Pen
Pen at 762m (2,500ft) is a high Birkett top on the ridge above the Dunnerdale valley, its prominent rocky summit giving dramatic views across the head of Dunnerdale and towards the Coniston fells and the Scafell group.
Is it worth going? — Today’s conditions & 7-day summit forecast
Modelled guidance for the 762 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
On the summit today (Fri 11 Sep): 10° to 8°C, gusts to 32 mph, 3.3 mm of rain forecast.
Forecast snapshot from 11 Sep 2026, 08:30 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 762 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.
Pen at a glance
Getting there
Classifications & hill data
The short answers
Is Pen a Wainwright?
Pen is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list and the Synge list.
Where do you park for Pen?
We hold no car park within 2.5 km of the summit, so there is no short walk-in to recommend here. 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.
Routes up Pen
No route guide for this fell yet. The nearest routes we publish start close by:
- Extended Mosedale Horseshoe — starts 3.9 km away
- Scafell Pike from Wasdale, by Lingmell Col — starts 4.0 km away
- Great Gable & Kirk Fell — starts 4.0 km away
Parking & buses for Pen
Best parking to hike Pen
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.
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 Pen by bus
We don’t know yet. Wasdale Explorer (seasonal) serves this area, but we don’t hold its stop positions, so we can’t measure the walk from it — and we won’t tell you to drive on the strength of a gap in our own data. Check the operator’s timetable.
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.
Hazards on Pen
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
Skip mapFree mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap (switch layers top-right). Parking positions are approximate.
Nearest parking: Car park for Yewbarrow (free), about 3.9 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.
Birketts near Pen (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.
On the hill: terrain and water on Pen
Terrain & access
A near-path top (about 762 m): a mapped path comes within about 201 m of the summit, with a last stretch of open ground (about 106 m of ascent, up to ~67°). There is steep ground (over 30°) on the direct line — pick your line with care. The summit is on CRoW open access land.
Computed from open data, not walked — pathless ground needs confident navigation, and mapped paths, barriers and access boundaries can be incomplete. Data © OpenStreetMap contributors (via Overpass); Natural England CRoW Access Land; DoBIH; Copernicus GLO-30. See the terrain & access report for how this is worked out across all 144 fells.
Other fells near Pen
- Allen Crags
- Black Fell
- Bowfell
- Brim Fell
- Cold Pike
- Crinkle Crags - Long Top (Second Crinkle)
- Dow Crag
- Esk Pike
- Glaramara
- Great Carrs
- Great End
- Green Crag
- Grey Friar
- Hard Knott
- Harter Fell (Eskdale)
- Holme Fell
- Illgill Head
- Lingmell
- Lingmoor Fell (Brown How)
- Pike of Blisco
- Rossett Pike
- Rosthwaite Fell - Bessyboot
- Scafell
- Scafell Pike
- Seathwaite Fell (Wainwright summit)
- Slight Side
- Swirl How
- The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man)
- Wetherlam
- Whin Rigg (Wasdale)