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

Birkett — North Western (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Lad Hows

Lad Hows (426 m / 1,398 ft) is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells), one of the lesser-known North Western tops.

426 m
Height
+9
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX → Parking & buses →

Home › Fells › Lad Hows

426 mBirkett — North Western (not a Wainwright summit)+9 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 426 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Fri 11 Sep): 13° to 10°C, gusts to 25 mph, 2.6 mm of rain forecast.

Fri 11 Sep
🌦️
13° / 10°
💨 25 mph
🌧 2.6 mm (100%)
Sat 12 Sep
🌧️
16° / 10°
💨 44 mph
🌧 24.3 mm (100%)
Sun 13 Sep
🌦️
13° / 8°
💨 14 mph
🌧 0.1 mm (74%)
Mon 14 Sep
🌧️
15° / 9°
💨 33 mph
🌧 12.7 mm (96%)
Tue 15 Sep
🌦️
14° / 9°
💨 32 mph
🌧 13.2 mm (100%)
Wed 16 Sep
🌦️
12° / 10°
💨 33 mph
🌧 5.4 mm (96%)
Thu 17 Sep
🌦️
11° / 9°
💨 37 mph
🌧 8.8 mm (98%)

Forecast snapshot from 11 Sep 2026, 08:30 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 426 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.

Pro mountain forecasts: MWIS · Met Office mountain forecast

Lad Hows at a glance

Lad Hows

Lad Hows (426 m / 1,398 ft) is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells), one of the lesser-known North Western tops. It rises the Buttermere valley. The name is not securely explained, though it is likely Old Norse or Old English in origin, like most fells hereabouts. It also features on the Synge list. Its nearest tops are Whiteless Pike (0.9 km E); Grasmoor (1.1 km N); Rannerdale Knotts (1.1 km SW) — it's usually taken in on a round of these neighbours. It's a worthwhile objective for anyone working through the Birkett list, or as a short extension to a bigger day on the higher neighbouring fells.

Routes up Lad Hows

Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.

High Snockrigg, Eel Crag & Lad Hows
15.7 km · ~5.5 hr
A big north-western day — seven tops from High Snockrigg over Whiteless Pike to Crag Hill, 15.7 km and 1,399 m, with one stage averaging 22%. About 5.5 hours.

Classifications & hill data

Birkett
Synge
426 m
Height
1,398 ft
In feet
NY 1719 1929
Grid ref

The short answers

Is Lad Hows a Wainwright?

Lad Hows is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list and the Synge list.

Where do you park for Lad Hows?

The nearest car park we hold is Crummock Water, Cinderdale Common (free), about 0.9 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Lad Hows (verge), 1.0 km out. We only look within 2.5 km, measured straight-line: over longer distances a road may cross a pass and the drive bears no relation to the line.

How hard is Lad Hows?

The shortest way up we hold is High Snockrigg, Eel Crag & Lad Hows — 15.7 km, 1399 m of ascent, about 5.5 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is steepness — Severe.

All axes: steepness: Severe · exposure: Hard · length: Hard · terrain: Moderate · navigation: Moderate.

Parking & buses for Lad Hows

Best parking to hike Lad Hows

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

Crummock Water, Cinderdale Common (free) — 0.9 km from summit (straight line)
Roadside common by Crummock Water - Rannerdale Knotts and Whiteless Pike.
Directions Something changed here?
Lad Hows (verge) — 1.0 km from summit (straight line)
1.0 km from Lad Hows. Gravel verge.
Directions Something changed here?
Lad Hows (layby) — 1.2 km from summit (straight line)
1.2 km from Lad Hows.
Directions Something changed here?
Car park for Rannerdale Knotts — 1.3 km from summit (straight line)
0.4 km from Rannerdale Knotts. Added from the 5 Aug 2026 OSM candidate review.
Directions Something changed here?
Lad Hows, north-west (layby) — 1.4 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: Lad Hows (1.4 km), Grasmoor (1.5 km), Mellbreak North Top (1.8 km). Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?

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.

Vehicles are left entirely at their owner’s risk. We list places people park; we cannot vouch for any of them. Judge it on the day: take valuables with you, leave nothing on show, and if a spot feels wrong when you get there, park somewhere else.

Getting to Lad Hows by bus

The 77 stops at Buttermere Youth Hostel (near), 250 m from the start of High Snockrigg, Eel Crag & Lad Hows. Seasonal: the 77 does not run all year. 1 November 2026 is its last day, and it is not daily before then — a bus on 31 of the 56 days from 7 September. We don’t know when it returns. Confirmed with the operator, 29 August 2026. The last bus is 18:21 towards Keswick (77), every day. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 7 September 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.

Stagecoach 77 / 77A “Honister Rambler”
Keswick – Portinscale – Hawse End (Catbells) – Grange – Seatoller – Honister Pass – Buttermere – Lorton – Whinlatter – Keswick (circular)
Catch it from: Keswick (connect via 555 from Windermere/Ambleside or X4/X5 from Penrith)
Seasonal (roughly Easter–October). Brilliant for the North Western fells: Catbells, Dale Head from Honister, the Buttermere fells and Whinlatter.

Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com or Traveline before relying on a last bus.

Hazards on Lad Hows

No hazard card for this fell. The usual open-fell rules apply: check the forecast, carry a map and compass, and turn back in cloud if the ground is not what you expected.

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Crummock Water, Cinderdale Common (free), about 0.9 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Lad Hows (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.

1.2 km ENEThirdgill Head Man734 m · North Western
2.3 km NEEel Crag (Birkett)807 m · North Western
2.7 km SWScale Knott338 m · Western
2.8 km EIll Crag (Newlands) (Knott Rigg North Top)546 m · North Western
2.8 km NWhiteside East Top (Whiteside) (Gasgale Crags)719 m · North Western
2.8 km SSEHigh Snockrigg526 m · North Western
2.9 km WMellbreak North Top509 m · Western
3.0 km NNEGasgale Crags703 m · North Western
3.0 km NNESand Hill756 m · North Western

Routes over Lad Hows

High Snockrigg, Eel Crag & Lad HowsPlanned
15.69 km · ~1399 m ascent · loop · ~5.5–7.5 h
Summits: High SnockriggWhiteless PikeThirdgill Head ManCrag Hill (Eel Crag)Eel Crag (Birkett)GrasmoorLad Hows

⬇️ Download GPX

Full route guide ↗

✎️ Planned route — drawn but not personally walked or checked yet.

A planned line is a suggestion, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate independently and carry a map & compass. How to use this guide.

On the hill: terrain and water on Lad Hows

Water & shelter on the way up

On the High Snockrigg, Eel Crag & Lad Hows route:

🛖 map (9 m)🛖 map (52 m)🚌 Mountain Road junction (11 m)🚌 Bridge Hotel (133 m)🚌 The Fish Hotel (184 m)🚌 Buttermere Youth Hostel (N bound) (209 m)⛺ Syke Farm Campsite (355 m)

On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.

Places to stay near this fell

Bridge Hotel hotel

about 0.0 km from the start, in a straight line

It is 20 m from where all five Buttermere routes begin and it is the only hotel in the valley that says it takes dogs, in a cluster where three of the other four beds state a pet restriction. It also states its own size - "21 EN-SUITE BEDROOMS AND 6 SELF-CATERING APARTMENTS" - and its own food and ales, so a party coming off Red Pike at six can eat and sleep without moving the car. Set against that: only its home page is in the cache and that page answers nothing about parking, drying, children or family rooms, and it publishes no email and no phone at all, so this is a place you book online or ring on OSM's number, not one you email.

The bedrooms are deliberately unwired - no television, no radio, and no mobile signal to lose.

  • Dogs “A true dog-friendly hotel in the Lake District”
  • Evening meal “Exceptionally friendly and professional service, homemade food, carefully selected local real ales with our staff who naturally go the extra mile to ensure your needs meet your expectations.”

Worth knowing before you book

These places state on their own site that they do not take children.

What each place says about itself, quoted from their own site. We have not stayed at any of them, and there are no prices, no booking and no affiliate links. Distances are straight lines from each route start, never walking times. Properties found via OpenStreetMap.

Other fells near Lad Hows