556 mWainwright — North Western Fells+8 bonus Birketts within 3 km Fewer traps in Clag
Knott Rigg at 556m (1,824ft) is a pleasant, grassy ridge summit above the Newlands valley between Ard Crags and the Buttermere road, giving fine views of the Grasmoor and Newlands Horseshoe ranges. Wainwright included it in the North Western Fells.
Summit conditions on Knott Rigg
On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 12° to 6°C, gusts to 69 mph, 8.5 mm of rain forecast over the whole day, midnight to midnight.
Against our lines, Tuesday 27 October: wind, cold and cloud from the Met Office UKV 2 km model (daylight hours, as in the verdict above); rain from the summit line’s forecast (the whole day). A tile is large when this top is past its line.
Wind on the top
Past the line
67mph, our estimate for the open top in the worst daylight hour
The Met Office 2 km model’s gust of 58 mph times our exposure factor of 1.15. The summit line above gives Open-Meteo’s highest gust for the whole day, 69 mph, before any exposure factor.
under 25
25–35
35–45
45–55
55+
The line Our line: 25 mph, where our wind Scale begins its 25–35 band: “balance affected; buffeting on exposed ground”. MWIS (opens in new tab) describes what wind does to a walker across a range rather than at a line: from about 20–25 mph it starts to affect your balance.
Estimated: it is not calibrated against summit readings, and the two forecasts can disagree by more than a band.
Rain, and the becks
Past the line
8.5mm of rain over the whole day, midnight to midnight
The same figure as the summit line above and the 7-day forecast.
The line Our line: 6 mm in the day, where our scorer counts a day as soaking. We read rainfall, never river levels: becks in spate.
Open-Meteo’s forecast. It says nothing about rain already in the ground.
Also checkedcold: feels like 1 °C, no ice or snow forecast; cloud: a clear-top reading of 27 out of 100, over our in-cloud line of 20. Under a line is not the same as fine: it means only that these figures are under the lines we use.
Not in these tiles Lightning, river levels, snow or ice already lying, and the ground under your feet. A tile cannot see them, so an empty space here never means they are absent.
Snow figures with a second opinion: Powered by Met Office data
Wainwrights are scored for walking conditions each morning from the Met Office’s UK forecast model, read for each summit through Open-Meteo; the forecast figures are Open-Meteo’s, worked out for the summit’s height. How we check →
Choose the way up before the car park: these three routes start from two places, and the last two rows give the parking and bus at each route’s own start. Full maps further down.
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
Exposure
Moderate
Not assessed
Not assessed
Navigation
Moderate
Hard
Hard
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)
After the summit
No further tops
Over Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top) and Ard Crags
Over Ill Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top), Ard Crags, Scar Crags, Sail, Crag Hill (Eel Crag), Eel Crag (Birkett), Wandope, Thirdgill Head Man and Whiteless Pike
Walked or planned
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)
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.
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 →
Is Knott Rigg an easy walk?
The ridge itself is one of the friendliest in the district — a narrow grassy crest running out from Newlands Hause with big views for very little effort, and little difficulty along it, though the path off its south-western nose down to Newlands Hause is steep and loose. Walked with Ard Crags it makes an ideal short day.
Our mapped routes over it are much longer than that suggests: 19.3 km with 708 m of ascent, or the Honister crossing at 19.6 km and 1057 m. From the Hause itself it is a fraction of either — the short version is one we have not measured.
Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.
Braithwaite village (roadside/small areas) — 0.1 km from the start of Ard Crags & Knott Rigg (straight line)
In the village centre, beside the primary school. The small car park there may be the one the Authority lists as 'Braithwaite School', open to the public at weekends and in school holidays only, with no overnight parking. The 'Scar Crags, Causey Pike', 'Stile End, Outerside, Causey Pike, Rowling End' and 'Ard Crags & Knott Rigg' routes start here; the 'Coledale Round' starts at the Whinlatter Pass road car park above the village, 0.7 km on foot.
If it is full: Noble Knott, Whinlatter (Forestry England, free) (1.7 km, 72 m up); Revelin Moss, Whinlatter (Forestry England, paid) (3.3 km, 117 m up); Stoneycroft Ghyll, Newlands (free) (2.3 km, 105 m up)
Newlands Hause car park — at the start of Knott Rigg & Ard Crags Out-and-Back from Newlands Pass and Newlands Hause to the Coledale Tops
At Newlands Hause, the top of the Newlands Pass road above Buttermere. The 'Knott Rigg & Ard Crags Out-and-Back from Newlands Pass' route starts here. Added from the 5 August 2026 OSM candidate review.
Robinson (layby) — 1.2 km from summit (straight line)
A lay-by on the Newlands Pass road (way/585193027), 0.3 km east of the top of Newlands Hause, on the Newlands side. The 'Knott Rigg & Ard Crags Out-and-Back from Newlands Pass' and 'Newlands Hause to the Coledale Tops' routes start at Newlands Hause, 0.3 km away in a straight line (this pin sits too far from the mapped paths to measure a walk). Free (OSM-tagged).
High Snockrigg, north-west (layby) — 2.4 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for High Snockrigg, Whiteless Pike, Thirdgill Head Man and Crag Hill (Eel Crag) — the 'High Snockrigg, Eel Crag & Lad Hows' route starts 391 m away. Free (OSM-tagged). Compacted surface (OSM-tagged).
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.
Catch it from: Keswick (connect via 555 from Windermere/Ambleside or X4/X5 from Penrith)
Seasonal (Summer 2026 timetable: 23 March to 1 November 2026). Brilliant for the North Western fells: Catbells, Dale Head from Honister, the Buttermere fells and Whinlatter.
Notes from a planned route, not walked: Ard Crags & Knott Rigg
If you need to get off (the leg from Ill Crag): Do not attempt to descend directly off the flanks here; the way down is the route's own, the path that leaves the crest beside the Knott Rigg cairn and runs east-north-east down to Keskadale Farm and the Newlands Pass road.
Quoted from the route page of a planned route, drawn from the map and not yet walked: the note for the leg that reaches Knott Rigg.
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.
Of the three things our terrain model measures, the highest reading here is the amount of walkable ground near the summit that lies close to steep ground or crag. This top is in the lowest of the index’s four bands, and a low band never means “safe”: carry map and compass and know how to use them.
In winter — snow, whiteout, cornices, buried features — every top demands full winter navigation skills whatever its band, and a broad, gentle summit can be the worst place of all. See walking in bad weather and the navigation guide.
How Knott Rigg compares with all 214: the Clag Index (experimental).
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.
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.
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.
Warnings: OpenStreetMap maps crag edges within about 5 m of the path in four places: on the ridge between Sail and Crag Hill (Scott Crag, near 5.95 km), just past the top of Crag Hill (near 6.3 km), near 7.55 km before Wandope, and on Whiteless Edge (near 8.5 km). Between about 6.7 and 7.0 km, past the Eel Crag top, the line is up to about 130 m from any mapped path. From Whiteless Pike the line goes very steeply down to Sail Beck, about 43% sustained near 9.4 km, the steepest ground of the walk, then climbs about 250 m almost as steeply to the Knott Rigg path: about 50% over 250 m near 10.7 km. The line crosses streams at two points OpenStreetMap maps as fords: below Ard Crags near 3.15 km, and Sail Beck near 10.15 km. About 4.3 km of the line, in pieces, follows paths that OpenStreetMap does not record as public rights of way; the longest are about 1.1 km from the top of Ard Crags towards Scar Crags (about 2.75 to 3.9 km), about 0.9 km from Crag Hill past the Eel Crag top (about 6.15 to 7.0 km) and about 2 km from Whiteless Pike to the Knott Rigg path (about 8.9 to 10.9 km). The rest is public footpaths. That is a map-data note, not a ruling on access: check the access land and rights of way maps before relying on this stretch.
This is the summit’s grid reference. If you call from anywhere else, give your own position, not this one.
The summit is also a Birkett.
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 →
The view from Knott Rigg
The 360° skyline from Knott Rigg
A computed 360° skyline — every visible named top labelled by distance and bearing, from the terrain model in perfect clarity, not photographed. Drag to pan; reveal the far four-nations horizon.
drag to pan · arrow keys
The skyline as a list, by direction
North: Crag Hill (2 km)
North-east: Skiddaw Little Man (11 km), Skiddaw Lesser Man (11 km), Knowe Crags (14 km), Gategill Fell Top (15 km), Blencathra (15 km), Atkinson Pike (16 km), Bowscale Fell (18 km)
East: Calfhow Pike (14 km), Watson's Dodd (14 km), Clough Head (14 km), Little Dodd (14 km), White Side (14 km), Helvellyn Lower Man (14 km), Raise (15 km), Great Dodd (15 km), Stybarrow Dodd (15 km), Helvellyn (15 km), Nethermost Pike (15 km), Catstye Cam (15 km), High Crag (16 km), Dollywaggon Pike (16 km), Cross Fell (51 km)
South-east: Hindscarth (3 km), High Spy (4 km), Cofa Pike (18 km), Fairfield (18 km)
South: Robinson (2 km), High Crag (5 km), Looking Stead (7 km), Pillar (7 km), Kirk Fell East Top (8 km), Kirk Fell (8 km)
South-west: High Stile (5 km), Red Pike (5 km), High Stile (5 km), Starling Dodd (6 km), Steeple (8 km), Scoat Fell (8 km)
West: Great Borne (8 km)
On the clearest days the far horizon adds: Slieve Donard (179 km, Ireland), Slieve Binnian (184 km, Ireland), Slievelamagan (182 km, Ireland), Slieve Commedagh (180 km, Ireland).
Knott Rigg waits for the sun. Its longest wait of the modelled year falls at midwinter, when the sun is up for 27 minutes before it clears this skyline — first light 09:01 against an almanac sunrise of 08:34. You are standing in shadow while the valley below is already lit. The sun comes up to the south-east from here (137.4°), and the skyline on that bearing stands at 2.55°.
Midsummer. The filled shape is the skyline as seen from the summit; the line is the sun’s path. Where they meet is first light — everything left of that point is the wait.
Times for 2026, in Lakeland clock time (GMT in winter, BST in summer) — and model outputs rather than observations.
First light
Almanac sunrise
Difference
Midsummer
04:48 BST ±5.0 min
04:37
+11 min
Equinox
06:24 GMT ±5.0 min
06:16
+8 min
Midwinter
09:01 GMT ±5.0 min
08:34
+27 min
The northern horizon stands at about 6.07° from here.
Last light — when the sun leaves Knott Rigg
Knott Rigg loses the sun early. Its earliest evening of the modelled year falls at midsummer, when last light is 70 minutes before almanac sunset — 20:43 against 21:53. The sun goes down to the west-north-west from here (301.0°), and the skyline on that bearing stands at 7.55°.
The evening of the same three days. A negative difference means a ridge takes the sun before the valley loses it.
Last light
Almanac sunset
Difference
Midsummer
20:43 BST ±5.0 min
21:53
-70 min
Equinox
18:16 GMT ±5.0 min
18:27
-11 min
Midwinter
15:30 GMT ±5.0 min
15:49
-19 min
These are daylight figures, not a descent plan: the light goes on fading for a good while after the sun leaves, and going down in it is a decision about your own ground and party, not about this table.
What you can see from Knott Rigg
On a clear day — computed sightlines, curvature- and refraction-corrected.
43Wainwrights in view+2 marginal
184 kmFurthest sightlineSlieve Binnian · possible under favourable refraction
—Sea in viewnone from here
On the clearest days the view reaches across to Northern Ireland.
How the view from Knott Rigg compares with all 214 — the View Report: every Wainwright ranked by what you can see from the top.
How the skyline, light and sightlines are computed
Computed, not photographed. First light is the first minute the sun’s upper limb clears this summit’s own skyline and last light the last minute it is still clear of it, both solved against the 360° horizon profile behind The View from Knott Rigg. Almanac sunrise and sunset are the flat-horizon convention. Every time carries a ± band from the 30 m elevation model — it smooths arêtes and cornices, so nothing here claims better than five minutes.
Sightlines from the Copernicus GLO-30 elevation model, which is a surface model: each 30 m cell holds the top of whatever stands there, trees and buildings included, rather than bare ground. Corrected for the Earth’s curvature and average atmospheric refraction. “Distant” sightlines and any over 100 km depend on exceptionally clear air. Modelled from Copernicus GLO-30 open elevation data — a guide to the view, not a guarantee of any single one.
