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404 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 Meldrum

Little Meldrum is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells), a quiet Eastern top reached by few walkers.

404 m
Height
+3
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX →

Home › Fells › Little Meldrum

Written and walked by Lee McCoy · Last reviewed

404 mBirkett — Eastern (not a Wainwright summit)+3 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 404 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Tue 28 Jul): 18° to 15°C, gusts to 34 mph, 1.3 mm of rain forecast.

Tue 28 Jul
🌦️
18° / 15°
💨 34 mph
🌧 1.3 mm (100%)
Wed 29 Jul
🌦️
18° / 13°
💨 22 mph
🌧 1.8 mm (100%)
Thu 30 Jul
🌦️
15° / 7°
💨 29 mph
🌧 0.8 mm (78%)
Fri 31 Jul
🌤️
16° / 5°
💨 24 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (78%)
Sat 1 Aug
🌦️
16° / 8°
💨 12 mph
🌧 5.1 mm (54%)
Sun 2 Aug
☁️
17° / 5°
💨 18 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (24%)
Mon 3 Aug
🌦️
18° / 7°
💨 13 mph
🌧 0.2 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 404 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

About the walk

Key information

Little Meldrum

Little Meldrum is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells), a quiet Eastern top reached by few walkers. It rises the Matterdale. The name comes from little (Old English lytel, little or smaller). It also features on the Synge list. Its nearest tops are Watermillock Fell (Little Mell Fell South Top) (0.6 km NE); Great Meldrum (0.9 km SW); Little Mell Fell (1.2 km N) — it's usually taken in on a round of these neighbours. It's a worthwhile objective for anyone working through the Birkett list, or as a short extension to a bigger day on the higher neighbouring fells.

Routes up Little Meldrum

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

Birketts by Gowbarrow
12 km · ~3.3 hr
Classifications & hill data
Birkett
Synge
404 m
Height
1,325 ft
In feet
NY 4220 2277
Grid ref

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: The Hause, Little Mell Fell (verge), about 1.2 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Little Meldrum (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.

0.6 km NNEWatermillock Fell (Little Mell Fell South Top)424 m · Eastern
0.9 km WSWGreat Meldrum437 m · Eastern
2.3 km SWGreen Hill - Gowbarrow Park439 m · Eastern

Routes over Little Meldrum

Birketts by GowbarrowPlanned
12.03 km · ~550 m ascent · loop · ~3–4.5 h
Summits: Green Hill - Gowbarrow ParkGowbarrow Fell (Wainwright summit)Great MeldrumLittle MeldrumWatermillock Fell (Little Mell Fell South Top)

⬇️ Download GPX

⚠️ Warnings: Access: The summits of Little Meldrum and Watermillock Fell (Little Mell Fell South Top) lie outside mapped CRoW open-access land. That records no statutory right of access — it is not a statement that access is forbidden, and permissive access is not recorded in that layer. This line is computed rather than walked, so treat the access as unchecked and look for the courteous way through — how we work this out.

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.

Terrain & access

A near-path top (about 404 m): a mapped path comes within about 89 m of the summit, with a last stretch of open ground (about 1 m of ascent, up to ~6°). The summit is not on CRoW open access land, and the direct approach crosses land that is neither access land nor a right of way — there may be no public right to the top, so check access before you go.

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 Meldrum

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

The Hause, Little Mell Fell (verge) — 1.2 km from summit (straight line)
Verge parking at the high point of the Watermillock road.
Directions
Great Mell Fell layby — 2.8 km from summit (straight line)
Small layby at the foot of Great Mell Fell.
Directions

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.

Water & shelter on the way up

On the Birketts by Gowbarrow route:

💧 possible water source (2 m)💧 possible water source (74 m)🚌 Aira Force - Park Brow Foot (183 m)🚌 Park Brow Foot - Aira Force (185 m)

💧 Treat water from the fell before you drink it. A mapped point is usually a tap or public supply, but never drink untreated from a beck, stream or tarn — even clear-looking hill water can carry giardia or cryptosporidium from livestock or a carcass upstream and leave you seriously ill. Run it through a filter or purifier (a LifeStraw, Sawyer Squeeze or HydraPak) or bring it to a rolling boil first.

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

Buses to Little Meldrum from Penrith / Ambleside / Windermere

No regular bus serves the start points for this fell — this is one for the car (or a long approach from the nearest served valley). The nearest hubs are Penrith (X4/X5 & 508), Ambleside and Windermere (555, 505, 516).

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

My hikes over Little Meldrum (Strava)

1 logged hike pass over this summit:

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

Other fells near Little Meldrum

Maps & guidebooks for Little Meldrum

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