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497 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

Low How

Low How at 497m (1,631ft) is a Birkett top above the Matterdale valley east of Ullswater, giving views across the valley and towards the Helvellyn range.

497 m
Height
+8
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX →
497 mBirkett — Eastern (not a Wainwright summit)+8 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 497 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Tue 28 Jul): 16° to 14°C, gusts to 36 mph, 3.3 mm of rain forecast.

Tue 28 Jul
🌦️
16° / 14°
💨 36 mph
🌧 3.3 mm (100%)
Wed 29 Jul
🌧️
17° / 12°
💨 27 mph
🌧 4.3 mm (100%)
Thu 30 Jul
🌦️
15° / 6°
💨 29 mph
🌧 0.8 mm (78%)
Fri 31 Jul
🌤️
16° / 4°
💨 24 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (78%)
Sat 1 Aug
🌦️
15° / 7°
💨 12 mph
🌧 5.1 mm (54%)
Sun 2 Aug
☁️
16° / 5°
💨 18 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (24%)
Mon 3 Aug
🌦️
17° / 7°
💨 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 497 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.

About the walk

Key information

Low How

Low How at 497m (1,631ft) is a Birkett top above the Matterdale valley east of Ullswater, giving views across the valley and towards the Helvellyn range. Part of the broad fell country above the Dockray area. A quiet, open summit.

Routes up Low How

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

Classifications & hill data
Birkett
Synge
497 m
Height
1,631 ft
In feet
NY 3744 2151
Grid ref

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Dockray (roadside), about 1.6 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Low How (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.

0.7 km WHigh Brow575 m · Eastern
1.3 km SECommon Fell552 m · Eastern
1.9 km SSESwineside Knott553 m · Eastern
1.9 km ESERound How387 m · Eastern
1.9 km ESEBracken How373 m · Eastern
2.0 km SSWBirkett Fell725 m · Eastern
2.1 km SBrown Hills551 m · Eastern
2.6 km WRanderside729 m · Eastern

Routes over Low How

16.45 km · ~694 m ascent · loop · ~4–6 h

⬇️ Download GPX

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 497 m): a mapped path comes within about 76 m of the summit, with a last stretch of open ground (about 9 m of ascent, up to ~13°). 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 Low How

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

Dockray (roadside) — 1.6 km from summit (straight line)
Verge parking for the Dodds and Matterdale Common.
Directions (opens in new tab)
Aira Force (NT, paid) — 2.6 km from summit (straight line)
For Gowbarrow Fell and the path toward Great Dodd via Dockray.
Directions (opens in new tab)

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 Low How from Penrith / Ambleside / Windermere

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 (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.

My hikes over Low How (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 Low How

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