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

Birkett — Western (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Seat

561 m · Birkett — Western (not a Wainwright summit) · Birketts to bag nearby, parking, buses and live summit weather.

561 m
Height
+5
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX → Parking & buses →

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561 mBirkett — Western (not a Wainwright summit)+5 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 561 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Sat 12 Sep): 14° to 8°C, gusts to 47 mph, 34.8 mm of rain forecast.

Sat 12 Sep
🌧️
14° / 8°
💨 47 mph
🌧 34.8 mm (100%)
Sun 13 Sep
🌦️
14° / 9°
💨 15 mph
🌧 0.4 mm (6%)
Mon 14 Sep
🌧️
15° / 12°
💨 39 mph
🌧 7.7 mm (100%)
Tue 15 Sep
🌧️
14° / 10°
💨 39 mph
🌧 16.5 mm (98%)
Wed 16 Sep
🌧️
11° / 9°
💨 31 mph
🌧 7.6 mm (70%)
Thu 17 Sep
🌧️
10° / 9°
💨 35 mph
🌧 25.8 mm (100%)
Fri 18 Sep
🌧️
12° / 8°
💨 37 mph
🌧 19.2 mm (92%)

Forecast snapshot from 12 Sep 2026, 18:50 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 561 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

Getting there

🅿️ Gatesgarth Farm, Buttermere (paid)
Farm car park at the foot of Haystacks, Fleetwith Pike and the High Stile ridge.
🅿️ Fleetwith Pike (layby)
Nearest fells: Fleetwith Pike (0.9 km), Honister Crag (Black Star) (1.4 km), Haystacks (Buttermere) (1.9 km). Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
🚌 Stagecoach 77 / 77A “Honister Rambler”
Keswick – Portinscale – Hawse End (Catbells) – Grange – Seatoller – Honister Pass – Buttermere – Lorton – Whinlatter – Keswick (circular)

Full parking & bus details ↓

Right now on the summit

🌧️ 14°low 8°C
Gusts47 mph

Full 7-day summit forecast →

Routes up Seat

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

High Stile, Seat via Buttermere
13 km · ~4 hr
Five tops along the High Stile ridge with Buttermere below you the whole way. 836 m of ascent in 13 km, and a stage averaging 20% to gain the ridge in the first place. Exposure is rated hard where the crags drop straight to the lake. Roughly 4 hours.
The Buttermere Ridge
13.4 km · ~4.3 hr
One of the finest ridge walks in the Lakes — Seat, High Crag, High Stile and Red Pike strung above Buttermere, with plunging drops into Ennerdale on one side and the lake on the other. Earned by the loose, relentless grind of Gamlin End and paid for again on the red scree chute off Red Pike: 13.4 km, 975 m of climbing, and severe for steepness.

Classifications & hill data

Birkett
Synge
561 m
Height
1,841 ft
In feet
NY 1855 1342
Grid ref

The short answers

Is Seat a Wainwright?

Seat is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list and the Synge list.

Where do you park for Seat?

The nearest car park we hold is Gatesgarth Farm, Buttermere (paid), about 1.8 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Fleetwith Pike (layby), 2.1 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 Seat?

The shortest way up we hold is High Stile, Seat via Buttermere — 13 km, 836 m of ascent, about 4 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is steepness — Severe.

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

Parking & buses for Seat

Best parking to hike Seat

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

Gatesgarth Farm, Buttermere (paid) — 1.8 km from summit (straight line)
Farm car park at the foot of Haystacks, Fleetwith Pike and the High Stile ridge.
Directions Something changed here?
Fleetwith Pike (layby) — 2.1 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: Fleetwith Pike (0.9 km), Honister Crag (Black Star) (1.4 km), Haystacks (Buttermere) (1.9 km). Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
High Snockrigg car park (free) — 2.4 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: High Snockrigg (1.0 km), Robinson (1.7 km). Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
Honister Crag (layby) — 2.8 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: Honister Crag (Black Star) (0.7 km), Fleetwith Pike (0.8 km), Dale Head (1.4 km). Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
Buttermere village LDNP car park (east) (paid) — 3.7 km from summit (straight line)
The 'Buttermere lake circuit' route starts 49 m away. Also serves 'Crummock Water shore circuit'. Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged). Toilets on site. Fees: pay and display; coins and cards; RingGo ID 37311 (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 Seat by bus

The 77 stops at Buttermere, outside Court Hotel, 100 m from the start of High Stile, Seat via Buttermere. Seasonal: the 77 does not run all year. 1 November 2026 is its last day, and it is not daily before then — a bus on 31 of the 56 days from 7 September. We don’t know when it returns. Confirmed with the operator, 29 August 2026. Last bus: Monday to Friday 19:23 towards Cockermouth (77A) and 18:20 towards Keswick (77); Saturday 19:23 towards Cockermouth (77A) and 18:20 towards Keswick (77); Sunday 18:20 towards Keswick (77). Checked against the operator’s timetable, 12 September 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.

Stagecoach 77 / 77A “Honister Rambler”
Keswick – Portinscale – Hawse End (Catbells) – Grange – Seatoller – Honister Pass – Buttermere – Lorton – Whinlatter – Keswick (circular)
Catch it from: Keswick (connect via 555 from Windermere/Ambleside or X4/X5 from Penrith)
Seasonal (roughly Easter–October). Brilliant for the North Western fells: Catbells, Dale Head from Honister, the Buttermere fells and Whinlatter.

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

Hazards on Seat

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: Gatesgarth Farm, Buttermere (paid), about 1.8 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Seat (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.

1.6 km SLooking Stead (Pillar)628 m · Western
1.8 km SWPillar Rock780 m · Western
2.1 km NWHigh Stile (Grey Crag)806 m · Western
2.6 km SWBlack Crag828 m · Western
2.8 km ENEHonister Crag (Black Star)634 m · Western

Routes over Seat

High Stile, Seat via ButtermereLive
12.97 km · ~836 m ascent · loop · ~4–5.5 h
Summits: Red Pike (Buttermere)High StileHigh Stile (Grey Crag - High Stile)High Crag (Buttermere)Seat

⬇️ 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.

The Buttermere RidgePlanned
13.39 km · ~975 m ascent · loop · ~4–5.5 h
Summits: SeatHigh Crag (Buttermere)High Stile (Grey Crag - High Stile)High StileRed Pike (Buttermere)Dodd (Buttermere)

⬇️ 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 Seat

Terrain & access

A 561 m top with a mapped path to within about 29 m of the summit. 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.

Water & shelter on the way up

On the High Stile, Seat via Buttermere route:

🚌 Bridge Hotel (6 m)🚌 The Fish Hotel (62 m)🚌 Mountain Road junction (153 m)🚌 Buttermere Youth Hostel (N bound) (312 m)⛺ Syke Farm Campsite (217 m)

On the The Buttermere Ridge route:

🚌 Bridge Hotel (307 m)🚌 The Fish Hotel (324 m)🚌 Mountain Road junction (398 m)⛺ Syke Farm Campsite (232 m)

On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.

Places to stay near this fell

Bridge Hotel hotel

about 0.0 km from the start, in a straight line

It is 20 m from where all five Buttermere routes begin and it is the only hotel in the valley that says it takes dogs, in a cluster where three of the other four beds state a pet restriction. It also states its own size - "21 EN-SUITE BEDROOMS AND 6 SELF-CATERING APARTMENTS" - and its own food and ales, so a party coming off Red Pike at six can eat and sleep without moving the car. Set against that: only its home page is in the cache and that page answers nothing about parking, drying, children or family rooms, and it publishes no email and no phone at all, so this is a place you book online or ring on OSM's number, not one you email.

The bedrooms are deliberately unwired - no television, no radio, and no mobile signal to lose.

  • 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.

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 Seat