The short answers
Is Sand Hill a Wainwright?
Sand Hill is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list, the Synge list and the Nuttall list.
Where do you park for Sand Hill?
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.
How hard is Sand Hill?
The shortest way up we hold is Birketts around Grisedale Pike — 11.7 km, 598 m of ascent, about 3.3 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is steepness — Severe.
All axes: steepness: Severe · exposure: Hard · length: Moderate · navigation: Moderate · terrain: Moderate.
Routes over Sand Hill
11.7 km · ~598 m ascent · loop · ~3–4.5 h
⬇️ 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.
16.02 km · ~1108 m ascent · loop · ~5–7 h · Loop · Hard
✎️ The Whinlatter Pass road car park is small and tucked behind the trees — and the bus to Braithwaite makes this an easy car-free round, adding only a couple of hundred metres of road to reach the start.
⬇️ Download GPX
Best season: At its best in clear, settled weather — the airy sections and the broad Crag Hill plateau want good visibility, and they're exactly where care matters most. The lower path up from Braithwaite can be smothered in bracken at the height of summer; in firm winter conditions the Grisedale Pike climb and the exposed tops become a serious proposition for axe-and-crampon walkers only.
⚠️ Warnings: Grisedale Pike's upper climb is steep and craggy — you'll want hands on rock near the top. It's no place to be rushed, or to be in poor conditions. Along Sand Hill and Hobcarton Crag, keep left in cloud: there's a sharp, rocky drop close on the right that's easy to drift towards. Hopegill Head's summit is tiny and exposed — in a strong wind you may have to crouch to claim it. Watch the short grassy ridge at Kinn; a careless step could slide you down the bank. Worth marking on the GPS. Off Sail, take the switchback path down to the col — the alternative Long Comb line dropping to the right looked treacherous; avoid it. High Moss is reliably boggy underfoot.
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.
16.17 km · ~1068 m ascent · loop · ~5–6.5 h · Hard
✎️ If you only do one round in the North Western Fells, this is it. Grasmoor is a bigger, wilder mountain than its modest reputation suggests, and the ridge from Whiteside over Gasgale Crags to Hopegill Head is as good as ridge walking gets outside the Langdales. Whiteless Pike at the end is a perfect little peak — and a punishing descent.
⬇️ Download GPX
Best season: Late spring to autumn, in clear conditions. Gasgale Crags is narrow and rocky, and Grasmoor’s summit plateau is a blank, stony expanse that is thoroughly disorientating in cloud.
⚠️ Warnings: The climb straight up Whiteside from Lanthwaite is brutally steep — a relentless, loose, eroded pull with little respite. It is the hardest 500 m on this route and it comes first. Gasgale Crags is a narrow, rocky ridge. It is not a scramble in the Sharp Edge sense, but it is airy, the rock is loose in places, and it wants care in wind or wet. Grasmoor’s summit is a featureless stony plateau with crags on three sides. In cloud it is a genuine navigation trap — take a bearing before you leave the cairn. The descent off Whiteless Pike is a knee-breaker — steep, sustained and relentless, right at the end of a long day. It is one of the steepest sustained descents in the Lakes. A long day with 1,068 m of ascent and ten tops. Navigation is graded hard: the high ground is broad and the drops are real.
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
From the Whinlatter Pass road car park (above Braithwaite) start
about 3.4 km from the start, in a straight line
It takes children but no dogs, and it is the Keswick hotel most likely to be reached for by a walking party because it advertises the thing that is hardest to get in Keswick - its own car park. A party with a dog needs the bar; a party without one needs the parking.
Worth knowing: “Child Policy Children welcome Smoking Policy No smoking Pets No pets Parties Parties not allowed”
It is a three-minute walk from the Keswick Mountain Rescue post and the Theatre by the Lake, and it charges for its car park unless you book direct.
- Parking “We also boast our own off-street car park a rarity for hotels and B&B's in Keswick plus we are only a few minutes walk from both the lake and Keswick town square.”
- Children “Child Policy Children welcome”
about 3.4 km from the start, in a straight line
They answer the dog question twice on their own page and the answer is no both times - which matters because everything else about the house (ample private parking, a fenced garden with room for bikes, six large rooms sleeping up to 13) reads as built for exactly the group that turns up with a dog.
Worth knowing: “Do you accept dogs? Unfortunately we do not accept pets.”
A slate-built Victorian town house in a cul-de-sac off Stanger Street whose rooms face two ways - Skiddaw to the north, Borrowdale and Newlands to the south - and whose breakfast meats come from Keswick butchers.
- Parking “Ample Private parking and a well established garden with space for bicycles and sports equipment to the rear of the house.”
about 3.7 km from the start, in a straight line
And a double one. No pets, and no family or triple rooms at all, so a family of three cannot be accommodated even though children are not barred. That second sentence is on the bedrooms page where a family would only find it after choosing the house. Worth knowing that it does have indoor drying facilities, which is why walkers reach for it.
Worth knowing: “For the comfort and safety of all our guests Linnett Hill operates a strict no-smoking policy and unfortunately are unable to accept pets.”
Built in 1812 with a Dutch facade that is unusual in Keswick, it stands opposite Fitz Park looking straight at Latrigg and the Skiddaw range.
- Drying room “extensive private parking together with secure cycle storage and indoor drying facilities”
- Parking “extensive private parking together with secure cycle storage and indoor drying facilities”
about 3.8 km from the start, in a straight line
And the reason for the bar is itself the useful fact: they do not take pets because there is a resident cat. That is a warning for a dog owner and, separately, for anyone in the party with a cat allergy - which no dog-policy column alone would ever surface.
Worth knowing: “We are a Non smoking Bed & Breakfast and don't accept pets (although we do have a cat).”
There is a house cat in residence, and one of the four rooms is a double with a private bathroom rather than an en-suite - the two remaining doubles share matching black and brass bedsteads.
about 3.8 km from the start, in a straight line
No pets - but cots are available on request and one of the two apartments is on the ground floor, so it stays useful to a family without a dog and to anyone who cannot manage stairs.
Worth knowing: “We are afraid we do not accept pets and the properties are strictly no smoking.”
Changeover days move with the season - Fridays and Mondays in the low season, Saturdays from mid-March - and the owners live close enough to be on hand throughout a stay.
- Family rooms “Cots are available on request.”
- Parking “both of which have off road parking and all modern amenities to make your stay as comfortable as possible”
From the Whinlatter - Forestry Commission Car Park start
about 1.9 km from the start, in a straight line
The best-answered page inside 2 km of the Whinlatter start, and the only one that solves the wet-boots-and-bikes problem explicitly: off-road parking beside the cottages, secure bike storage, and hosepipes for boots, bikes and paws. It also tells a driver something no sat nav will - that CA12 5SA covers the whole of Thornthwaite and will not find the cottage - and it puts the X5 bus stop outside the door, so a car-free party can reach the Grisedale Pike ground.
An osprey nest sits close enough that the birds can be watched from the cottage grounds between April and August, and the village bus shelter stands directly outside two of the three cottages.
- Dogs “All three of our holiday cottages are dog friendly with Jasmine Cottage and Fox Howe being able to accommodate two each and Squirrel Cottage one.”
- Family rooms “JASMINE COTTAGE (SLEEPS 4)”
- Parking “Private off road parking beside the cottages”
about 4.2 km from the start, in a straight line
The only true drying room in the whole 3-mile radius, and it is paired with a tumble drier, a 3-bicycle stand and outdoor wash-off for bikes and dogs - the exact list a party coming off a wet Coledale round needs. It is also the only property here that states in its own words that it suits families as well as couples, and it sleeps seven across four bedrooms, so it takes a group that no B&B in the area can. Ranked above much closer properties on that basis; the 3-night minimum is the cost.
It is a former farmhouse still standing on a working farm, so guests share the yard with lambs, calves and horses depending on the season.
- Drying room “There is a rear drying room for boots and coats and sportswear and a 3-bicycle stand for secure storage of bikes, plus a tumble drier.”
- Dogs “Well-behaved dogs are very welcome and there are several pleasant walks in the nearby area.”
- Family rooms “Double bedroom with king size bed and en-suite shower room - spacious electric shower, heated towel rail, washbasin with shaverlight and toilet. Twin-bedded room. Double bedded room. Single room.”
- Children “The house is ideal for couples and families alike, sleeping up to 7 people - plenty of rooms but with a cosy atmosphere.”
about 3.9 km from the start, in a straight line
The one property in the radius that can take a very large party - two of its three cottages connect through a lockable door to sleep eleven or twelve - and the only one with a stated EV charger, which matters for a group driving over Whinlatter Pass. It is on the Lorton side of the pass rather than the Braithwaite side, which is the quieter approach to Grisedale Pike's western Birketts, and the owner is close enough to call on.
The smallest of the three was built as a farm workers' cottage in the 1800s and still has its beamed ceilings; the Farmhouse next door can be linked to it through a lockable connecting door.
- Dogs “Dog friendly”
- Family rooms “Three Holiday Cottages sleeping 2, 5, or 9 (2 of the cottages can be connected to sleep 11-12)”
Other places nearby
about 1.8 km from the start, in a straight line
Three self-catering cottages 1.82 km from the start, and the only place here whose owner has written down her own judgements rather than a list: go up Melbreak's Nose rather than down it, take Low Fell from Thackthwaite rather than straight up the fence line, walk Loweswater out and back on the far side using the old coffin route. For this start in particular, the fells she names in the view from the front of the house open with Whiteside, Grassmoor and Whiteless Pike - the three summits of the Grasmoor round - though she describes them as a view from the door, not as a walk she writes up. Her own walk pages cover Buttermere, Crummock, Loweswater, Low Fell, Melbreak, Blake Fell and three waterfalls.
The cottages are the converted barn and stables of a 16th-century manor house, reached through a carriage arch with 1797 cut into it.
about 4.2 km from the start, in a straight line
The largest bed stock in the radius and the only hotel here that publishes both a restaurant and a dog policy - 21 en-suite bedrooms plus 6 self-catering apartments in Buttermere village, with an EV point in the car park. Two things a family should know before booking rather than after: the bedrooms are deliberately unplugged, with no television, no radio and no mobile signal, and the hotel publishes a late-January closure. There is no email address and no contact form anywhere on the cached site, so the only route in is the phone or the booking engine.
It sells the absence of a signal as the point: the bedrooms have no television, no radio and no mobile reception.
- Dogs “A true dog-friendly hotel in the Lake District”
- Evening meal “Exceptionally friendly and professional service, homemade food, carefully selected local real ales with our staff who naturally go the extra mile to ensure your needs meet your expectations.”
Worth knowing before you book
These places state on their own site that they do not take children.
