Latterbarrow
Latterbarrow at 244m (801ft) is a delightful, craggy little summit above Hawkshead, its rocky top — marked by a tall stone obelisk — giving outstanding views of Esthwaite Water and the surrounding wooded country. Wainwright included it in his Outlying Fells guide.
Summit conditions on Latterbarrow
On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 14° to 8°C, gusts to 37 mph, 5.7 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 Latterbarrow
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
A woodland circuit from Beatrix Potter’s Hawkshead that climbs to the great cairn on Latterbarrow — a little fell with a big reward, looking clean down Windermere and across to the Coniston fells — then drops back through the trees.
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 Latterbarrow?
The shortest way up we hold is Hawkshead into the woods — 7.54 km, 283 m of ascent, ~1¾–2¾ h. On our scale its hardest axes are steepness, terrain and navigation — Moderate.
All axes: steepness: Moderate · terrain: Moderate · navigation: Moderate · length: Easy · exposure: Easy.
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 244 m summit (Open-Meteo). Check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
Full 7-day forecast
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 Latterbarrow
Parking
Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.
2 more places to park near Latterbarrow
Positions are approximate.
Of the pay-and-display machine tickets sold at Hawkshead from 17 August 2024 to 31 March 2026, 5% were bought before 10am (our count of FOI/2026.500 ticket data). Contains public sector information provided by the Lake District National Park Authority and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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 505 stops at Hawkshead, at Tourist Information Centre, a 90 m walk from the start of Hawkshead into the woods — a route we rate Moderate overall (hardest: steepness, terrain and navigation). As timetabled from 27 October to 1 November. Towards Coniston (505): Tuesday to Sunday 19:55. Towards Kendal (505): Tuesday to Sunday 20:43. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 12 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 Latterbarrow
Notes from a planned route, not walked: Hawkshead into the woods
- Forest tracks branch and re-cross — follow the waymarks.
- Muddy after rain; occasional forestry operations.
- Lanes near Hawkshead; livestock in the fields.
If you need to get off (the leg from Hawkshead Car Park): The map shows the line on lanes to about 1 km, past Colthouse, then on public bridleways through the woods of Claife Heights; at about 4.6 km a public bridleway leads about 420 m north, losing about 45 m, to the lane at High Wray; elsewhere on this stage the way off is back or on, never more than about 2 km; not walked for this guide.
Quoted from the route page of a planned route, drawn from the map and not yet walked: its warnings and the note for the leg that reaches Latterbarrow.
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.
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 Latterbarrow
No bonus Birketts within 3 km.
Routes over Latterbarrow
Bags Latterbarrow (244 m) and its landmark cairn — a modest top with a view out of all proportion to its height.
Download GPX Planned route · not yet walked
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 Latterbarrow
Water & shelter on the way up
On the Hawkshead into the woods route:
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.
About Latterbarrow
Classifications & hill data
Is Latterbarrow a Wainwright?
Latterbarrow is one of Wainwright's Outlying Fells, not one of the 214 in the Pictorial Guides.
Selected lists
This is the summit’s grid reference. If you call from anywhere else, give your own position, not this one.
The summit is not a Birkett top.
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
- Bank Ground Farm (opens in new tab) guest houseabout 3.8 km
- Skelwith Fold Caravan Park (opens in new tab) caravan siteabout 4.8 km
- High Wray Farm (opens in new tab) guest houseabout 2.7 km
Also nearby, but not independent
- Esthwaite Lodge - Hawkshead Youth Hostel (YHA Hawkshead) (opens in new tab) hostelabout 1.3 km
- Low Wray campsite (opens in new tab) campsiteabout 4.1 km
We have not stayed at any of them. We take no bookings or affiliate fees. Distances are straight lines from each route start, never walking times. Properties found via OpenStreetMap (opens in new tab).