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Rough Crag (Birker Moor)

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319 mOutlying Fell — West Cumbria+1 bonus Birkett within 3 km

Rough Crag (319 m / 1,047 ft) is a low, rocky knoll on Birker Moor, taken in on Wainwright's Devoke Water round close to its neighbour Seat How.

Summit conditions on Rough Crag (Birker Moor)

On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 14° to 8°C, gusts to 49 mph, 1.6 mm of rain forecast over the whole day, midnight to midnight.

Full 7-day summit forecast ↓

The forecast figures are Open-Meteo’s, worked out for the summit’s height. How we check →

Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (opens in new tab)

Routes up Rough Crag (Birker Moor)

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

Birketts Around Devoke Water Planned, not yet walked
8.89 km · ~415 m ascent · ~2¼–3½ h · loop · 5 summits
Moderate effort Hard: navigation
Park: Devoke Water turning, Birker Fell road (verge) (free)

Five small tops circling Devoke Water — White Pike, Woodend Height, Yoadcastle, Water Crag and Rough Crag — in 8.9 km with 415 m of climbing averaging about 7% with one 19% descent over 250 m.

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 Rough Crag (Birker Moor)?

The shortest way up we hold is Birketts Around Devoke Water — 8.89 km, 415 m of ascent, ~2¼–3½ h. On our scale its hardest axis is navigation — Hard.

All axes: navigation: Hard · length: Moderate · steepness: Moderate · 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 319 m summit (Open-Meteo). Check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

Full 7-day forecast
Tue 27 Oct
14° / 8°
49 mph
1.6 mm (100%)
Wed 28 Oct
12° / 9°
34 mph
2.6 mm (100%)
Thu 29 Oct
11° / 9°
24 mph
0.5 mm (16%)
Fri 30 Oct
10° / 8°
24 mph
0.0 mm (35%)
Sat 31 Oct
12° / 4°
8 mph
0.0 mm (29%)
Sun 1 Nov
11° / 2°
8 mph
0.0 mm (14%)
Mon 2 Nov
9° / 2°
17 mph
0.0 mm (0%)

Taken 27 October 2026, 08:13 UTC; the live forecast replaces it when it loads. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (opens in new tab)

Parking & buses for Rough Crag (Birker Moor)

Parking

Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.

Devoke Water turning, Birker Fell road (verge) — at the start of Birketts Around Devoke Water
Rough free parking by the bridleway to Devoke Water for the Birker Fell group.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Rough Crag Birker Moor (verge, south) — 0.9 km from summit (straight line)
On the Birker Fell road above Eskdale, by the Devoke Water turning. 'Birketts Around Devoke Water' and 'Green Crag & Great Whinscale — the wild Birker Fell round' start there, 0.3 km on foot.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Rough Crag Birker Moor (verge, south 2) — 1.3 km from summit (straight line)
On the Birker Fell road above Eskdale. 'Birketts Around Devoke Water' and 'Green Crag & Great Whinscale — the wild Birker Fell round' start at the Devoke Water turning, about 1.5 km south-east in a straight line.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
2 more places to park near Rough Crag (Birker Moor)
Rough Crag Birker Moor (verge, south 3) — 1.4 km from summit (straight line)
On the Birker Fell road above Eskdale. 'Birketts Around Devoke Water' and 'Green Crag & Great Whinscale — the wild Birker Fell round' start at the Devoke Water turning, 2.5 km on foot.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Informal pull-in on the Birker Fell road (roadside gravel patches only) — 1.8 km from summit (straight line)
Community walk pages start here for 'Green Crag from the Birker Fell road' (community walk listings). Fee not verified — check signage on arrival.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?

Positions are approximate.

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 nearest bus stop we hold is the 505 at Coniston, outside The Ruskin Centre, 17.3 km of walking from the start — no bus route we hold serves it.

Getting there across the Lake District: Buses · Parking map · By train · By boat

Hazards on Rough Crag (Birker Moor)

Notes from a planned route, not walked: Birketts Around Devoke Water

If you need to get off (the leg from Water Crag): Drop north off the ridge down the short, grassy bank directly onto the main Devoke Water access track.

Quoted from the route page of a planned route, drawn from the map and not yet walked: the note for the leg that reaches Rough Crag (Birker Moor).

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

Free mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap, with SRTM elevation data (switch layers top-right).

Parking, toilets and buses: Parking & buses ↑.

Birketts within 3 km of Rough Crag (Birker Moor)

These Birkett tops are not Wainwright summits. Distances are straight lines: check the ground and access on a map before adding one.

2.5 km EBirker Fell - Great Crag333 m · Southern

Routes over Rough Crag (Birker Moor)

8.89 km · ~415 m ascent · loop · ~2¼–3½ h
Moderate effort Hard: navigation

Download GPX Planned route · not yet walked

Route guide: Birketts Around Devoke Water →

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 Rough Crag (Birker Moor)

Terrain & access

A 319 m top with a mapped path to within about 11 m of the summit. There is steep ground (over 30°) on the direct line. 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 v18.4 (CC BY 4.0); Copernicus GLO-30. CRoW access layer: © Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. See the terrain & access report for how this is worked out across all 144 fells.

About Rough Crag (Birker Moor)

This is open, tussocky moorland above Eskdale, scattered with outcrops and small tarns, and Devoke Water — the Lake District's largest tarn — lies just to the south. A Wainwright Outlying Fell and a Birkett, it gives a fine low-level view to the Scafell range.

Classifications & hill data

Is Rough Crag (Birker Moor) a Wainwright?

Rough Crag (Birker Moor) is one of Wainwright's Outlying Fells, not one of the 214 in the Pictorial Guides. It is also on the Birkett list and the Synge list.

Selected lists

319 m
Height
1,047 ft
In feet
SD 1610 9776
Grid ref

This is the summit’s grid reference. If you call from anywhere else, give your own position, not this one.

The summit is also a Birkett.

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 →

Other fells near Rough Crag (Birker Moor)