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Little Hart Crag - a faint path along the grassy top, looking down to Brothers Water with Hartsop Dodd and the Kirkstone fells under a heavy sky

Little Hart Crag (West Top)

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637 mWainwright — Eastern Fells+3 bonus Birketts within 3 km Care needed in cloud

Little Hart Crag at 637m (2,090ft) is the rocky subsidiary summit above the Dovedale valley, giving excellent views down to Brothers Water and across to Red Screes. Most naturally reached from Hartsop or as part of the Red Screes–Middle Dodd circuit.

Summit conditions on Little Hart Crag (West Top)

On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 11° to 5°C, gusts to 59 mph, 13.0 mm of rain forecast over the whole day, midnight to midnight.

Against our lines, Tuesday 27 October: wind, cold and cloud from the Met Office UKV 2 km model (daylight hours, as in the verdict above); rain from the summit line’s forecast (the whole day). A tile is large when this top is past its line.

Wind on the top

Past the line

62 mph, our estimate for the open top in the worst daylight hour

The Met Office 2 km model’s gust of 53 mph times our exposure factor of 1.16. The summit line above gives Open-Meteo’s highest gust for the whole day, 59 mph, before any exposure factor.

The line Our line: 25 mph, where our wind Scale begins its 25–35 band: “balance affected; buffeting on exposed ground”. MWIS describes what wind does to a walker across a range rather than at a line: from about 20–25 mph it starts to affect your balance.

Estimated: it is not calibrated against summit readings, and the two forecasts can disagree by more than a band.

Cloud on the top

Past the line

18 out of 100, the clear-top reading

Averaged over the daylight hours, from the forecast’s humidity and low cloud.

The line Our line: a clear-top reading under 20 out of 100, where our scorer says “summit likely clagged in”. There is no outside threshold to cite; it is our estimate. What cloud does to finding the way: navigating in cloud.

Not an observation: cloud lifts and drops within the hour.

Rain, and the becks

Past the line

13.0 mm of rain over the whole day, midnight to midnight

The same figure as the summit line above and the 7-day forecast.

The line Our line: 6 mm in the day, where our scorer counts a day as soaking. We read rainfall, never river levels: becks in spate.

Open-Meteo’s forecast. It says nothing about rain already in the ground.

Also checked cold: feels like 1 °C, no ice or snow forecast. Under a line is not the same as fine: it means only that these figures are under the lines we use.

Not in these tiles Lightning, river levels, snow or ice already lying, and the ground under your feet. A tile cannot see them, so an empty space here never means they are absent.

Snow figures with a second opinion: Powered by Met Office data

Full 7-day summit forecast ↓

Wainwrights are scored for walking conditions each morning from the Met Office’s UK forecast model, read for each summit through Open-Meteo; the forecast figures are Open-Meteo’s, worked out for the summit’s height. How we check →

Weather data by Open-Meteo.com

Routes up Little Hart Crag (West Top)

Both start from Cow Bridge, Hartsop (paid); the last two rows give its parking and bus. Full maps further down.

Hartsop Fells and Hart CragMiddle Dodd Little Hart Crag and High Hartsop Dodd
Starts fromCow BridgeCow Bridge
Distance and climb11.87 km, 837 m of climb10.42 km, 743 m of climb
Time, fast to steady~3¾–5¼ h~3¼–4½ h
ScramblingHands for a few steps: the last push onto Hart Crag (about km 4.5).Not mentioned in the route’s notes
ExposureModerateHard
NavigationModerateHard
Steepest stretchDescent of about 41% at 9.3 km (Severe)Climb of about 53% at 3.7 km (Severe)
After the summitOver High Hartsop DoddOver High Hartsop Dodd
Walked or plannedWalked by Lee, July 2025Walked by Lee, July 2025
Car park at the startCow Bridge, Hartsop (paid)Cow Bridge, Hartsop (paid)
Bus to the start508 at the start508 at the start

Times run from fast to steady pace (Naismith’s rule). Scrambling quotes each route’s own notes; “not mentioned” means they do not say, not that the ground has none. Each route’s page has its map, stages and GPX.

Distance, climb and the steepest stretch are measured from each route’s GPX track; the other grades are set on the ground, judged from the map or estimated from OpenStreetMap, and each route page says which. How we check →

Is Little Hart Crag a hard walk?

The fell is small and rocky-topped with twin summits, and the climbing on it is brief. It sits between Scandale and Dovedale, and it is more intricate than the big ridges either side of it.

Our round with Middle Dodd and High Hartsop Dodd is 10.4 km with 743 m of ascent, and we grade its navigation hard. Most of the effort in that figure is Middle Dodd's steep nose, not this fell.

How we check →

Conditions and 7-day summit forecast

Modelled for the 637 m summit (Open-Meteo). Check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

Full 7-day forecast
Tue 27 Oct
11° / 5°
59 mph
13.0 mm (100%)
Wed 28 Oct
9° / 5°
41 mph
12.4 mm (100%)
Thu 29 Oct
8° / 7°
28 mph
0.7 mm (33%)
Fri 30 Oct
8° / 6°
29 mph
0.0 mm (23%)
Sat 31 Oct
10° / 1°
12 mph
0.0 mm (18%)
Sun 1 Nov
7° / 1°
13 mph
0.0 mm (10%)
Mon 2 Nov
7° / 1°
16 mph
0.0 mm (0%)

Taken 27 October 2026, 08:13 UTC; the live forecast replaces it when it loads. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com

Pro mountain forecasts: MWIS · Met Office mountain forecast

Parking & buses for Little Hart Crag (West Top)

Parking

Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.

Cow Bridge, Hartsop (paid) — at the start of Hartsop Fells and Hart Crag and Middle Dodd Little Hart Crag and High Hartsop Dodd
Paid car park by Brothers Water — Hartsop above How, Dovedale, Caudale Moor. Fees: pay and display; coins and cards; RingGo ID 37323 (LDNPA, checked August 2026).
Directions When people arrive, and what it costs →Something changed here?
Middle Dodd, north-east car park (free) — 1.6 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: Middle Dodd (0.7 km), Caudale Moor - John Bell's Banner (1.0 km), Red Screes (1.3 km). Free (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
A592 south of Windy Corner (car park) — 1.6 km from summit (straight line)
South of Windy Corner on the Kirkstone Pass side, about 480 m south of the Windy Corner bus stops. The nearest route starts are 'Finishing of the Far Eastern Fells', 2.6 km north on foot at Hartsop, and the two at Cow Bridge, 2.9 km north on foot. Free (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
3 more places to park near Little Hart Crag (West Top)
Middle Dodd (layby) — 1.7 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: Middle Dodd (0.6 km), Red Screes (0.9 km), St Raven's Edge (1.0 km). Free (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
Middle Dodd car park (free) — 1.8 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: Middle Dodd (0.7 km), Red Screes (0.9 km), St Raven's Edge (0.9 km). Free (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
Windy Corner (layby) — 1.9 km from summit (straight line)
On the A592 at Windy Corner, beside the Windy Corner bus stops. The nearest route starts are 'Finishing of the Far Eastern Fells', 2.1 km north on foot at Hartsop, and the two at Cow Bridge, 2.3 km north on foot. Free (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?

Positions are approximate.

Of the pay-and-display machine tickets sold at Cow Bridge from 17 August 2024 to 31 March 2026, 34% 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 508 and 509 stop at Hartsop, opposite Cow Bridge, a 30 m walk from the start of Hartsop Fells and Hart Crag — a route we rate Severe overall (hardest: steepness). The last bus is 19:51 towards Windermere (508) and 15:14 towards Hartsop (509), every day. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 7 September 2026; that timetable runs to 1 November 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.

Stagecoach 508 “Ullswater Bus”
Penrith – Pooley Bridge – Aira Force – Glenridding – Patterdale (summer services continue over Kirkstone Pass to Troutbeck and Windermere)
Catch it from: Penrith · Windermere (summer only)
The key route from Penrith for the Eastern and Far Eastern fells: Helvellyn from Glenridding, Place Fell, the Hartsop fells. The summer Kirkstone extension drops you at the pass for Red Screes and Caudale Moor.

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

Getting there across the Lake District: Buses · Parking map · By train · By boat

Hazards on Little Hart Crag (West Top)

Notes from the Hartsop Fells and Hart Crag route

If you need to get off (the leg from Dove Crag): From Little Hart Crag, Scandale Pass is about 0.6 km south on a mapped path, and from the pass a mapped path runs north-east down Caiston Glen towards Brothers Water. We have checked it on the map, not on foot.

Quoted from the route page: the note for the leg that reaches Little Hart Crag (Little Hart Crag - West Top).

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.

Navigating in cloud

Care needed

Of the three things our terrain model measures, the highest reading here is the amount of walkable ground near the summit that lies close to steep ground or crag. Take care in poor visibility — carry map and compass, and know how to use them.

In winter — snow, whiteout, cornices, buried features — every top demands full winter navigation skills whatever its band, and a broad, gentle summit can be the worst place of all. See walking in bad weather and the navigation guide.

How Little Hart Crag (West Top) compares with all 214: the Clag Index (experimental).

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 (read 26 October 2026).

Map, GPX and nearby Birketts

Free mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap, with SRTM elevation data (switch layers top-right).

Parking, toilets and buses: Parking & buses ↑.

Birketts within 3 km of Little Hart Crag (West Top)

These Birkett tops are not Wainwright summits. Distances are straight lines: check the ground and access on a map before adding one.

2.4 km NNEGale Crag512 m · Eastern
2.5 km SESt Raven's Edge593 m · Far Eastern
2.5 km ECaudale Moor - John Bell's Banner755 m · Far Eastern

Routes over Little Hart Crag (West Top)

Hartsop Fells and Hart Crag
Summits: Gale CragHartsop Above How (Gill Crag - Hartsop Above How)Hart CragDove CragLittle Hart Crag (Little Hart Crag - West Top)High Hartsop Dodd

Download GPX Walked by Lee, July 2025

Route guide →

Middle Dodd Little Hart Crag and High Hartsop Dodd
Summits: Middle DoddLittle Hart Crag (Little Hart Crag - West Top)High Hartsop Dodd

Download GPX Walked by Lee, July 2025

Route guide →

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 Little Hart Crag (West Top)

Water & shelter on the way up

On the Hartsop Fells and Hart Crag route:

Cow Bridge (29 m from the start, straight line) Cow Bridge car park (33 m from the start, straight line) Road End (306 m from the start, straight line)

On the Middle Dodd Little Hart Crag and High Hartsop Dodd route:

Cow Bridge (53 m from the start, straight line) Cow Bridge car park (54 m from the start, straight line) Road End (329 m from the start, straight line)

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

About Little Hart Crag (West Top)

Little Hart Crag - a faint path along the grassy top, looking down to Brothers Water with Hartsop Dodd and the Kirkstone fells under a heavy sky
© Lee McCoy

A rewarding fell for the views of the eastern valleys.

My Strava hikes over Little Hart Crag (West Top)

3 logged hikes pass over this summit:

Data from Strava.

Classifications & hill data

Is Little Hart Crag (West Top) a Wainwright?

Little Hart Crag (West Top) is a Wainwright. It is also on the Birkett list, the Synge list, the Nuttall list, the Fellranger list and the Hewitt list.

Selected lists

Wainwright
Eastern
Birkett
Fellranger
Synge
Nuttall
Hewitt
637 m
Height
2,090 ft
In feet
NY 3873 1003
Grid ref

This is the summit’s grid reference. If you call from anywhere else, give your own position, not this one.

The summit is also a Birkett.

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 →

The view from Little Hart Crag (West Top)

The 360° skyline from Little Hart Crag (West Top)

A computed 360° skyline — every visible named top labelled by distance and bearing, from the terrain model in perfect clarity, not photographed. Drag to pan; reveal the far four-nations horizon.

drag to pan · arrow keys
Computed 360-degree skyline from Little Hart Crag (Little Hart Crag - West Top)29 labelled tops shown (7 distant behind the far-horizon toggle). Theoretical visibility in perfect clarity; computed from terrain, not photographed.eye levelNNEESESSWWNWHelvellyn · 7 kmSt Sunday Crag · 4 kmHart Crag · 2 kmHigh Raise · 7 kmThe Old Man of Coniston · 17 kmSwirl How · 15 kmGavel Pike · 4 kmIll Bell · 5 kmHart Side · 10 kmCaudale Moor · 3 kmKentmere Pike · 8 kmYoke · 6 kmGray Crag · 4 kmRest Dodd · 6 kmLoadpot Hill · 11 kmCarrock Fell · 24 kmPlace Fell · 7 kmSwineside Knott · 10 kmGreat Mell Fell · 15 kmDove Crag · 1 kmRed Screes · 2 kmAngletarn Pikes · 6 kmSwarth Fell · 12 kmLow Pike · 3 kmSleet Fell · 10 kmTop o' Selside · 20 kmHolme Fell · 12 kmClaife Heights · 13 kmLatterbarrow · 11 kmNethermost Pike · 6 kmWether Hill · 10 kmHigh Pike · 2 kmBirk Fell · 8 kmArnison Crag · 5 kmHallin Fell · 11 kmEycott Hill · 19 kmBlack Fell · 10 kmBigland Barrow · 26 kmSnowdon · 174 km · a handful of days a yearArenig Fawr · 182 km · a handful of days a yearYr Eifl · 194 km · a handful of days a yearMoel y Gamelin · 165 km · a handful of days a yearWisp Hill · 89 km · a rare clear dayCauldcleuch Head · 91 km · a rare clear dayLarriston Fells · 84 km · a rare clear day
The skyline as a list, by direction
  • North: Birks (4 km), Place Fell (7 km), Heron Pike (8 km), Sheffield Pike (8 km), Swineside Knott (10 km), Birkett Fell (10 km), Hart Side (10 km), Common Fell (10 km), Great Mell Fell (15 km), Carrock Fell (24 km)
  • North-east: Hartsop Dodd (3 km), Gray Crag (4 km), The Knott (6 km), Rest Dodd (6 km), Rampsgill Head (6 km), Kidsty Pike (6 km), High Raise (7 km), Wether Hill (10 km), Loadpot Hill (11 km)
  • East: Caudale Moor (3 km), Froswick (5 km), Kentmere Pike (8 km)
  • South-east: Middle Dodd (1 km), Red Screes (2 km), Ill Bell (5 km), Yoke (6 km)
  • South-west: High Pike (2 km), Wetherlam (13 km), Kitty Crag (14 km), Great Carrs (15 km), Swirl How (15 km), Great How (15 km), Brim Fell (16 km), The Old Man of Coniston (17 km)
  • West: Dove Crag (1 km)
  • North-west: Hart Crag (2 km), Gavel Pike (4 km), St Sunday Crag (4 km), Nethermost Pike (6 km), Helvellyn (7 km)

On the clearest days the far horizon adds: Snowdon (174 km, Wales), Carnedd Llewelyn (162 km, Wales), Moel Siabod (170 km, Wales), Arenig Fawr (182 km, Wales), Yr Eifl (194 km, Wales), Craig Cwm Silyn (182 km, Wales), Gyrn Ddu (191 km, Wales), Moel y Gamelin (165 km, Wales).

Computed from Copernicus GLO-30 terrain; distant tops from the Database of British and Irish Hills v18.4 (CC BY 4.0). See how we compute the view · and the summit intervisibility report below.

Sunrise and sunset on Little Hart Crag (West Top)

Little Hart Crag (West Top) waits for the sun. Its longest wait of the modelled year falls at midwinter, when the sun is up for 30 minutes before it clears this skyline — first light 09:02 against an almanac sunrise of 08:32. You are standing in shadow while the valley below is already lit. The sun comes up to the south-east from here (137.9°), and the skyline on that bearing stands at 2.79°.

0°30°40°50°60°04:38
Midsummer. The filled shape is the skyline as seen from the summit; the line is the sun’s path. Where they meet is first light — everything left of that point is the wait.
Times for 2026, in Lakeland clock time (GMT in winter, BST in summer) — and model outputs rather than observations.
First lightAlmanac sunriseDifference
Midsummer04:38 BST ±5.0 min04:36+2 min
Equinox06:33 GMT ±5.0 min06:15+18 min
Midwinter09:02 GMT ±5.0 min08:32+30 min

The northern horizon stands at about 0.5° from here.

Last light — when the sun leaves Little Hart Crag (West Top)

Little Hart Crag (West Top) loses the sun early. Its earliest evening of the modelled year falls on 1 May, when last light is 51 minutes before almanac sunset — 19:55 against 20:46. The sun goes down to the west-north-west from here (288.2°), and the skyline on that bearing stands at 6.31°.

The evening of the same three days. A negative difference means a ridge takes the sun before the valley loses it.
Last lightAlmanac sunsetDifference
Midsummer21:13 BST ±5.0 min21:52-39 min
Equinox17:50 GMT ±5.0 min18:26-36 min
Midwinter15:45 GMT ±5.0 min15:49-4 min

These are daylight figures, not a descent plan: the light goes on fading for a good while after the sun leaves, and going down in it is a decision about your own ground and party, not about this table.

What you can see from Little Hart Crag (West Top)

On a clear day — computed sightlines, curvature- and refraction-corrected.
39Wainwrights in view+10 marginal
174 kmFurthest sightlineSnowdon (Yr Wyddfa) · possible under favourable refraction
2Sea in viewIrish Sea, Morecambe Bay

On the clearest days the view reaches across to Wales.

Far horizons
  • Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) WalesSSW · 174 km clear
  • Carnedd Llewelyn WalesSSW · 158 km clear
  • Irish Sea open waterSW · 75 km in view
  • Morecambe Bay bay/estuarySSW · 36 km in view
All 39 Wainwrights in clear view (nearest first)

High Hartsop Dodd, Middle Dodd, Dove Crag, Red Screes, High Pike (Scandale), Hartsop Above How (Gill Crag - Hartsop Above How), Hart Crag, Low Pike, Hartsop Dodd, St Sunday Crag, Gray Crag, Birks, Brock Crags (Wainwright), Froswick, Arnison Crag, Ill Bell, High Street, Angletarn Pikes (Angletarn Pikes North Top), The Knott (High Street), Rest Dodd, Nethermost Pike, Yoke, Rampsgill Head, Kidsty Pike, Helvellyn, High Raise (High Street), The Nab, Place Fell, Sheffield Pike, Wether Hill, Black Fell, Hart Side, Loadpot Hill, Hallin Fell, Holme Fell, Gowbarrow Fell (Wainwright summit), Great Mell Fell, Brim Fell, The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man)

How the view from Little Hart Crag (West Top) compares with all 214 — the View Report: every Wainwright ranked by what you can see from the top.

How the skyline, light and sightlines are computed

Computed, not photographed. First light is the first minute the sun’s upper limb clears this summit’s own skyline and last light the last minute it is still clear of it, both solved against the 360° horizon profile behind The View from Little Hart Crag (West Top). Almanac sunrise and sunset are the flat-horizon convention. Every time carries a ± band from the 30 m elevation model — it smooths arêtes and cornices, so nothing here claims better than five minutes.

Sightlines from the Copernicus GLO-30 elevation model, which is a surface model: each 30 m cell holds the top of whatever stands there, trees and buildings included, rather than bare ground. Corrected for the Earth’s curvature and average atmospheric refraction. “Distant” sightlines and any over 100 km depend on exceptionally clear air. Modelled from Copernicus GLO-30 open elevation data — a guide to the view, not a guarantee of any single one.

Places to stay near this fell

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.

Frequently asked questions about Little Hart Crag (West Top)

Is Little Hart Crag a hard walk? Answered above.

Questions from Google’s “People also ask”. · Last updated 2026-10-05 · Suggest a question or correction

Other fells near Little Hart Crag (West Top)

Places nearby: Kirkstone Pass