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

Birkett — Southern (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Seathwaite Fell (Great Slack)

Seathwaite Fell at 601m (1,972ft) sits above the head of Borrowdale, its broad, boggy summit plateau forming the watershed between Styhead Gill and Grains Gill.

631 m
Height
+9
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX → Parking & buses →

Home › Fells › Seathwaite Fell (Great Slack)

631 mBirkett — Southern (not a Wainwright summit)+9 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 631 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 48 mph, 43.7 mm of rain forecast.

Sat 12 Sep
🌧️
14° / 8°
💨 48 mph
🌧 43.7 mm (100%)
Sun 13 Sep
☁️
13° / 9°
💨 19 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (6%)
Mon 14 Sep
🌧️
15° / 12°
💨 39 mph
🌧 8.8 mm (100%)
Tue 15 Sep
🌧️
14° / 9°
💨 39 mph
🌧 16.5 mm (98%)
Wed 16 Sep
🌧️
10° / 8°
💨 31 mph
🌧 7.6 mm (70%)
Thu 17 Sep
🌧️
10° / 8°
💨 35 mph
🌧 25.8 mm (100%)
Fri 18 Sep
🌧️
11° / 8°
💨 37 mph
🌧 19.2 mm (92%)

Forecast snapshot from 12 Sep 2026, 15:36 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 631 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

Seathwaite Fell (Great Slack) at a glance

Seathwaite Fell (Great Slack)

Seathwaite Fell at 601m (1,972ft) sits above the head of Borrowdale, its broad, boggy summit plateau forming the watershed between Styhead Gill and Grains Gill. Wainwright included it in his Southern Fells guide, noting its relatively featureless top is redeemed by good views north down Borrowdale and south-east to the Great Gable group. The ascent from Seathwaite farm is short but damp in places. More commonly visited as part of the approach to the Scafell group via Aaron Crags or as an add-on from Styhead. The true summit is the Wainwright top — the AA cairn — on the north edge of the plateau.

Routes up Seathwaite Fell (Great Slack)

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

Seathwaite, Green Gable, Base Brown
14.8 km · ~4.5 hr
Both Seathwaite Fell tops with Green Gable and Base Brown — four summits in 14.8 km and 938 m, rated hard for terrain, navigation and exposure and severe for steepness. About 4.5 hours on properly rough ground.

Classifications & hill data

Birkett
Synge
Nuttall
631 m
Height
2,070 ft
In feet
NY 2273 0971
Grid ref

The short answers

Is Seathwaite Fell (Great Slack) a Wainwright?

Seathwaite Fell (Great Slack) is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list, the Synge list and the Nuttall list.

Where do you park for Seathwaite Fell (Great Slack)?

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 Seathwaite Fell (Great Slack)?

The shortest way up we hold is Seathwaite, Green Gable, Base Brown — 14.8 km, 938 m of ascent, about 4.5 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is steepness — Severe.

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

Parking & buses for Seathwaite Fell (Great Slack)

Best parking to hike Seathwaite Fell (Great Slack)

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

Seathwaite Farm, Borrowdale (free verge) — 2.8 km from summit (straight line)
Free verge parking on the Seathwaite lane — the honeypot start for the Scafells, Great Gable and Glaramara. Arrive very early.
🕑 Typically full before 09:00 on fine weekends, Apr-Oct — Lee McCoy, local observation, 2026-08-09.
Directions Something changed here?
If it is full: Honister Pass (paid, slate mine) (1.8 km); Seatoller (NT, paid) (2.0 km); Rosthwaite (NT, paid) (3.8 km)
🚺 Public toilets (~188 m straight line) — Free
Thornythwaite Fell (layby) — 2.9 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Allen Crags, High House Tarn Top (High House - Allen Crags), Red Beck Top (Glaramara South Top) (Lincomb Head - Glaramara) and Looking Steads (Glaramara) — the 'Allan Crags & Glaramara' route starts 135 m away. Also serves 'Scafell Pike via the Corridor Route'. Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
Thornythwaite Fell, north-west (layby) — 3.0 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Allen Crags, High House Tarn Top (High House - Allen Crags), Red Beck Top (Glaramara South Top) (Lincomb Head - Glaramara) and Looking Steads (Glaramara) — the 'Allan Crags & Glaramara' route starts 255 m away. Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
Honister (NT, paid) — 3.8 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Great Gable, Green Gable, Brandreth and Grey Knotts — the 'Great Gable from Honister Slate Mine' route starts 61 m away. Also serves 'Haystacks'. Paid National Trust car park - the prices we used to show here came from an aggregator rather than the Trust, so we no longer publish a figure; check the machine on arrival, and members should bring their card (National Trust car-park list, checked Aug 2026). The machine takes cards, and National Trust members park free on production of their membership card (Lee McCoy, local observation, recorded 12 Aug 2026).
Directions Something changed here?
Honister Pass (paid, slate mine) — 3.9 km from summit (straight line)
Pay & display at the top of the pass — Dale Head, Fleetwith Pike, Grey Knotts with minimal ascent. This is the slate mine's own car park, the WESTERN one; the National Trust car park 170 m east is a separate one. Fees: Day parking GBP 5 per day for visitors; free for all Honister activity guests (honister.com/your-visit/). Overnight parking GBP 15 a night in the large bottom car park, open to campervans, motorhomes and vans, no tent camping, no facilities, no electric hook-ups; book online or pay by QR code on arrival and display confirmation on the dashboard (honister.com/your-visit/overnight-parking) (operator, checked Aug 2026). You pay by card, inside the building, not at a machine in the car park. The posted opening is 9am but it is often later; the mine is content for you to arrive before it and pay on the way out, and the car park is covered by cameras (Lee McCoy, local observation, recorded 12 Aug 2026). Pay and display (LDNPA, checked Aug 2026).
🕑 Typically full before 10:00 on fine weekends, Apr-Oct — Lee McCoy, local observation, 2026-08-09.
Directions Something changed here?
If it is full: Seatoller (NT, paid) (2.3 km)
🚺 Public toilets (~136 m straight line) — Free🚺 Public toilets (~1825 m straight line) — Free☕ Sky Hi Cafe

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 Seathwaite Fell (Great Slack) by bus

The 77 stops at Seatoller, at National Trust car park, 820 m from the start of Seathwaite, Green Gable, Base Brown. The last bus is 20:00 towards Keswick (78), every day. 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 Seathwaite Fell (Great Slack)

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: Seathwaite Farm, Borrowdale (free verge), about 2.8 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Seathwaite Fell (Great Slack) (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.

1.4 km ESEHigh House Tarn Top (High House - Allen Crags)683 m · Southern
1.5 km ERed Beck Top (Glaramara South Top) (Lincomb Head - Glaramara)720 m · Southern
1.9 km ENELooking Steads (Glaramara)774 m · Southern
2.3 km SSWBroad Crag935 m · Southern
2.4 km SIll Crag931 m · Southern
2.5 km ENECombe Head735 m · Southern
2.8 km NEThornythwaite Fell574 m · Southern
3.0 km WNWKirk Fell East Top (Kirk Fell North Top)787 m · Western
3.0 km SSEPike de Bield810 m · Southern

Routes over Seathwaite Fell (Great Slack)

Seathwaite, Green Gable, Base BrownLive
14.79 km · ~938 m ascent · loop · ~4.5–6 h
Summits: Seathwaite Fell (Wainwright summit)Seathwaite Fell (Great Slack - Seathwaite Fell)Green GableBase Brown

⬇️ 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.

On the hill: terrain and water on Seathwaite Fell (Great Slack)

Water & shelter on the way up

On the Seathwaite, Green Gable, Base Brown route:

🚺 map (39 m)

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

Places to stay near this fell

Seatoller House B&B guest house

about 0.6 km from the start, in a straight line

The most complete answer-set in the whole radius and only 0.58 km out: two rooms described as family rooms, dogs allowed with a stated house rule, ample private parking, a cooked set dinner at 7pm and a firm breakfast window - a family with a dog can plan the whole evening from this one page.

Worth knowing: “Well behaved dogs are allowed, they are not allowed in the dining room at any time,Please clean and dry all dogs on entering Seatoller via the back door.”

400 years old and a guest house for over a century - the biggest building in the hamlet of Seatoller, and it shuts for the winter.

  • Dogs “Well behaved dogs are allowed, they are not allowed in the dining room at any time,Please clean and dry all dogs on entering Seatoller via the back door.”
  • Family rooms “Rabbit Large Family room, Private bathroom directly opposite, great views of garden & Fells”
  • Evening meal “The dining room has two large traditional oak tables creating a friendly atmosphere where guests are served a set meal at 7 pm (excluding Wednesdays). DINNER MUST BE PRE-BOOKED 48 HOURS IN ADVANCE”
  • Parking “There are 10 bedrooms all with private bathrooms, a large award winning garden surrounding the house and ample private car parking.”

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 Seathwaite Fell (Great Slack)