Sour Howes
Sour Howes at 483m (1,585ft) is a broad, grassy summit above Troutbeck with good views south to Windermere.
Is it worth going? — Today’s conditions & 7-day summit forecast
Modelled guidance for the 483 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
On the summit today (Sat 12 Sep): 16° to 8°C, gusts to 36 mph, 26.5 mm of rain forecast.
Forecast snapshot from 12 Sep 2026, 15:36 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 483 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.
Sour Howes at a glance
Sour Howes
Routes up Sour Howes
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
Classifications & hill data
The short answers
Is Sour Howes a Wainwright?
Sour Howes is a Wainwright. It is also on the Birkett list and the Synge list.
Where do you park for Sour Howes?
The nearest car park we hold is Sour Howes (layby), about 1.4 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Sour Howes, west (layby), 1.4 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.
My hikes over Sour Howes (Strava)
1 logged hike pass over this summit:
- Sour Howes, Sallows, Yorke, Illl Bell, Frostwick and Troutbeck Tongue in the sun! (opens in new tab) — 27.6 km · 1307 m ascent · 6h 45m moving · 6 Apr 2025
Interactive route maps and photos load here for visitors with JavaScript. Data from Strava.
Parking & buses for Sour Howes
Best parking to hike Sour Howes
Where we have the data, each parking spot also shows the nearest public toilets and facilities (cafés, pubs, shops).
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 Sour Howes by bus
The 508 stops at Troutbeck Jesus Church (near), 40 m from the start of Capple Howe & Sallows. The last bus is 17:18, towards Penrith, every day. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 30 August 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.
Hazards on Sour Howes
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.
Navigating Sour Howes in cloud
StraightforwardA broad, gently-sloping top with little to steer by — easy to lose your bearings and hard to relocate in mist. Navigation here is relatively straightforward even in cloud — but carry map and compass and know how to use them; a low score never means “safe”.
In winter — snow, whiteout, cornices, buried features — every top demands full winter navigation skills whatever its band, and a broad, gentle summit can be the worst place of all. See walking in bad weather and the navigation guide.
How Sour Howes compares with all 214 — the Clag Index: navigating in cloud. A relative, deliberately cautious guide; the site can’t navigate for you.
Map & nearby Birketts
Skip mapFree mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap (switch layers top-right). Parking positions are approximate.
Nearest parking: Sour Howes (layby), about 1.4 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.
Birketts near Sour Howes (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.
Routes over Sour Howes
🥾 Walked in part — Lee walked this ground in April 2025; km 2.1–2.9, km 4.7–7.1 of this line are from the map.
A planned line is a suggestion, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate independently and carry a map & compass. How to use this 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 Sour Howes
Water & shelter on the way up
On the Capple Howe & Sallows route:
On the Sour Howes, Sallows, Yoke, Ill Bell, Froswick and Troutbeck Tongue in the sun! route:
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.
The view from Sour Howes
The 360° skyline from Sour Howes
A computed 360° skyline — every visible named top labelled by distance and bearing, from the terrain model in perfect clarity, not photographed. Drag to pan; reveal the far four-nations horizon.
What you can see from Sour Howes, by direction
- North: Ill Bell (5 km), Thornthwaite Crag (7 km), Stony Cove Pike (7 km), Caudale Moor (7 km)
- North-east: Harter Fell (7 km)
- West: Wetherlam (14 km), Black Sails (15 km), Sergeant Man (15 km), Harrison Stickle (15 km), Swirl How (16 km), Great Carrs (16 km), Great How (16 km), The Old Man of Coniston (16 km), Brim Fell (16 km), Little Stand (18 km), Crinkle Crags (18 km), Crinkle Crags South Top (18 km), Crinkle Crags (18 km), Crinkle Crags (18 km), Shelter Crags (18 km), Crinkle Crags (18 km), Bowfell (19 km), Looking Steads (20 km), Esk Pike (20 km), Allen Crags (20 km), Great End (21 km), Ill Crag (21 km), Broad Crag (21 km), Scafell Pike (22 km), Scafell (22 km), Green Gable (23 km), Great Gable (23 km), Pillar (27 km)
- North-west: Red Screes (6 km), Great Rigg (10 km), Fairfield (11 km), Codale Head (15 km), High Raise (16 km), Low White Stones (16 km), Dale Head (24 km)
On the clearest days the far horizon adds: Snowdon (170 km, Wales), Carnedd Llewelyn (158 km, Wales), Moel Siabod (165 km, Wales), Arenig Fawr (177 km, Wales), Craig Cwm Silyn (178 km, Wales), Pendle Hill (72 km, England), Moel y Gamelin (159 km, Wales), Cadair Berwyn (174 km, Wales).
Computed from terrain in perfect clarity, not photographed · distances are straight-line.
Computed from Copernicus GLO-30 terrain; distant tops from the Database of British and Irish Hills (opens in new tab) (CC BY 4.0). See how we compute the view · and the summit intervisibility report below.
Sunrise and sunset on Sour Howes
Sour Howes sits close to the flat-horizon case. Even on its longest wait of the modelled year (at midsummer) first light is only 14 minutes after almanac sunrise, so the published sunrise time is a fair guide here.
| First light | Almanac sunrise | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midsummer | 04:51 BST ±5.0 min | 04:37 | +14 min |
| Equinox | 06:15 GMT ±5.0 min | 06:15 | — |
| Midwinter | 08:32 GMT ±5.0 min | 08:31 | +1 min |
The northern horizon stands at about 2.05° from here.
Last light — when the sun leaves Sour Howes
The evening here runs close to the flat-horizon case. Even on its earliest evening of the modelled year (at midsummer) last light is only 10 minutes before almanac sunset, so the published sunset time is a fair guide on Sour Howes.
| Last light | Almanac sunset | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midsummer | 21:41 BST ±5.0 min | 21:51 | -10 min |
| Equinox | 18:20 GMT ±5.0 min | 18:25 | -5 min |
| Midwinter | 15:55 GMT ±5.0 min | 15:49 | +6 min |
Computed, not photographed. First light is the first minute the sun’s upper limb clears this summit’s own skyline and last light the last minute it is still clear of it, both solved against the 360° horizon profile behind The View from Sour Howes. Almanac sunrise and sunset are the flat-horizon convention. Every time carries a ± band from the 30 m elevation model — it smooths arêtes and cornices, so nothing here claims better than five minutes. These are daylight figures, not a descent plan: the light goes on fading for a good while after the sun leaves, and going down in it is a decision about your own ground and party, not about this table.
What you can see from Sour Howes
On a clear day — computed sightlines, curvature- and refraction-corrected.On the clearest days the view reaches across to Wales.
- Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) Wales
- Carnedd Llewelyn Wales
- Irish Sea open water
- Ingleborough Yorkshire Dales
- Whernside Yorkshire Dales
- Morecambe Bay bay/estuary
All 54 Wainwrights in clear view (nearest first)
Sallows, Baystones (Wansfell), Troutbeck Tongue, Yoke, Ill Bell, Froswick, Kentmere Pike, Red Screes, Thornthwaite Crag, Harter Fell (Mardale), Stony Cove Pike (Caudale Moor), Middle Dodd, Low Pike, High Pike (Scandale), Grey Crag (Sleddale Fell), Nab Scar, Gray Crag, Heron Pike (Rydal), Black Fell, Great Rigg, Fairfield, Holme Fell, Lingmoor Fell (Brown How), Blea Rigg, Tarn Crag (Easedale), Wetherlam, Calf Crag, Pavey Ark, Sergeant Man, Harrison Stickle, Thunacar Knott, Loft Crag, Swirl How, Pike of Blisco, Great Carrs, Pike of Stickle, High Raise (High White Stones), Ullscarf, The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man), Brim Fell, Cold Pike, Crinkle Crags - Long Top (Second Crinkle), Rossett Pike, Bowfell, Esk Pike, Hard Knott, Allen Crags, Great End, Scafell Pike, Scafell, Green Gable, Great Gable, Dale Head, Pillar
How Sour Howes’s view compares with all 214 — the View Report: every Wainwright ranked by what you can see from the top.
Sightlines from a bare-earth terrain model (forests and buildings not included), corrected for the Earth’s curvature and average atmospheric refraction. “Distant” sightlines and any over 100 km depend on exceptionally clear air. Modelled from Copernicus GLO-30 open elevation data — a guide to the view, not a guarantee of any single one.
Places to stay near this fell
From Ambleside or Grasmere: 9 places · From Troutbeck: 1 place in Ambleside
Frequently asked questions about Sour Howes
Is Sour Howes a hard walk?
Not to climb. Our round with Capple Howe and Sallows is 8.7 km with 480 m of ascent, which is a short outing by Lakeland standards, and nothing on it is steep enough to give trouble.
The difficulty is finding your way, and we grade the navigation on that round hard. This is a broad top of low rocky knolls and old walls with no obvious summit among them, and in cloud one hummock looks much like the next.
Questions drawn from real Google “People also ask” searches; answers written and fact-checked by us. · Reviewed 2026-08-30 · Suggest a question or correction (opens in new tab)
Other fells near Sour Howes
- Angletarn Pikes (Angletarn Pikes North Top)
- Arthur's Pike
- Baystones (Wansfell)
- Beda Fell (Beda Head)
- Bonscale Pike
- Branstree
- Brock Crags (Wainwright)
- Froswick
- Gray Crag
- Grey Crag (Sleddale Fell)
- Hallin Fell
- Harter Fell (Mardale)
- Hartsop Dodd
- High Raise (High Street)
- High Street
- Ill Bell
- Kentmere Pike
- Kidsty Pike
- Loadpot Hill
- Mardale Ill Bell
- Place Fell
- Rampsgill Head
- Rest Dodd
- Sallows
- Selside Pike
- Shipman Knotts
- Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa)
- Stony Cove Pike (Caudale Moor)
- Tarn Crag (Sleddale)
- The Knott (High Street)
- The Nab
- Thornthwaite Crag
- Troutbeck Tongue
- Wether Hill
- Yoke