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362 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

Side Pike

Side Pike at 362m (1,188ft) is a small, rocky knoll above the head of Great Langdale beside Blea Tarn, its craggy top giving outstanding views of both Great and Little Langdale and the Langdale Pikes.

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

Home › Fells › Side Pike

Written and walked by Lee McCoy

362 mBirkett — Southern (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 362 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Fri 11 Sep): 14° to 9°C, gusts to 26 mph, 1.5 mm of rain forecast.

Fri 11 Sep
🌦️
14° / 9°
💨 26 mph
🌧 1.5 mm (100%)
Sat 12 Sep
🌧️
16° / 10°
💨 41 mph
🌧 42.6 mm (100%)
Sun 13 Sep
🌦️
14° / 9°
💨 15 mph
🌧 0.1 mm (62%)
Mon 14 Sep
🌧️
16° / 9°
💨 32 mph
🌧 13.3 mm (100%)
Tue 15 Sep
🌦️
15° / 9°
💨 34 mph
🌧 8.4 mm (89%)
Wed 16 Sep
🌦️
12° / 10°
💨 32 mph
🌧 3.8 mm (78%)
Thu 17 Sep
🌦️
12° / 10°
💨 36 mph
🌧 6.2 mm (92%)

Forecast snapshot from 11 Sep 2026, 08:30 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 362 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

Side Pike at a glance

Side Pike

Side Pike at 362m (1,188ft) is a small, rocky knoll above the head of Great Langdale beside Blea Tarn, its craggy top giving outstanding views of both Great and Little Langdale and the Langdale Pikes. It sits on the Lingmoor Fell ridge, which Wainwright covered in his Southern Fells, and makes a worthwhile short ascent. The views across Blea Tarn to the Langdale Pikes are among the finest small viewpoints in the district.

Routes up Side Pike

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

Lingmoor Fell from Elterwater
11.5 km · ~3.1 hr · Moderate
The best low fell in Langdale, and the one that shows you the valley properly. Lingmoor sits between Great and Little Langdale, so the Pikes rear up across the dale in front of you the whole way along the ridge. Side Pike at the far end throws in a famous rock squeeze. Half the effort of the big Langdale rounds and arguably a better view of them.

Classifications & hill data

Birkett
Synge
362 m
Height
1,188 ft
In feet
NY 2930 0537
Grid ref

The short answers

Is Side Pike a Wainwright?

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

Where do you park for Side Pike?

The nearest car park we hold is Side Pike (layby), about 0.4 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Side Pike, west (layby), 0.5 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 Side Pike?

The shortest way up we hold is Lingmoor Fell from Elterwater — 11.5 km, 487 m of ascent, about 3.1 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is steepness — Hard.

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

My hikes over Side Pike (Strava)

1 logged hike pass over this summit:

Interactive route maps and photos load here for visitors with JavaScript. Data from Strava.

Parking & buses for Side Pike

Best parking to hike Side Pike

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

Side Pike (layby) — 0.4 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: Side Pike (0.4 km), Blake Rigg (Little Langdale) (1.3 km), Lingmoor Fell (Brown How) (1.4 km). Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
Side Pike, west (layby) — 0.5 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: Side Pike (0.5 km), Blake Rigg (Little Langdale) (1.3 km), Wrynose Fell - Long Crag (1.5 km). Ground surface (OSM-tagged). Fee not verified — check signage on arrival.
Directions Something changed here?
Side Pike (verge, south) — 0.7 km from summit (straight line)
0.7 km from Side Pike.
Directions Something changed here?
Side Pike (verge) — 0.9 km from summit (straight line)
0.9 km from Side Pike.
Directions Something changed here?
Stickle Ghyll (NT, paid) — 0.9 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Pavey Ark, Harrison Stickle, Thorn Crag and Loft Crag — the 'Langdale Horseshoe' route starts 17 m away. Also serves 'Langdale Pikes Round'. 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). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged). Height barrier (community-reported). Direct start up Stickle Ghyll for the Langdale Pikes.
🕑 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: Old Dungeon Ghyll (NT, paid) (0.9 km); Blea Tarn (NT, paid) (2.0 km); Three Shire Stone, Wrynose Pass (verge) (4.0 km)
🚺 Public toilets (~707 m straight line) — Free🚺 Public toilets (~843 m straight line) — Free

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 Side Pike by bus

The 516 stops at Elterwater, opposite The Britannia Inn, 70 m from the start of Lingmoor Fell from Elterwater — a route we rate Moderate. Last bus: Monday to Friday 19:52 towards Dungeon Ghyll (516); Saturday 22:12 towards Dungeon Ghyll (516); Sunday 19:52 towards Dungeon Ghyll (516). Checked against the operator’s timetable, 7 September 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.

Stagecoach 516 “Langdale Rambler”
Ambleside – Skelwith Bridge – Elterwater – New Dungeon Ghyll – Old Dungeon Ghyll
Catch it from: Ambleside · Windermere (change at Ambleside)
The Langdale bus — Pikes, Bowfell, Crinkle Crags, Pike o' Blisco all walkable from the Dungeon Ghyll stops. Seasonal frequency varies; check before relying on the last bus back.

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

Hazards on Side Pike

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: Side Pike (layby), about 0.4 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Side Pike (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.

1.7 km SSWBlake Rigg (Little Langdale)535 m · Southern
1.9 km SWWrynose Fell - Long Crag547 m · Southern
2.2 km NWThorn Crag644 m · Central
2.7 km NNECastle How (Raw Pike)498 m · Central
2.7 km NESwinescar Pike411 m · Central

Routes over Side Pike

Lingmoor Fell from ElterwaterPlanned
11.51 km · ~487 m ascent · loop · ~3–4 h · Moderate
Summits: Lingmoor Fell (Brown How)Side Pike

⬇️ Download GPX

⚠️ Warnings: The Side Pike squeeze. The direct ridge line passes through a narrow cleft above a steep drop. There is a bypass path that drops below the crag — take it if you are carrying a big pack, or with a dog or children. Old quarry workings on the Elterwater side. Keep to the path.

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 Side Pike

Water & shelter on the way up

On the Lingmoor Fell from Elterwater route:

🛖 map (40 m)🚺 map (23 m)🚌 The Britannia Inn (20 m)⛺ Elterwater Hostel (88 m)

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

Places to stay near this fell

From Elterwater: 5 places in Grasmere

Other fells near Side Pike