hikes.guideLake District

367 m · Outlying Fell — South Lakeland · Birketts to bag nearby, parking, buses, my hikes and live summit weather.

Outlying Fell — South LakelandAlso a Birkett

Lamb Pasture

Lamb Pasture (367 m / 1,204 ft) is the last and lowest top of the Bannisdale Horseshoe — the longest walk in Wainwright's Outlying Fells, a nine-summit skyline round between the Longsleddale and Bannisdale valleys that he warned was 'only for the superbly fit'.

367 m
Height
+0
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX → Parking & buses →

Home › Fells › Lamb Pasture

367 mOutlying Fell — South Lakeland✓ summit is also a Birkett+0 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 367 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Fri 11 Sep): 14° to 9°C, gusts to 19 mph, 2.3 mm of rain forecast.

Fri 11 Sep
🌦️
14° / 9°
💨 19 mph
🌧 2.3 mm (98%)
Sat 12 Sep
🌧️
16° / 9°
💨 46 mph
🌧 24.7 mm (100%)
Sun 13 Sep
🌦️
15° / 8°
💨 17 mph
🌧 0.1 mm (26%)
Mon 14 Sep
🌧️
16° / 10°
💨 36 mph
🌧 14.3 mm (94%)
Tue 15 Sep
🌦️
15° / 9°
💨 34 mph
🌧 3.4 mm (77%)
Wed 16 Sep
🌦️
12° / 9°
💨 34 mph
🌧 1.8 mm (59%)
Thu 17 Sep
🌦️
13° / 10°
💨 37 mph
🌧 4.8 mm (76%)

Forecast snapshot from 11 Sep 2026, 08:30 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 367 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

Lamb Pasture at a glance

Lamb Pasture

Lamb Pasture (367 m / 1,204 ft) is the last and lowest top of the Bannisdale Horseshoe — the longest walk in Wainwright's Outlying Fells, a nine-summit skyline round between the Longsleddale and Bannisdale valleys that he warned was 'only for the superbly fit'. Set on the far-eastern moorland edge of Lakeland, it is quiet, pastoral, grassy country a world away from the central fells. The name is a plain English field-name. A Wainwright Outlying Fell and a Birkett — most walkers meet it footsore at the end of a long day rather than as a summit in its own right.

Routes up Lamb Pasture

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

Bannisdale Fell - Long Crag
21.6 km · ~5.6 hr
A quiet Birkett round in Bannisdale, off to the east of the main fells — nine tops in 21.6 km with 774 m of climbing and no stage averaging steeper than about 11%. The difficulty here is navigation rather than gradient: it is rated hard to navigate and severe for its length. About 5.6 hours steady.
Borrowdale Birketts
21.2 km · ~5.6 hr
Seven tops in the eastern Borrowdale — the one near Shap, not the Lakeland valley — from High House Bank and Robin Hood round to Lamb Pasture. 21.2 km and 820 m, with no stage steeper than about 6%. Severe for length; about 5.6 hours.

Classifications & hill data

Outlying Fell
South Lakeland
Birkett
Synge
367 m
Height
1,204 ft
In feet
NY 5344 0210
Grid ref

The short answers

Is Lamb Pasture a Wainwright?

Lamb Pasture is one of Wainwright's Outlying Fells, not one of the 214 in the Pictorial Guides. It is also on the Birkett list and the Synge list.

Where do you park for Lamb Pasture?

The nearest car park we hold is Lamb Pasture, north-east (layby), about 1.5 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Lamb Pasture (layby), 1.7 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 Lamb Pasture?

The shortest way up we hold is Borrowdale Birketts — 21.2 km, 820 m of ascent, about 5.6 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is length — Severe.

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

Parking & buses for Lamb Pasture

Best parking to hike Lamb Pasture

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

Lamb Pasture, north-east (layby) — 1.5 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: Lamb Pasture (1.5 km). Fee not verified — check signage on arrival.
Directions Something changed here?
Lamb Pasture (layby) — 1.7 km from summit (straight line)
1.7 km from Lamb Pasture.
Directions Something changed here?
Huck's Brow (free) — 2.5 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: High House Bank (1.4 km). Free (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
High House Bank (layby) — 2.9 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: High House Bank (1.1 km). Free (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
Selside car park — 2.9 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest published walking: 2.6 km from the 'Bannisdale Fell - Long Crag' route start; 2.4 km from Ulgraves. Compacted surface (OSM-tagged). Fee not verified — check signage on arrival.
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 Lamb Pasture by bus

The nearest bus stop we hold is the X6 at Kendal, outside Hayton's Garage, 11.9 km of walking from the start — not realistically reachable without a car.

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

Hazards on Lamb Pasture

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: Lamb Pasture, north-east (layby), about 1.5 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Lamb Pasture (within 3 km)

No bonus Birketts within 3 km — every Birkett near here is already a Wainwright summit, so just enjoy the walk.

Routes over Lamb Pasture

Bannisdale Fell - Long CragPlanned
21.61 km · ~774 m ascent · loop · ~5.5–7.5 h
Summits: Lamb PastureThe Forest (Borrowdale Head)White Howe (Bannisdale)Bannisdale Fell - Long CragAncrow Brow North TopHarrop PikeGreat YarlsideLittle YarlsideWhatshaw Common

⬇️ 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.

Borrowdale BirkettsPlanned
21.21 km · ~820 m ascent · loop · ~5.5–7.5 h
Summits: High House BankRobin HoodLord's Seat (Crookdale) (Lord's Seat - High House Fell)Ancrow Brow North TopWhite Howe (Bannisdale)The Forest (Borrowdale Head)Lamb Pasture

⬇️ 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 Lamb Pasture

Terrain & access

A near-path top (about 367 m): a mapped path comes within about 93 m of the summit, with a last stretch of open ground (about 12 m of ascent, up to ~10°). The summit is on CRoW open access land. The direct line crosses 1 wall.

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 144 fells.

Access on Lamb Pasture

Access: summit and direct approach lie within mapped open-access land (CRoW). The usual access-land conditions apply.

Walls & fences: the approach crosses a wall. No stile or gate is mapped within 150 m of the crossing — that’s a statement about the map, not the wall, which may well have one. Expect to walk the wall to find a crossing rather than climbing it: dry-stone walls are working boundaries and take real damage from climbers.

Local restrictions can close open-access areas temporarily — check the official open-access information before travelling.

How we worked this out

Summit and approach positions are tested against Natural England’s CRoW Act 2000 access layer; rights of way and wall or fence detail come from OpenStreetMap. Both are open datasets with known gaps — in our own survey only 4 of 23 wall and fence crossings had a stile or gate mapped within 150 m — so absence of a mapped feature never means absence of a real one. Nothing here is field-verified unless marked, and none of it is legal advice. How we checked 378 fells.

Places to stay near this fell

Shap Fell Bothy

about 5.3 km from the start, in a straight line

At 5.29 km it sits beyond our usual 4.83 km / 3-mile line, and it is here anyway because it is the only property near this start whose own site says anything at all — all three closer candidates publish nothing. Rather than tell a family nothing, we carry it with its limits stated: it is not a bed-and-breakfast, it is indoor camping. Sole use of a two-floor building for up to 8, but "In the upstairs there are 4 futon mattresses for the first 4 people to sleep on" and anyone beyond 4 brings their own mat; "Bedding for up to 4 people is available for hire or you can bring your own"; no running water, water is delivered in canisters; the toilet is a Portaloo in the side yard; there is no email and no form, only Airbnb. It suits a self-sufficient walking party wanting the whole place and a wood-burner after Bannisdale; it does not suit a family expecting a room, a meal and a radiator to dry kit on. One thing to check before booking: the footer reads 2026 but the page still carries live lockdown text - "Due to Covid restrictions WE DO NOT PROVIDE KITCHEN EQUIPMENT, CROCKERY AND CUTLERY or BEDDING." - so what is actually supplied should be confirmed on the Airbnb listing before booking.

The building is a converted telephone repeater station standing at 1,390 ft on Shap Fell by the A6, off-grid on wind and solar, with roof windows put in for star-gazing; a snicket gate at the back opens straight onto public access common land.

  • Dogs “Dogs are welcome.”
  • Family rooms “During your stay you will have exclusive use of the Bothy.”
  • Parking “Two very large lay-bys for ample parking within 70 yards.”

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 Lamb Pasture