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238 m · Outlying Fell — South Lakeland · Birketts to bag nearby, parking, buses, my hikes and live summit weather.

Outlying Fell — South Lakeland

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.

238 m
Height
+0
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX → Parking & buses →

Home › Fells › Orrest Head

238 mOutlying Fell — South Lakelandsummit is not a Birkett top+0 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 238 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Sat 12 Sep): 18° to 8°C, gusts to 31 mph, 22.8 mm of rain forecast.

Sat 12 Sep
🌧️
18° / 8°
💨 31 mph
🌧 22.8 mm (100%)
Sun 13 Sep
☁️
17° / 11°
💨 13 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (12%)
Mon 14 Sep
🌦️
17° / 13°
💨 33 mph
🌧 6.6 mm (100%)
Tue 15 Sep
🌦️
16° / 12°
💨 33 mph
🌧 7.7 mm (98%)
Wed 16 Sep
🌦️
14° / 10°
💨 24 mph
🌧 1.6 mm (54%)
Thu 17 Sep
🌦️
12° / 10°
💨 29 mph
🌧 10.2 mm (97%)
Fri 18 Sep
🌦️
14° / 10°
💨 29 mph
🌧 8.0 mm (92%)

Forecast snapshot from 12 Sep 2026, 15:36 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 238 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.

Pro mountain forecasts: MWIS · Met Office mountain forecast

Orrest Head at a glance

Orrest Head

Orrest Head, a Lake District fell
Photo: Peter Trimming, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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. He wrote movingly of the panorama spread before him: Windermere gleaming below, and the full sweep of the Lakeland fells from Coniston to the Helvellyn range. The short ascent from Windermere is an essential pilgrimage for any Wainwright admirer. The view remains as transformative as ever.

Routes up Orrest Head

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

Orrest Head
4.2 km · ~1.1 hr
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.

Classifications & hill data

Outlying Fell
South Lakeland
238 m
Height
781 ft
In feet

The short answers

Is Orrest Head a Wainwright?

Orrest Head is one of Wainwright's Outlying Fells, not one of the 214 in the Pictorial Guides.

Where do you park for Orrest Head?

The nearest car park we hold is Orrest Head car park (free), about 0.7 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Orrest Head car park, 0.7 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.

How hard is Orrest Head?

The shortest way up we hold is Orrest Head — 4.2 km, 167 m of ascent, about 1.1 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is navigation — Moderate.

All axes: navigation: Moderate · terrain: Moderate · exposure: Easy · steepness: Easy · length: Easy.

Parking & buses for Orrest Head

Best parking to hike Orrest Head

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

Orrest Head car park (free) — 0.7 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Orrest Head — the 'Orrest Head' route starts 77 m away. Free (OSM-tagged). OSM records a 2-hour maximum stay here between 09:00 and 18:00, every day including public holidays (24 Jul 2026 extract); the same element also carries an unlimited-stay tag, so the two contradict each other - check the signs before leaving the car for longer.
Directions Something changed here?
Orrest Head car park — 0.7 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Orrest Head — the 'Orrest Head' route starts 314 m away. Fee not verified — check signage on arrival.
Directions Something changed here?
Orrest Head, south car park (paid) — 0.7 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Orrest Head — the 'Orrest Head' route starts 26 m away. Paid parking (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
Orrest Head, south (layby) — 0.8 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Orrest Head — the 'Orrest Head' route starts 263 m away. Free (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
Hammarbank (LDNPA, paid) — 0.9 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: Orrest Head (0.9 km). Fees: pay and display; coins and cards (Lake District National Park car-parks directory, checked Aug 2026). Pay and display; coins and cards; RingGo ID 37303 (LDNPA, checked Aug 2026).
Directions Something changed here?

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.

Getting to Orrest Head by bus

The 505 stops at Windermere Bus Rail Interchange (Stop 1), 10 m from the start of Orrest Head. We haven’t published last buses, Sunday or winter service yet, so check the timetable before you rely on getting back.

Stagecoach 505 “Coniston Rambler”
Windermere – Ambleside – Skelwith Bridge – Hawkshead – Coniston
Catch it from: Windermere · Ambleside
Daily in season (reduced winter service). Best access for the Coniston fells (Old Man, Wetherlam group).

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; Saturday and Sunday.

Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com or Traveline before relying on a last bus.

Hazards on Orrest Head

No hazard card for this fell. The usual open-fell rules apply: check the forecast, carry a map and compass, and turn back in cloud if the ground is not what you expected.

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Orrest Head car park (free), about 0.7 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Orrest Head (within 3 km)

No bonus Birketts within 3 km — every Birkett near here is already a Wainwright summit, so just enjoy the walk.

Routes over Orrest Head

Orrest HeadPlanned
4.16 km · ~167 m ascent · loop · ~1–1.5 h
Summits: Orrest Head

⬇️ 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. 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:

💧 possible water source (39 m)🛖 map (22 m)🛖 map (24 m)🛖 map (52 m)🚌 Windermere Railway Station (1) (6 m)🚌 Windermere Railway Station (2) (16 m)🚌 Thwaites Lane (113 m)🚌 Thwaites Lane junction (127 m)⛺ Station Lodge (156 m)⛺ Lakes Boutique Hostel (169 m)

💧 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.

Places to stay near this fell

Lakes Boutique Hostel hostel

about 0.2 km from the start, in a straight line

The single most useful bed in this cluster and it is 170 m from the start: a self-catering house for up to 19 with a boot room and a drying area for jackets, a travel cot and a high chair, free washer and dryer, dog beds on request, and a minute's walk from the platform the route starts at. It is also the only property in the radius whose own site names Orrest Head as a walk from the door.

The building was a coaching stable, then a bakery, then a hostel from the 1970s; the 2020 refit insulated it with sheep's wool. Their own 'things to do' page leads with Orrest Head.

  • Drying room “a boot room for muddy shoes, and a drying area for your jackets after a day of exploring in the fells”
  • Dogs “Bring your dog along! We offer dog beds, food bowls, and towels - just arrange ahead of time.”
  • Family rooms “We offer a travel cot and high chair for families traveling with little ones.”
  • Children “We offer a travel cot and high chair for families traveling with little ones.”

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.

Other fells near Orrest Head