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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 → Parking & buses →
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 (Fri 11 Sep): 10° to 8°C, gusts to 30 mph, 1.3 mm of rain forecast.

Fri 11 Sep
🌦️
10° / 8°
💨 30 mph
🌧 1.3 mm (100%)
Sat 12 Sep
🌧️
13° / 8°
💨 50 mph
🌧 17.7 mm (100%)
Sun 13 Sep
🌦️
11° / 6°
💨 26 mph
🌧 0.2 mm (62%)
Mon 14 Sep
🌧️
13° / 6°
💨 32 mph
🌧 10.3 mm (100%)
Tue 15 Sep
🌦️
12° / 7°
💨 33 mph
🌧 10.5 mm (89%)
Wed 16 Sep
🌦️
9° / 7°
💨 33 mph
🌧 3.4 mm (78%)
Thu 17 Sep
🌦️
9° / 7°
💨 38 mph
🌧 7.2 mm (92%)

Forecast snapshot from 11 Sep 2026, 08:30 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. Fees: pay and display; coins and cards (Lake District National Park car-parks directory, checked Aug 2026). Pay and display (visitlakedistrict.com) (United Utilities, checked Aug 2026).
🅿️ Castle Rock (layby)
Walking base for Brown Crag, White Side, Raise and Stybarrow Dodd — the 'Brown Crag and Raise' route starts 213 m away. Also serves 'Three Dodds and Calfhow Pike'. Free (OSM-tagged). Ground surface (OSM-tagged).
🚌 Stagecoach 509
Penrith ↔ Keswick around Ullswater — calls at Pooley Bridge, Watermillock, Glenridding, Patterdale, Hartsop, Dockray, Matterdale, Mungrisdale and Threlkeld

Full parking & bus details ↓

Right now on the summit

🌦️ 10°low 8°C
Gusts30 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

The short answers

Is Little Dodd (St John's Common) a Wainwright?

Little Dodd (St John's Common) is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list.

Where do you park for Little Dodd (St John's Common)?

The nearest car park we hold is Legburthwaite (United Utilities, small), about 2.1 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Castle Rock (layby), 2.3 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 Little Dodd (St John's Common)?

The shortest way up we hold is Hart Side, Stybarrow Dodd, Raise, Watson's Dodd and more — 24.4 km, 816 m of ascent, about 6.2 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is steepness — Severe.

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

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.

Parking & buses for Little Dodd (St John's Common)

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) — 2.1 km from summit (straight line)
St John's in the Vale — Sticks Pass side, High Rigg, Raven Crag. Fees: pay and display; coins and cards (Lake District National Park car-parks directory, checked Aug 2026). Pay and display (visitlakedistrict.com) (United Utilities, checked Aug 2026).
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
If it is full: Roadside parking for Great How (free) (0.6 km) a few spaces only; Raven Crag car park (1.5 km, 98 m up); Roadside parking for Raven Crag (free) (1.7 km, 105 m up) a few spaces only
🚺 Legburthwaite Car Park (opens in new tab) (~8 m straight line) — Free
Castle Rock (layby) — 2.3 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Brown Crag, White Side, Raise and Stybarrow Dodd — the 'Brown Crag and Raise' route starts 213 m away. Also serves 'Three Dodds and Calfhow Pike'. Free (OSM-tagged). Ground surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
High Bridge End Caravan and Camping Site (free) — 2.3 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Brown Crag, White Side, Raise and Stybarrow Dodd — the 'Brown Crag and Raise' route starts 212 m away. Also serves 'Three Dodds and Calfhow Pike'. Free (OSM-tagged). Ground surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Roadside parking for Great How (free) — 2.4 km from summit (straight line)
0.5 km from Great How. Added from the 5 Aug 2026 OSM candidate review.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Great How (layby) — 2.4 km from summit (straight line)
Community walk pages start here for 'The Dodds and Clough Head, via Sticks Pass and St John's in the Vale' (community walk listings). Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions (opens in new tab)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 Little Dodd (St John's Common) by bus

The 509 stops at Dockray, outside The Royal Hotel. From there it is 1.6 km and 130 m of ascent to the start of Hart Side, Stybarrow Dodd, Raise, Watson's Dodd and more — a walk in before the walk. The last bus is 19:09 towards Troutbeck (UB1) and 18:02 towards Grasmere (559) and 16:12 towards Keswick (509), 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 509
Penrith ↔ Keswick around Ullswater — calls at Pooley Bridge, Watermillock, Glenridding, Patterdale, Hartsop, Dockray, Matterdale, Mungrisdale and Threlkeld
Catch it from: Penrith · Keswick
The Ullswater side of the Penrith–Keswick corridor, and a second option where we previously showed only the 508. Reaches Helvellyn and Catstye Cam from Glenridding, Place Fell and Angletarn Pikes from Patterdale, the Hartsop fells, and Gowbarrow from Dockray. Frequency and season are not listed here because we have not verified a timetable — check Stagecoach before you rely on it. Note the Troutbeck on this route is the one on the A66 near Penrith, not the Troutbeck near Windermere.

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

Hazards on Little Dodd (St John's Common)

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: Legburthwaite (United Utilities, small), about 2.1 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 · Central
2.3 km SEGreen Side (White Stones)794 m · Eastern
2.7 km NNWThrelkeld Knotts514 m · Eastern
2.8 km ESEBirkett Fell725 m · Eastern
2.9 km SWGreat How (Thirlmere)333 m · Central
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. How to use this guide.

On the hill: terrain and water on Little Dodd (St John's Common)

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 144 fells.

Places to stay near this fell

Lowthwaite Bed and Breakfast (opens in new tab) guest house

about 4.0 km from the start, in a straight line

The only property in this radius that answers the child questions with objects instead of sentiment - a cot, high chair(s) and special cutlery are itemised, and the Matterdale and Helvellyn rooms share a private vestibule so a family sleeps as one unit rather than across a corridor. The Helvellyn room additionally takes three on "the enormous settee cum third bed with a proper matress". A drying room sits in the all-rooms facilities list. It is also the only evidenced bed in the same Matterdale valley as this start, 0.66 km nearer than anything on the Glenridding side, and the fell they name for small legs, Little Mell Fell, is behind the house. Against it: no dog or pet word appears anywhere in four cached pages, no breakfast time is published, and the email is obfuscated site-wide so the footer phone number is the only contact route the cache supports.

Most of the furniture was made by hand in Tanzania, where the owners previously ran a business arranging Kilimanjaro climbs; the bathrooms have wooden floors salvaged from the old farmhouse's living-room floorboards.

  • Drying room “Use of guidebooks and other books, Maps (for planning and laminated for walks), Drying room, and Fridge (in the Dining Room).”
  • Family rooms “Matterdale and Helvellyn rooms are connected via a small, private vestibule and together they are ideal for a family or a group of friends.”
  • Parking “Another alternative is to use what3words where our car park is primed.lavished.amounting”
  • Children “We are very happy to welcome children of all ages.”

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 (opens in new tab).

Other fells near Little Dodd (St John's Common)