hikes.guideLake District

348 m · Birkett — Northern (not a Wainwright summit) · Birketts to bag nearby, parking, buses, my hikes and live summit weather.

Bracken and rough pasture running down to a small lake, with a rounded green hill and patchwork fields beyond
Birkett — Northern (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Orthwaite Bank

Orthwaite Bank at 348m (1,142ft) is a Birkett top in the Back o' Skiddaw country north of the main Lakeland fells, its open moorland summit giving views across the Uldale Fells and north towards the Solway.

348 m
Height
+4
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX → Parking & buses →
348 mBirkett — Northern (not a Wainwright summit)+4 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 348 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Sat 12 Sep): 16° to 9°C, gusts to 38 mph, 12.7 mm of rain forecast.

Sat 12 Sep
🌧️
16° / 9°
💨 38 mph
🌧 12.7 mm (100%)
Sun 13 Sep
☁️
16° / 10°
💨 11 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (10%)
Mon 14 Sep
🌦️
17° / 12°
💨 34 mph
🌧 1.6 mm (92%)
Tue 15 Sep
🌧️
16° / 10°
💨 34 mph
🌧 8.8 mm (96%)
Wed 16 Sep
🌦️
13° / 9°
💨 27 mph
🌧 3.1 mm (62%)
Thu 17 Sep
🌦️
12° / 9°
💨 35 mph
🌧 14.1 mm (84%)
Fri 18 Sep
🌦️
13° / 9°
💨 36 mph
🌧 8.6 mm (75%)

Forecast snapshot from 12 Sep 2026, 18:50 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 348 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.

Orthwaite Bank at a glance

Orthwaite Bank

Bracken and rough pasture running down to a small lake, with a rounded green hill and patchwork fields beyond
© Lee McCoy

Orthwaite Bank at 348m (1,142ft) is a Birkett top in the Back o' Skiddaw country north of the main Lakeland fells, its open moorland summit giving views across the Uldale Fells and north towards the Solway. Part of the broad, quiet fell country typical of this northern area. A remote summit rarely visited except by Birkett baggers.

Routes up Orthwaite Bank

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

Classifications & hill data

Birkett
348 m
Height
1,142 ft
In feet
NY 2564 3348
Grid ref

The short answers

Is Orthwaite Bank a Wainwright?

Orthwaite Bank is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list.

Where do you park for Orthwaite Bank?

The nearest car park we hold is Orthwaite Bank (layby), about 0.7 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Peter House Farm, Bassenthwaite (roadside), 1.4 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 Orthwaite Bank?

The shortest way up we hold is North of Skiddaw — 13.2 km, 707 m of ascent, about 3.8 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is steepness — Hard.

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

My hikes over Orthwaite Bank (Strava)

1 logged hike pass over this summit:

Interactive route maps and photos load here for visitors with JavaScript. Data from Strava.

Parking & buses for Orthwaite Bank

Best parking to hike Orthwaite Bank

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

Orthwaite Bank (layby) — 0.7 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: Orthwaite Bank (0.7 km), Little Cockup (1.2 km), Cockup (1.8 km). Free (OSM-tagged).
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Peter House Farm, Bassenthwaite (roadside) — 1.4 km from summit (straight line)
Dash Falls track — Bakestall, Great Calva, Skiddaw the quiet way.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Little Cockup car park — 1.9 km from summit (straight line)
1.8 km from Little Cockup.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Roadside parking for Longlands Fell (free) — 2.5 km from summit (straight line)
1.1 km from Longlands Fell. Added from the 5 Aug 2026 OSM candidate review.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Longlands Fell car park — 2.6 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Longlands Fell, Lowthwaite Fell, Brae Fell and Little Sca Fell — the 'North of Skiddaw' route starts 1 m away. Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged). Fee not verified — check signage on arrival.
Directions (opens in new tab)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 Orthwaite Bank by bus

The nearest bus stop we hold is the X4 at Bassenthwaite, at Village turn, 6.4 km of walking from the start — not realistically reachable without a car.

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

Hazards on Orthwaite Bank

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: Orthwaite Bank (layby), about 0.7 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Orthwaite Bank (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.

0.6 km ENELittle Cockup399 m · Northern
2.1 km SCockup505 m · Northern
2.5 km ENELowthwaite Fell509 m · Northern
2.7 km ESEBurn Tod595 m · Northern

Routes over Orthwaite Bank

13.22 km · ~707 m ascent · loop · ~3.5–5 h

⬇️ Download GPX

Full route guide ↗

A planned line is a suggestion, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate independently and carry a map & compass. How to use this guide.

Places to stay near this fell

Woodlands Country House & Cottage (opens in new tab) guest house

about 4.5 km from the start, in a straight line

The furthest of the four at 4.45 km and the only one with a restaurant you can eat in whether or not you are staying: "Our restaurant, lounge, bar and gardens are open to non-residents too". Given the route file records nothing mapped at the start or on the round, that is a real option for the evening after — and, unlike Overwater, it does not shut two days a week. It also offers two different shapes of stay from one address: licensed B&B rooms in the house, or the converted stable block as a self-catering cottage, which is the one to ask about if you are bringing the dog. Be clear about what the evidence will and will not carry. The dog line is not a policy statement: it is a caption inside the site's own embedded Instagram feed — "Happy International Cat Day! Your furry friends are most welcome in Woodlands Cottage" — and it names the Cottage, not the House. Treat it as a lead to confirm, not a booking guarantee, and remember the route file's dog verdict is green (three gates, no stiles), so this is worth a phone call rather than a shrug. On children the site publishes a "Family Friendly" page in its own navigation, but our cache holds only the homepage and the contact page, so the policy itself is unread and this record states nothing about it. Pushchairs are out either way: the route's buggy verdict is red.

A Victorian rectory turned licensed B&B, with the old stable block converted into the self-catering cottage; it looks straight out at Skiddaw and Binsey.

  • Evening meal “Our restaurant, lounge, bar and gardens are open to non-residents too; please see our Dine page for more details.”

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).

Other fells near Orthwaite Bank