Loft Crag
Loft Crag at 682m (2,237ft) is the smallest and least visited of the Langdale Pikes, sitting between Pike of Stickle and Harrison Stickle on the western side of the Pikes circuit.
Is it worth going? — Today’s conditions & 7-day summit forecast
Modelled guidance for the 682 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
On the summit today (Sat 12 Sep): 13° to 7°C, gusts to 47 mph, 50.2 mm of rain forecast.
Forecast snapshot from 12 Sep 2026, 15:36 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 682 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.
Loft Crag at a glance
Loft Crag
Routes up Loft Crag
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
Classifications & hill data
The short answers
Is Loft Crag a Wainwright?
Loft Crag is a Wainwright. It is also on the Birkett list, the Synge list, the Nuttall list and the Fellranger list.
Where do you park for Loft Crag?
The nearest car park we hold is Old Dungeon Ghyll (NT, paid), about 1.4 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Side Pike (verge, south), 1.8 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.
My hikes over Loft Crag (Strava)
1 logged hike pass over this summit:
- 8 Wainwrights today - had some catching up to do! (opens in new tab) — 14.5 km · 1013 m ascent · 4h 23m moving · 1 Jun 2024
Interactive route maps and photos load here for visitors with JavaScript. Data from Strava.
Parking & buses for Loft Crag
Best parking to hike Loft Crag
Where we have the data, each parking spot also shows the nearest public toilets and facilities (cafés, pubs, shops).
Positions are approximate — zoom the map to confirm.
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 Loft Crag by bus
The 516 stops at New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel (at), 140 m from the start of Langdale Pikes Round — a route we rate Moderate. Last bus: Monday to Friday 20:13 towards Kendal (516) and 18:13 towards Ambleside (516); Saturday 22:33 towards Kendal (516) and 21:13 towards Ambleside (516); Sunday 20:13 towards Kendal (516) and 18:13 towards Ambleside (516). Checked against the operator’s timetable, 7 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.
Hazards on Loft Crag
Hazard & Incident Information for Loft Crag
The middle summit of the Langdale Pikes, a small, abrupt rocky top perched directly above the magnificent buttress of Gimmer Crag — one of the great Lakeland climbing cliffs. The summit is gained easily enough, but it sits at the lip of a serious drop, the south side is craggy and broken, and the Pikes plateau is easy to misjudge in mist. Langdale Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team covers this ground.
- Gimmer Crag (the drop below the summit): The small abrupt summit stands right above Gimmer Crag, a sheer climbing buttress falling to Langdale. Keep well back from the southern edge near the top, especially in cloud or wind — and if scrambling on the south side, be aware climbers may be on the crag below.
- Craggy south side & summit rocks: The south flank around Thorn Crag and Gimmer is craggy and broken, with scrambling lines that are steeper and more serious than they look. Keep to the walkers' path to the col and summit; don't drift onto the steep rock, particularly when wet.
- Plateau navigation among the Pikes: Loft Crag, Pike o' Stickle and Harrison Stickle cluster together with steep ground to Langdale and Mickleden between them. In mist it's easy to confuse the tops or drift toward an edge — navigate by compass.
Most common causes: Walkers straying over the edge above Gimmer Crag near the summit · Scrambling difficulty or falls on the craggy south side · Navigation errors and edge-drift on the Langdale Pikes plateau in cloud · Winter ice on the summit rocks and edges
Local Mountain Rescue: Langdale Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team (opens in new tab) · Reviewed 14 Jun 2026
Safety: Hazard guidance compiled from published Mountain Rescue reports and well-documented accident history - editorial background, not a live feed of callouts. Always check current conditions, carry proper navigation equipment, and seek qualified instruction before heading onto the fells. In an emergency, call 999, ask for Police, then Mountain Rescue.
Navigating Loft Crag in cloud
SevereA rough, rocky summit ringed by crags, with no single obvious way off in poor visibility. A serious place to be caught in cloud: carry map and compass (or GPS) and know how to use them, or save it for a clear day.
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 Loft Crag compares with all 214 — the Clag Index: navigating in cloud. A relative, deliberately cautious guide; the site can’t navigate for you.
Map & nearby Birketts
Skip mapFree mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap (switch layers top-right). Parking positions are approximate.
Nearest parking: Old Dungeon Ghyll (NT, paid), about 1.4 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.
Birketts near Loft Crag (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.
Routes over Loft Crag
✎️ 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. How to use this 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 Loft Crag
Water & shelter on the way up
On the Langdale Horseshoe route:
On the Langdale Pikes Round route:
💧 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.
The view from Loft Crag
The 360° skyline from Loft Crag
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.
What you can see from Loft Crag, by direction
- North: Skiddaw South Top (22 km), Skiddaw Middle Top (22 km), Skiddaw (22 km), Skiddaw North Top (22 km)
- North-east: Great Rigg (8 km)
- East: Dove Crag (10 km), Red Screes (12 km), Caudale Moor (14 km), Stony Cove Pike (14 km), Thornthwaite Crag (16 km), Ill Bell (16 km), High Street (17 km)
- South: Wetherlam (6 km), Black Sails (6 km), Swirl How (7 km), Grey Friar (7 km), Great How (7 km), The Old Man of Coniston (9 km)
- South-west: Crinkle Crags (3 km), Crinkle Crags (4 km), Crinkle Crags (4 km), Crinkle Crags (4 km), Little Stand (5 km)
- West: Esk Pike (4 km), Allen Crags (4 km), Great End (5 km), Scafell Pike (6 km)
- North-west: Looking Steads (4 km), Glaramara (5 km), Green Gable (7 km), Great Gable (7 km), Dale Head (10 km), High Stile (13 km), High Stile (13 km), Sail (15 km), Crag Hill (16 km), Grasmoor (17 km), Grisedale Pike (17 km), Sand Hill (17 km), Hopegill Head (18 km)
On the clearest days the far horizon adds: Tinto (131 km, Scotland), Green Lowther (112 km, Scotland), Queensberry (97 km, Scotland), Culter Fell (124 km, Scotland), Great Whernside (80 km, England), Manod Mawr (172 km, Wales), Winter Hill (100 km, England), Gathersnow Hill (121 km, Scotland).
Computed from terrain in perfect clarity, not photographed · distances are straight-line.
Computed from Copernicus GLO-30 terrain; distant tops from the Database of British and Irish Hills (opens in new tab) (CC BY 4.0). See how we compute the view · and the summit intervisibility report below.
Sunrise and sunset on Loft Crag
Loft Crag waits for the sun. Its longest wait of the modelled year falls at midsummer, when the sun is up for 50 minutes before it clears this skyline — first light 05:27 against an almanac sunrise of 04:37. You are standing in shadow while the valley below is already lit. The sun comes up to the north-east from here (55.3°), and the skyline on that bearing stands at 5.12°.
| First light | Almanac sunrise | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midsummer | 05:27 BST ±5.0 min | 04:37 | +50 min |
| Equinox | 06:15 GMT ±5.0 min | 06:16 | -1 min |
| Midwinter | 08:27 GMT ±5.0 min | 08:33 | -6 min |
The northern horizon stands at about 0.99° from here.
Last light — when the sun leaves Loft Crag
Loft Crag loses the sun early. Its earliest evening of the modelled year falls on 1 October, when last light is 26 minutes before almanac sunset — 18:23 against 18:49. The sun goes down to the west from here (260.1°), and the skyline on that bearing stands at 3.4°.
| Last light | Almanac sunset | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midsummer | 21:42 BST ±5.0 min | 21:52 | -10 min |
| Equinox | 18:04 GMT ±5.0 min | 18:26 | -22 min |
| Midwinter | 15:31 GMT ±5.0 min | 15:49 | -18 min |
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 Loft Crag. 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. 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 Loft Crag
On a clear day — computed sightlines, curvature- and refraction-corrected.- Solway Firth bay/estuary
- Ingleborough Yorkshire Dales
- Whernside Yorkshire Dales
- Morecambe Bay bay/estuary
All 57 Wainwrights in clear view (nearest first)
Pike of Stickle, Harrison Stickle, Thunacar Knott, Blea Rigg, Rossett Pike, Pike of Blisco, Bowfell, Lingmoor Fell (Brown How), Crinkle Crags - Long Top (Second Crinkle), Cold Pike, Esk Pike, Allen Crags, Glaramara, Silver How, Great End, Rosthwaite Fell - Bessyboot, Wetherlam, Scafell Pike, Great Carrs, Swirl How, Grey Friar, Green Gable, Loughrigg Fell, Stone Arthur, Great Gable, Holme Fell, Nab Scar, Heron Pike (Rydal), Black Fell, Great Rigg, The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man), Dow Crag, Low Pike, Dale Head, High Pike (Scandale), High Spy, Dove Crag, Red Screes, Baystones (Wansfell), Cat Bells (Catbells), Stony Cove Pike (Caudale Moor), Ard Crags, Causey Pike, Scar Crags, Sail, Sour Howes, Crag Hill (Eel Crag), Thornthwaite Crag, Ill Bell, Yoke, Sallows, Grasmoor, High Street, Grisedale Pike, Hopegill Head, Barf, Lord's Seat
How Loft Crag’s view compares with all 214 — the View Report: every Wainwright ranked by what you can see from the top.
Sightlines from a bare-earth terrain model (forests and buildings not included), 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
From Great Langdale: 3 places in Grasmere
Frequently asked questions about Loft Crag
Is Loft Crag hard to climb?
The top is small and abrupt and the last few steps are rocky, but there is no scrambling on the ordinary line — it is the gentlest of the three main Langdale Pikes to stand on.
What is beneath it is another matter. Loft Crag sits directly above Gimmer Crag, one of the great Lakeland climbing buttresses, so the drop off its southern side is immediate and total. Keep back from that edge. Our Langdale Pikes round is 12.3 km with 830 m of ascent, rated Moderate with navigation hard.
Questions drawn from real Google “People also ask” searches; answers written and fact-checked by us. · Reviewed 2026-08-30 · Suggest a question or correction (opens in new tab)
Other fells near Loft Crag
- Armboth Fell (Armboth Fell South Top)
- Blea Rigg
- Bleaberry Fell
- Calf Crag
- Eagle Crag
- Gibson Knott
- Grange Fell (Brund Fell)
- Great Crag (Stonethwaite)
- Harrison Stickle
- Helm Crag
- High Raise (High White Stones)
- High Rigg (Naddle Fell)
- High Seat
- High Tove
- Loughrigg Fell
- Pavey Ark
- Pike of Stickle
- Raven Crag
- Sergeant Man
- Sergeant's Crag
- Silver How
- Steel Fell (Dead Pike)
- Tarn Crag (Easedale)
- Thunacar Knott
- Ullscarf
- Walla Crag