hikes.guideLake District

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

Birkett — Eastern (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Little Dodd (St John's Common)

785 m · Birkett — Eastern (not a Wainwright summit) · Birketts to bag nearby, parking, buses and live summit weather.

785 m
Height
+9
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX →
785 mBirkett — Eastern (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 785 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Tue 28 Jul): 14° to 12°C, gusts to 39 mph, 5.7 mm of rain forecast.

Tue 28 Jul
🌦️
14° / 12°
💨 39 mph
🌧 5.7 mm (100%)
Wed 29 Jul
🌧️
14° / 10°
💨 34 mph
🌧 5.8 mm (100%)
Thu 30 Jul
🌦️
12° / 3°
💨 29 mph
🌧 2.3 mm (78%)
Fri 31 Jul
🌤️
13° / 0°
💨 23 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (78%)
Sat 1 Aug
🌦️
13° / 2°
💨 14 mph
🌧 5.4 mm (54%)
Sun 2 Aug
🌫️
14° / 2°
💨 18 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (24%)
Mon 3 Aug
🌦️
14° / 3°
💨 15 mph
🌧 0.4 mm (23%)

Forecast snapshot from 28 Jul 2026, 04:58 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 785 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.

Getting there
🅿️ Legburthwaite (United Utilities, small)
St John's in the Vale — Sticks Pass side, High Rigg, Raven Crag.
🅿️ Swirls, Thirlmere (paid)
The standard west-side route up Helvellyn via Browncove Crags.
🚌 Stagecoach 555
Kendal – Staveley – Windermere – Ambleside – Rydal – Grasmere – Thirlmere (Wythburn & Swirls) – Keswick

Full parking & bus details ↓

Right now on the summit

🌦️ 14°low 12°C
Gusts39 mph

Full 7-day summit forecast →

Routes up Little Dodd (St John's Common)

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

Classifications & hill data
Birkett
785 m
Height
2,575 ft
In feet
NY 3370 2041
Grid ref

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Legburthwaite (United Utilities, small), about 2.2 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Little Dodd (St John's Common) (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.

1.0 km NWCalfhow Pike660 m · Eastern
1.3 km ENERanderside729 m · Eastern
1.7 km WSWCastle Rock339 m · Eastern
2.1 km WWren Crag311 m · Eastern
2.7 km NNWThrelkeld Knotts514 m · Eastern
2.8 km ESEBirkett Fell725 m · Eastern
2.9 km SWGreat How (Thirlmere)333 m · Eastern
2.9 km SSWBrown Crag610 m · Eastern

Routes over Little Dodd (St John's Common)

24.44 km · ~816 m ascent · loop · ~6–8 h

⬇️ Download GPX

Full route guide ↗

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

Terrain & access

A near-path top (about 785 m): a mapped path comes within about 74 m of the summit, with a last stretch of open ground (about 1 m of ascent, up to ~8°). 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; Copernicus GLO-30. See the terrain & access report for how this is worked out across all 145 fells.

Best parking to hike Little Dodd (St John's Common)

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

Legburthwaite (United Utilities, small) — 2.2 km from summit (straight line)
St John's in the Vale — Sticks Pass side, High Rigg, Raven Crag.
Directions (opens in new tab)
Swirls, Thirlmere (paid) — 4.2 km from summit (straight line)
The standard west-side route up Helvellyn via Browncove Crags.
Directions (opens in new tab)
🚺 The Swirls Car Park (opens in new tab) (461m) — Free · Accessible · RADAR key🚺 Armbroth Car Park (opens in new tab) (1587m) — Free

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.

Buses to Little Dodd (St John's Common) from Penrith / Ambleside / Windermere

Stagecoach 555
Kendal – Staveley – Windermere – Ambleside – Rydal – Grasmere – Thirlmere (Wythburn & Swirls) – Keswick
Catch it from: Windermere · Ambleside
Year-round, roughly hourly. The backbone bus of the A591 — ideal for Helvellyn (Wythburn/Swirls), Fairfield, the Central fells and anything around Grasmere/Rydal. From Penrith, take the X4/X5 to Keswick and change.

Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.

My hikes over Little Dodd (St John's Common) (Strava)

1 logged hike pass over this summit:

Interactive route maps and photos load here for visitors with JavaScript. Data from Strava.

Maps & guidebooks for Little Dodd (St John's Common)

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases — at no extra cost to you. How affiliate links work →