Low Pike

Written and walked by Lee McCoy · Summited June 2023

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508 mWainwright — Eastern Fells+1 bonus Birkett within 3 km Fewer traps in Clag

Low Pike at 508m (1,667ft) is a Wainwright summit in the Eastern Fells, the first top on the Scandale ridge rising above Ambleside towards High Pike and Dove Crag. Wainwright included it in his Eastern Fells guide.

Summit conditions on Low Pike

On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 12° to 6°C, gusts to 59 mph, 8.8 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

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

The Met Office 2 km model’s gust of 50 mph times our exposure factor of 1.15. 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 (opens in new tab) 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

8.8 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 2 °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 (opens in new tab)

Routes up Low Pike

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

Fairfield Horseshoe Walked by Lee

16.92 km · ~1009 m ascent · ~5–6¾ h · loop · 9 summits

Hard effort Hard: distance, steepness, navigation and exposure

Park: Pelter Bridge, Rydal (paid) · Bus: 555, 2.3 km walk from Rydal, at White Moss Common

One of the classic Lakeland rounds and a fine first big horseshoe.

Distance and climb are measured from the route’s GPX track, and the time from them by Naismith’s rule; the route page says what each grade rests on. How we check →

How hard is Low Pike?

Easy in itself — the question is usually what comes after it. At 508 m Low Pike is the first top on the Fairfield Horseshoe if you walk it anticlockwise out of Ambleside (our route goes clockwise from Rydal and reaches it near the end), and taken alone it is a straightforward climb on clear paths with one mild complication: the route follows a drystone wall much of the way up, and near the top there is a short rocky step beside it that people remember. Our route notes call the rock over the top light scrambling, with an easier path round the east side in poor conditions; there is no exposure.

How we check →

Conditions and 7-day summit forecast

Modelled for the 508 m summit (Open-Meteo). Check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

Full 7-day forecast

Tue 27 Oct

12° / 6°

59 mph

8.8 mm (100%)

Wed 28 Oct

10° / 6°

37 mph

13.7 mm (100%)

Thu 29 Oct

9° / 8°

28 mph

0.7 mm (33%)

Fri 30 Oct

9° / 7°

29 mph

0.0 mm (23%)

Sat 31 Oct

10° / 1°

12 mph

0.0 mm (18%)

Sun 1 Nov

8° / 1°

13 mph

0.0 mm (10%)

Mon 2 Nov

8° / 2°

17 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 (opens in new tab)

Pro mountain forecasts: MWIS · Met Office mountain forecast

Parking & buses for Low Pike

Parking

Where do you park for Low Pike?

You can start from Ambleside itself and walk out along Rydal Road. Pelter Bridge at Rydal (paid) is the nearest listed car park at about 2 km, with Rydal car park and Ambleside Cricket Club car park both about 2.4 km away. All of them are busy on fine weekends. Full details are in the parking panel on this page.

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

Pelter Bridge, Rydal (paid) — at the start of Fairfield Horseshoe

For Loughrigg and the Rydal side of the Fairfield Horseshoe. Fees: pay and display; coins and cards; RingGo ID 37305 (LDNPA, checked August 2026).

Directions Something changed here?

If it is full: White Moss, Lower (paid) (2.4 km, 124 m up); Ambleside, Rydal Road (paid) (1.7 km); White Moss Common, Upper (paid) (2.3 km, 121 m up)

The Old School Room Tea Shop, Rydal Hall (~445 m straight line) — Free The Tea Room The Old School Room Tea Shop Badger Bar & Restaurant

Rydal Hall (paid, for visitors) — 1.7 km from summit (straight line)

Rydal Hall's own car park, for visitors to the hall, its gardens, the waterfalls and The Tea Room; it charges, and visitors to the falls park here. The hall's overflow car park is about 80 m south-west. The Lower Falls and The Grot are about 150 m on foot through the grounds.

Directions Something changed here?

Ambleside Cricket Club car park — 2.4 km from summit (straight line)

By Ambleside Cricket Club's ground, between Ambleside and Rydal. The routes that start at Pelter Bridge, Rydal, 'Rydal Water & Rydal Caves' among them, are about 0.9 km on foot.

Directions Something changed here?

2 more places to park near Low Pike

St Raven's Edge car park — 2.5 km from summit (straight line)

Nearest fells: St Raven's Edge (1.0 km), Red Screes (1.1 km), Middle Dodd (1.9 km). Gravel surface (OSM-tagged). Fee not verified — check signage on arrival.

Directions Something changed here?

Wansfell (layby) — 2.6 km from summit (straight line)

Nearest published walking: 1.6 km from the 'Loughrigg Terrace & Rydal Water' route start, at the Rydal Road car park in Ambleside; 2.0 km from the 'Wansfell Pike and Baystones' route start, in Ambleside. Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).

Directions Something changed here?

Positions are approximate.

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 555 and 599 stop at Rydal, at White Moss Common. From there it is 2.3 km and 121 m of ascent to the start of Fairfield Horseshoe — a route we rate Hard overall (hardest: distance, steepness, navigation and exposure) — a walk in before the walk. And the same back: about 21.5 km in all, with the walk. As timetabled from 27 October to 1 November. Towards Kendal (555): Tuesday to Saturday 23:07; Sunday 20:07 to Windermere, 19:37 to Kendal. Towards Bowness on Windermere (599): Tuesday to Sunday 19:20 to Bowness on Windermere, 17:30 to Bowness on Windermere Braithwaite Fold Car Park. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 24 September 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.

Stagecoach 555

Kendal – Staveley – Windermere – Ambleside – Rydal – Grasmere – Thirlmere (Wythburn & Swirls) – Keswick

Catch it from: Windermere · Ambleside

Year-round, roughly hourly. The backbone bus of the A591 — ideal for Helvellyn (Wythburn/Swirls), Fairfield, the Central fells and anything around Grasmere/Rydal. From Penrith, take the X4/X5 to Keswick and change.

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

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

Hazards on Low Pike

Notes from the Fairfield Horseshoe route

A little easy scrambling in places, but nothing obligatory.

Quoted from the route page: its warnings.

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

Fewer traps in cloud

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. This top is in the lowest of the index’s four bands, and a low band never means “safe”: 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 Low Pike 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 (opens in new tab) (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 Low Pike

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

1.8 km WNWHeron Pike North Top (Rydal Fell)621 m · Eastern

Routes over Low Pike

Fairfield Horseshoe

16.92 km · ~1009 m ascent · loop · ~5–6¾ h · Clockwise

Hard effort Hard: distance, steepness, navigation and exposure

Summits: Nab Scar Heron Pike (Rydal)Heron Pike North Top (Rydal Fell)Great Rigg Fairfield Hart Crag Dove Crag High Pike (Scandale)Low Pike

Download GPX Walked by Lee, April 2023

Best season: Any season in good conditions; save the broad, featureless summit for a clear day.

Warnings: Fairfield's broad summit plateau is confusing in cloud — carry a map and compass and take a bearing before descending. A little easy scrambling in places, but nothing obligatory.

Route guide: Fairfield Horseshoe →

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 Low Pike

Water & shelter on the way up

On the Fairfield Horseshoe route:

Church for Rydal Mount (146 m from the start, straight line) campsite (432 m from the start, straight line) Rydal Hall Youth Centre Bunkhouse (441 m from the start, straight line)

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

About Low Pike

The summit gives fine views down into Ambleside and across Windermere, and sits at one end of the Fairfield Horseshoe ridge: the first top on the round walked anticlockwise from Ambleside, and the last on our clockwise route from Rydal.

My Strava hikes over Low Pike

1 logged hike pass over this summit:

4 Wainwrights, 3 Kids and a while load of "how far is the car?" (opens in new tab) — 16.0 km · 873 m ascent · 4h 41m moving · 25 June 2023

Data from Strava.

Classifications & hill data

Is Low Pike a Wainwright?

Low Pike is a Wainwright. It is also on the Birkett list, the Synge list and the Fellranger list.

Selected lists

508 m

Height

1,667 ft

In feet

NY 3735 0784

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 Low Pike

The 360° skyline from Low Pike

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

The skyline as a list, by direction

North: High Pike (1 km)
North-east: Little Hart Crag (3 km), Hartsop Dodd (6 km), Loadpot Hill (13 km)
South-east: Wansfell Pike (4 km), Ingleborough (50 km)
South-west: Wetherlam (11 km), High Wythow (12 km), Long Crag (12 km), Kitty Crag (12 km), Little Carrs (12 km), Swirl How (12 km), Great Carrs (12 km), Brim Fell (14 km), The Old Man of Coniston (14 km), Harter Fell (18 km)
West: Pavey Ark (9 km), Harrison Stickle (9 km), Thunacar Knott (9 km), Thorn Crag (9 km), Loft Crag (10 km), Pike of Blisco (11 km), Cold Pike (12 km), Great Knott (12 km), Crinkle Crags (13 km), Shelter Crags (13 km), Crinkle Crags (13 km), Crinkle Crags (13 km), Crinkle Crags (13 km), Crinkle Crags South Top (13 km), Bowfell (13 km), Little Stand (13 km), Esk Pike (14 km), Great End (15 km), Ill Crag (15 km), Broad Crag (16 km), Scafell Pike (16 km), Scafell (17 km)
North-west: Heron Pike North Top (2 km), Great Rigg (3 km)

On the clearest days the far horizon adds: Snowdon (171 km, Wales), Carnedd Llewelyn (159 km, Wales), Arenig Fawr (179 km, Wales), Craig Cwm Silyn (179 km, Wales), Pendle Hill (79 km, England), Moel y Gamelin (162 km, Wales), Cadair Berwyn (178 km, Wales), Carnedd y Filiast (171 km, Wales).

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

Sunrise and sunset on Low Pike

Low Pike waits for the sun. Its longest wait of the modelled year falls on 1 May, when the sun is up for 56 minutes before it clears this skyline — first light 06:30 against an almanac sunrise of 05:34. You are standing in shadow while the valley below is already lit. The sun comes up to the east-north-east from here (73.4°), and the skyline on that bearing stands at 7.04°.

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 light	Almanac sunrise	Difference
Midsummer	04:57 BST ±5.0 min	04:37	+20 min
Equinox	06:50 GMT ±5.0 min	06:15	+35 min
Midwinter	08:32 GMT ±5.0 min	08:32	—

The northern horizon stands at about 4.15° from here.

Last light — when the sun leaves Low Pike

Low Pike loses the sun early. Its earliest evening of the modelled year falls on 1 August, when last light is 29 minutes before almanac sunset — 20:44 against 21:13. The sun goes down to the west-north-west from here (297.5°), and the skyline on that bearing stands at 3.22°.

The evening of the same three days. A negative difference means a ridge takes the sun before the valley loses it.
	Last light	Almanac sunset	Difference
Midsummer	21:26 BST ±5.0 min	21:52	-26 min
Equinox	18:14 GMT ±5.0 min	18:26	-12 min
Midwinter	15:38 GMT ±5.0 min	15:49	-11 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 Low Pike

On a clear day — computed sightlines, curvature- and refraction-corrected.

32Wainwrights in view+5 marginal

171 kmFurthest sightlineSnowdon (Yr Wyddfa) · possible under favourable refraction

1Sea in viewMorecambe Bay

On the clearest days the view reaches across to Wales.

Far horizons

Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) WalesSSW · 171 km clear
Carnedd Llewelyn WalesSSW · 156 km clear
Ingleborough Yorkshire DalesSE · 50 km clear
Whernside Yorkshire DalesSE · 45 km clear
Morecambe Bay bay/estuaryS · 34 km in view

All 32 Wainwrights in clear view (nearest first)

High Pike (Scandale), Heron Pike (Rydal), Nab Scar, Little Hart Crag (Little Hart Crag - West Top), Great Rigg, Loughrigg Fell, Baystones (Wansfell), Silver How, Hartsop Dodd, Sour Howes, Black Fell, Lingmoor Fell (Brown How), Pavey Ark, Harrison Stickle, Holme Fell, Thunacar Knott, Loft Crag, Wetherlam, Pike of Blisco, Cold Pike, Swirl How, Great Carrs, Crinkle Crags - Long Top (Second Crinkle), Bowfell, Loadpot Hill, Esk Pike, Brim Fell, The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man), Great End, Scafell Pike, Scafell, Harter Fell (Eskdale)

How the view from Low Pike 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 Low Pike. 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

From Rydal: 8 places in Ambleside

Frequently asked questions about Low Pike

How hard is Low Pike? Answered above.

Is Low Pike a good walk on its own, or should I do the whole horseshoe?

Both work, and most people meet Low Pike as part of the horseshoe rather than as a destination. As a short outing from Ambleside it is a fine half-day with a disproportionate view down over Windermere. Walked anticlockwise, it is the opening climb of the full round. Our walked Fairfield Horseshoe, clockwise from Rydal, is 16.9 km with 1009 m of ascent — about 5–6¾ hours — so it is a considerably bigger commitment than Low Pike alone.

Where do you park for Low Pike? Answered above: Parking for Low Pike.

What is the view from Low Pike?

Better than 508 m suggests, because it stands at the end of the ridge with nothing in the way: Windermere stretches away south, Ambleside sits directly below, and the Fairfield skyline curves round ahead of you — which is precisely why it makes such a good opening to the horseshoe. Look back rather than up on the way to the top.

Questions from Google’s “People also ask”. · Last updated 2026-08-08 · Suggest a question or correction (opens in new tab)

Low Pike

Summit conditions on Low Pike

Wind on the top

Cloud on the top

Rain, and the becks

Routes up Low Pike

How hard is Low Pike?

Conditions and 7-day summit forecast

Parking & buses for Low Pike

Parking

Where do you park for Low Pike?

Buses

Hazards on Low Pike

Notes from the Fairfield Horseshoe route

Navigating in cloud

If you need Mountain Rescue

Map, GPX and nearby Birketts

Birketts within 3 km of Low Pike

Routes over Low Pike

On the hill: terrain and water on Low Pike

Water & shelter on the way up

About Low Pike

My Strava hikes over Low Pike

Classifications & hill data

Is Low Pike a Wainwright?

Selected lists

The view from Low Pike

The 360° skyline from Low Pike

Sunrise and sunset on Low Pike

Last light — when the sun leaves Low Pike

What you can see from Low Pike

Places to stay near this fell

Frequently asked questions about Low Pike

Other fells near Low Pike