broad Crag and Great End, it makes a fine high ridge walk.

Classifications & hill data

Is Ill Crag a Wainwright?

Ill Crag is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list, the Synge list, the Nuttall list and the Hewitt list.

Selected lists

931 m
Height
3,054 ft
In feet
NY 2231 0735
Grid ref

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 →

Other fells near Ill Crag