511 m · Wainwright — Western Fells · Birketts to bag nearby, parking, buses, my hikes and live summit weather.
Mellbreak at 512m (1,680ft) is a distinctive double-summited ridge above the western shore of Crummock Water, its steep flanks rising directly from the lake edge.
Modelled guidance for the 511 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
On the summit today (Sat 12 Sep): 14° to 8°C, gusts to 47 mph, 28.7 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 511 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
Mellbreak (Mellbreak South Top) is a Wainwright. It is also on the Birkett list, the Synge list, the Fellranger list and the Marilyn list.
The nearest car park we hold is Car park for Rannerdale Knotts, about 1.5 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Lad Hows (verge), 1.5 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.
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. 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.
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.
The 77 stops at Buttermere, outside Court Hotel, 460 m from the start of Scale Fell and Mellbreak. Seasonal: the 77 does not run all year. 1 November 2026 is its last day, and it is not daily before then — a bus on 31 of the 56 days from 7 September. We don’t know when it returns. Confirmed with the operator, 29 August 2026. Last bus: Monday to Friday 19:23 towards Cockermouth (77A) and 18:20 towards Keswick (77); Saturday 19:23 towards Cockermouth (77A) and 18:20 towards Keswick (77); Sunday 18:20 towards Keswick (77). Checked against the operator’s timetable, 12 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.
A steep, isolated fell rising abruptly above Loweswater and Crummock Water, with twin tops and a famously abrupt northern nose. The usual ascent up that nose is steep and sustained, on loose scree and through crags, with a slippery hands-and-feet scramble — best saved for fair, dry weather. The flanks above Crummock are steep and broken. Cockermouth Mountain Rescue Team covers this ground.
Most common causes: Slips on the steep, loose scree and the scramble up the northern nose · Falls on the steep flanks/crags above Crummock Water · Navigation errors between the twin tops or choosing a bad descent line · Attempting the steep nose in wet or icy conditions
Local Mountain Rescue: Cockermouth 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.
A 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 Mellbreak (Mellbreak South Top) compares with all 214 — the Clag Index: navigating in cloud. A relative, deliberately cautious guide; the site can’t navigate for you.
Free mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap (switch layers top-right). Parking positions are approximate.
Nearest parking: Car park for Rannerdale Knotts, about 1.5 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.
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.
A planned line is a suggestion, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate independently and carry a map & compass. How to use this 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. How to use this guide.
On the Scale Fell and Mellbreak route:
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.
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.
On the clearest days the far horizon adds: Slieve Donard (174 km, Ireland), Merrick (98 km, Scotland), Broad Law (105 km, Scotland), Snaefell (81 km, Isle of Man), Cairnsmore of Carsphairn (97 km, Scotland), Corserine (94 km, Scotland), Lamachan Hill (92 km, Scotland), South Barrule (99 km, Isle of Man).
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.
Mellbreak (Mellbreak South Top) waits for the sun. Its longest wait of the modelled year falls at midsummer, when the sun is up for 58 minutes before it clears this skyline — first light 05:35 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 east-north-east from here (56.7°), and the skyline on that bearing stands at 6.04°.
| First light | Almanac sunrise | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midsummer | 05:35 BST ±5.0 min | 04:37 | +58 min |
| Equinox | 06:22 GMT ±5.0 min | 06:16 | +6 min |
| Midwinter | 08:46 GMT ±5.0 min | 08:34 | +12 min |
A low, open northern horizon — the ground falls away northwards (mean 0.22°).
The evening here runs close to the flat-horizon case. Even on its earliest evening of the modelled year (on 1 December) last light is only 17 minutes before almanac sunset, so the published sunset time is a fair guide on Mellbreak (Mellbreak South Top).
| Last light | Almanac sunset | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midsummer | 21:56 BST ±5.0 min | 21:54 | +2 min |
| Equinox | 18:31 GMT ±5.0 min | 18:27 | +4 min |
| Midwinter | 15:36 GMT ±5.0 min | 15:50 | -14 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 Mellbreak (Mellbreak South 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. 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.
On the clearest days the view reaches across to Scotland and the Isle of Man.
Hen Comb, Rannerdale Knotts, Starling Dodd, Grasmoor, Whiteless Pike, Gavel Fell, Great Borne, Red Pike (Buttermere), Blake Fell, Whiteside (Whiteside West Top), Wandope, Low Fell, High Stile, Crag Hill (Eel Crag), Robinson, Fellbarrow - Mosser Fell, Steeple, Haystacks (Buttermere), Scoat Fell (Little Scoat Fell), Fleetwith Pike, Haycock, Dale Head, Graystones (Graystones North Top), Maiden Moor, Grey Knotts, Brandreth, Green Gable, Great Gable, Glaramara, High Seat, Sergeant's Crag, High Raise (High White Stones), Binsey, White Side, Raise, Stybarrow Dodd, Helvellyn, Catstye Cam
How Mellbreak (Mellbreak South Top)’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.
about 0.9 km from the start, in a straight line
Foulsyke was a 16th-century manor house; the three cottages are its former barn and stables, and you reach the courtyard through an arched carriage entrance dated 1797.
What each place says about itself, quoted from their own site. We have not stayed at any of them, and there are no prices, no booking and no affiliate links. Distances are straight lines from each route start, never walking times. Properties found via OpenStreetMap (opens in new tab).
Very, and it is the whole character of the fell. Mellbreak rises abruptly out of Loweswater and Crummock Water with a famously blunt northern nose, and the usual way up goes straight at it — steep and sustained, on loose ground in places, with little in the way of zig-zags.
The distance is short and the ascent is not enormous: our round with Crummock Water is 11.7 km with 530 m of ascent. But we grade its steepness severe, and that is the figure that tells you what the day feels like. It is an isolated fell with twin tops, so allow time to walk between them.
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)