Kinn
Kinn at 374m (1,227ft) is a Birkett top in the North Western Fells, 1.3 km west-south-west of Braithwaite, on the ridge that climbs from Braithwaite to Grisedale Pike (2.2 km to the west-south-west). Thornthwaite is 2.3 km to the north.
Summit conditions on Kinn
On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 13° to 8°C, gusts to 53 mph, 9.7 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 Kinn
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
One of the great north-western horseshoes, and a properly big mountain day from Braithwaite.
Distance and climb are measured from the route’s GPX track, and the time from them by Naismith’s rule; the route page says what each grade rests on. How we check →
How hard is Kinn?
The shortest way up we hold is Coledale Round — 16.13 km, 1277 m of ascent, ~5¼–7¼ h. On our scale its hardest axes are distance, steepness, navigation and exposure — Hard.
All axes: length: Hard · steepness: Hard · navigation: Hard · exposure: Hard · terrain: Moderate.
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 374 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 Kinn
Parking
Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.
2 more places to park near Kinn
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 720 m walk and 87 m of ascent from the start of Coledale Round — a route we rate Hard overall (hardest: distance, steepness, navigation and exposure). 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 Kinn
Notes from the Coledale Round route
- 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.
- 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 need to get off (the leg from Whinlatter Pass road car park): If conditions deteriorate before the steeper ascent towards Sleet How and Grisedale Pike, turn back along the established ridge path towards Kinn. Descend the same grassy path, cross the fence at the stile or gate, then follow the descending path and steps back to the small car park beside the B5292. This is the simplest established retreat from the early section of the walk. The descent can be steep, muddy and slippery, particularly after heavy rain. Do not attempt to shortcut directly down the steep slopes into Coledale valley. Once beyond Kinn and climbing towards Grisedale Pike, retracing the main ridge path remains the more straightforward option, although it is not necessarily easy in severe weather.
Quoted from the route page: its warnings and the note for the leg that reaches Kinn.
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.
A note on Coledale Beck
Coledale Beck runs below the old Force Crag mine and carries mine-derived zinc — enough to matter for river life. In Environment Agency samples taken near our route Coledale Round between 2007 and 2026, 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. Treat any hill water before drinking (an ordinary hiking filter won’t remove dissolved metals); don’t single this beck out as a clean fill-up.
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 Kinn
These Birkett tops are not Wainwright summits. Distances are straight lines: check the ground and access on a map before adding one.
Routes over Kinn
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: the start is about 720 m and 87 m of climb up the road from the Croft Terrace stop.
Download GPX Walked by Lee, May 2026
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 Kinn
Terrain & access
A 374 m top with a mapped path to within about 9 m of the summit. There is steep ground (over 30°) on the direct line. 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.
Water & shelter on the way up
On the Coledale Round route:
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.
About Kinn
My Strava hikes over Kinn
1 logged hike pass over this summit:
- My knees didn't like that (opens in new tab) — 19.0 km · 1421 m ascent · 5h 33m moving · 16 May 2026
Data from Strava.
Classifications & hill data
Is Kinn a Wainwright?
Kinn 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: 10 places in Keswick