Orrest Head
Orrest Head at 238m (781ft) is the famous viewpoint above Windermere, the first fell the young Alfred Wainwright climbed when he arrived in Lakeland — and the view that changed his life.
Summit conditions on Orrest Head
On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 14° to 8°C, gusts to 41 mph, 8.9 mm of rain forecast over the whole day, midnight to midnight.
The forecast figures are Open-Meteo’s, worked out for the summit’s height. How we check →
Routes up Orrest Head
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
Wainwright's first Lakeland summit and still the best short introduction to the fells — a steady wooded climb from Windermere to a rocky crown with a sweeping panorama over the lake to the Coniston and Langdale skyline.
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 Orrest Head?
The shortest way up we hold is Orrest Head — 4.16 km, 173 m of ascent, ~1–1½ h. On our scale its hardest axis is navigation — Moderate.
All axes: navigation: Moderate · length: Easy · steepness: Easy · terrain: Not assessed · exposure: Not assessed.
These are the route page’s grades, set by the rules on how we grade: length and steepness measured from its GPX track, the others set on the ground, judged from the map or estimated from OpenStreetMap. The route page says which. How we check →
Conditions and 7-day summit forecast
Modelled for the 238 m summit (Open-Meteo). Check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
Full 7-day forecast
Taken 27 October 2026, 20:59 UTC; the live forecast replaces it when it loads. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (opens in new tab)
Parking & buses for Orrest Head
Parking
Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.
2 more places to park near Orrest Head
Positions are approximate.
Of the pay-and-display machine tickets sold at Hammarbank from 17 August 2024 to 31 March 2026, 4% were bought before 10am (our count of FOI/2026.500 ticket data). Contains public sector information provided by the Lake District National Park Authority and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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 6, 505, 508, 516, 555, 599, 755 and X8 stop at Windermere Bus Rail Interchange (Stop 1), a 10 m walk from the start of Orrest Head — a route we rate Moderate overall (hardest: navigation). We haven’t published last buses, Sunday or winter service yet, so check the timetable before you rely on getting back.
By train: Windermere station is 70 m on foot from the start of Orrest Head. First train in 06:36, last train out 22:47, Monday to Friday, checked 12 September, valid to the 12 December timetable change; Saturday and Sunday. A weekday walk fits: after the walk to the start and back and a 30-minute margin there are 15 h 39 between those trains, against this route’s steady 1 h 29.
At the station: Windermere station is step-free to every platform, and the toilets are locked until the ticket office opens. The rest of what meets that train. Station facilities: NationalRail (Train Information Services Ltd).
Cabs: Windermere station is served by a taxi rank or a cab office. Check availability before travelling, and pre-book if necessary. Consider using the following local operators: Ambleside 015394 88285; B Line 01539 444644; Pegasus 015394 48899. As Traintaxi supplies them, read 4 October 2026. Traintaxi leaves “taxis” out of a firm’s name. Lee checked them on 4 October 2026. © Traintaxi Limited, 2000-2026. Using cabs in the UK.
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 Orrest Head
Notes from a planned route, not walked: Orrest Head
If you need to get off (the leg from Windermere village): The map shows no shorter way down than the line itself: the way off is back down the footpath to the road by the station, never more than about 1 km, or from the top on north to the lane at about 2 km, about 0.8 km; not walked for this guide.
Quoted from the route page of a planned route, drawn from the map and not yet walked: the note for the leg that reaches Orrest Head.
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.
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
Skip mapFree mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap, with SRTM elevation data (switch layers top-right).
Parking, toilets and buses: Parking & buses ↑.
Birketts within 3 km of Orrest Head
No bonus Birketts within 3 km.
Routes over Orrest Head
Download GPX Planned route · not yet walked
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 Orrest Head
Water & shelter on the way up
On the Orrest Head route:
Treat water from the fell before you drink it. A mapped point is not proof the water is drinkable, so carry your own or use a supply you know is safe. Never drink untreated from a beck, stream or tarn — even clear-looking hill water can carry giardia or cryptosporidium from livestock upstream and leave you seriously ill. Use a treatment method suited to what might be in the water, and follow the device’s own instructions. Boiling and ordinary filters do not make water with dissolved metals or chemicals safe: where that is possible, choose another source.
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.
About Orrest Head
Classifications & hill data
Is Orrest Head a Wainwright?
Orrest Head is one of Wainwright's Outlying Fells, not one of the 214 in the Pictorial Guides.
Selected lists
This is the summit’s grid reference. If you call from anywhere else, give your own position, not this one.
The summit is not a Birkett top.
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 →
Places to stay near this fell
- Lakes Boutique Hostel (opens in new tab) hostelabout 0.2 km
We have not stayed at any of them. We take no bookings or affiliate fees. Distances are straight lines from each route start, never walking times. Properties found via OpenStreetMap (opens in new tab).