633 mWainwright — Western Fells+10 bonus Birketts within 3 km
Starling Dodd at 633m (2,077ft) is a broad, grassy summit above Ennerdale between Red Pike and Great Borne, giving fine views of Ennerdale Water and the remote Ennerdale valley. The ascent from Ennerdale or from Great Borne via the ridge is across open fell.
Summit conditions on Starling Dodd
On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 11° to 6°C, gusts to 64 mph, 3.0 mm of rain forecast over the whole day, midnight to midnight.
Against our lines, Tuesday 27 October: wind, cold and cloud from the Met Office UKV 2 km model (daylight hours, as in the verdict above); rain from the summit line’s forecast (the whole day). A tile is large when this top is past its line.
Wind on the top
Past the line
61mph, our estimate for the open top in the worst daylight hour
The Met Office 2 km model’s gust of 52 mph times our exposure factor of 1.16. The summit line above gives Open-Meteo’s highest gust for the whole day, 64 mph, before any exposure factor.
under 25
25–35
35–45
45–55
55+
The line Our line: 25 mph, where our wind Scale begins its 25–35 band: “balance affected; buffeting on exposed ground”. MWIS (opens in new tab) describes what wind does to a walker across a range rather than at a line: from about 20–25 mph it starts to affect your balance.
Estimated: it is not calibrated against summit readings, and the two forecasts can disagree by more than a band.
Also checkedcold: feels like 1 °C, no ice or snow forecast; cloud: a clear-top reading of 31 out of 100, over our in-cloud line of 20; rain: 3.0 mm in the day, under our 6 mm line. Under a line is not the same as fine: it means only that these figures are under the lines we use.
Not in these tiles Lightning, river levels, snow or ice already lying, and the ground under your feet. A tile cannot see them, so an empty space here never means they are absent.
Snow figures with a second opinion: Powered by Met Office data
Wainwrights are scored for walking conditions each morning from the Met Office’s UK forecast model, read for each summit through Open-Meteo; the forecast figures are Open-Meteo’s, worked out for the summit’s height. How we check →
15.97 km · ~1122 m ascent · ~5–6¾ h · loop · 3 summits
Hard effortSevere: steepness
Park: Buttermere village, by the Bridge Hotel (roadside, free) · Bus: 77 at the start
Red Pike, Starling Dodd and Great Borne along the western end of the High Stile ridge — three tops, 16 km and 1,122 m, with one stage averaging 20%. Hard for length, severe for steepness; about 5–6¾ hours.
Distance and climb are measured from the route’s GPX track, and the time from them by Naismith’s rule; the route page says what each grade rests on. How we check →
Is Starling Dodd a hard walk?
No difficulty in the fell — it is a broad grassy top on the ridge above Ennerdale with an easy summit and no rock to speak of. What makes it a real day is distance from anywhere: this is deep in the western fells and every approach is long.
Our round with Great Borne is 16.0 km with 1122 m of ascent, steepness graded severe — most of it on the opening climb to Red Pike rather than here. Plan the walk out as carefully as the walk in; there are no short cuts off this ridge.
Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.
Buttermere village, by the Bridge Hotel (roadside, free) — at the start of Great Borne & Starling Dodd
Walking base for Red Pike (Buttermere), High Stile, High Stile (Grey Crag - High Stile) and High Crag (Buttermere) — the 'High Stile, Seat via Buttermere' route starts 5 m away. Also serves 'Great Bourne & Starling Dodd'. Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
Bowness Knott, Ennerdale (Forestry, paid) — 3.2 km from summit (straight line)
Forestry England car park at the end of the Ennerdale valley road, on the lake's north shore (OS NY 110 154; parking charges apply since 2023) — Great Borne, Starling Dodd, and the long walk-ins to Pillar and Steeple. Fees (Forestry England, read 17 October 2026): up to 2 hours £3, up to 4 hours £6, all day £10; cards only, or RingGo within 48 hours; Blue Badge holders pay; free to Forestry England members; no overnight stays. The last 4 km of road to the car park is narrow and bendy, with few passing places, and there is no vehicle access beyond it.
Buttermere village (LDNPA, paid) — 3.3 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 August 2026).
Buttermere village (NT, paid) — 3.4 km from summit (straight line)
For Red Pike, High Stile, Robinson, Rannerdale Knotts. Fees: pay and display (LDNP directory, checked August 2026). £7 up to 2 hours; £8 up to 4 hours; £9.50 all day. Free for NT members (checked August 2026). Charges apply at all times. Cash at machine; JustPark app at some car parks; card/phone payment not available in all car parks (NT, checked August 2026).
Typically full before 10:00 on fine weekends, Apr-Oct — Lee McCoy, local observation, 9 August 2026.
High Snockrigg (verge) — 3.7 km from summit (straight line)
On the Newlands Pass road above Buttermere village, about 70 m from the Mountain Road junction bus stop. The 'High Snockrigg, Eel Crag & Lad Hows' route starts 60 m away, and 'Great Borne & Starling Dodd' and 'High Stile, Seat via Buttermere' about 210 m away in the village.
Of the pay-and-display machine tickets sold at Buttermere from 17 August 2024 to 31 March 2026, 15% were bought before 10am (our count of FOI/2026.500 ticket data). Contains public sector information provided by the Lake District National Park Authority and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Vehicles are left at their owner’s risk: we list places people park and cannot vouch for any of them. Take valuables with you and leave nothing on show.
Buses
The 77 and 77A stop at Buttermere, outside Court Hotel, a 100 m walk from the start of Great Borne & Starling Dodd — a route we rate Severe overall (hardest: steepness). The 77A runs until 1 November 2026, the last day of its season.Seasonal: the 77 does not run all year. 1 November 2026 is its last day. It returns on 22 March 2027. Confirmed with the operator: its last day on 29 August 2026, its return on 16 October 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; that timetable runs to 1 November 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.
Catch it from: Keswick (connect via 555 from Windermere/Ambleside or X4/X5 from Penrith)
Seasonal (Summer 2026 timetable: 23 March to 1 November 2026). Brilliant for the North Western fells: Catbells, Dale Head from Honister, the Buttermere fells and Whinlatter.
Notes from a planned route, not walked: Great Borne & Starling Dodd
If you need to get off (the leg from Red Pike): Bailing directly off the flanks of this broad ridge is not recommended as it leads to pathless, steep terrain. In an emergency, retrace your steps to Red Pike and descend carefully to Bleaberry Tarn, the way you came. We have not checked a line down into Ennerdale from the ridge, so none is offered here.
Quoted from the route page of a planned route, drawn from the map and not yet walked: the note for the leg that reaches Starling Dodd.
We have not written a hazard card for this fell yet, and that is not a sign that it is low-hazard. Read the warnings on the route pages that climb it, check the forecast, carry a map and compass, and turn back in cloud if the ground is not what you expected. The National Park Authority’s What to pack page, AdventureSmart’s hill walking kit list and Mountain Rescue England and Wales’s safety page are linked from our what to carry guide.
Navigating in cloud
Not graded by the model
Our terrain model finds nothing to grade on this summit, so it gives no cloud grade here — that is not a sign of easy navigation. Read this fell’s hazard notes and the route pages before a day in cloud. Carry map and compass, and know how to use them.
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 Starling Dodd compares with all 214: the Clag Index (experimental).
If you need Mountain Rescue
Dial 999 or 112 and ask for the Police, then Mountain Rescue.
Before you call, have ready: where you are (a grid reference if you can – the OS Locate app shows yours on your phone), what has happened, how many of you there are, and your mobile number.
Then stay where you are until the rescue team contacts you.
If you cannot make a voice call because of a hearing or speech impairment, emergency SMS works only if you have registered first: text “register” to 999.
This is the summit’s grid reference. If you call from anywhere else, give your own position, not this one.
The summit is also a Birkett.
Lists, height and summit position from the Database of British and Irish Hills; the feet are converted from its metres and the grid reference from that position. How we check →
The view from Starling Dodd
The 360° skyline from Starling Dodd
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.
drag to pan · arrow keys
The skyline as a list, by direction
North-east: Grasmoor (6 km), Crag Hill (7 km), Whiteside (7 km), Eel Crag (7 km), Sail (7 km), Whiteside East Top (7 km), Scar Crags (8 km), Knowe Crags (20 km), Gategill Fell Top (21 km), Blencathra (22 km), Atkinson Pike (22 km)
East: Red Pike (2 km), High Stile (3 km), High Stile (3 km), Robinson (6 km), Hindscarth (7 km), Dale Head (8 km), Helvellyn Lower Man (20 km), White Side (20 km), Calfhow Pike (20 km), Helvellyn (20 km), Raise (20 km), Nethermost Pike (20 km), Clough Head (20 km), Catstye Cam (21 km)
South-east: Pillar (5 km), Black Crag (5 km), Kirk Fell (8 km), Great Gable (9 km), Green Gable (9 km), Great End (11 km), Ill Crag (12 km), Red Beck Top (12 km)
South: Steeple (4 km), Scoat Fell (5 km), Little Gowder Crag (5 km), Caw Fell (5 km), Haycock (5 km)
South-west: Iron Crag (4 km)
West: Great Borne (2 km)
On the clearest days the far horizon adds: Slieve Donard (173 km, Ireland), Merrick (100 km, Scotland), Broad Law (108 km, Scotland), Snaefell (79 km, Isle of Man), Cairnsmore of Carsphairn (99 km, Scotland), Cairnsmore of Fleet (82 km, Scotland), Corserine (96 km, Scotland), Lamachan Hill (94 km, Scotland).
Starling Dodd waits for the sun. Its longest wait of the modelled year falls on 1 October, when the sun is up for 27 minutes before it clears this skyline — first light 07:43 against an almanac sunrise of 07:16. You are standing in shadow while the valley below is already lit. The sun comes up to the east from here (100.0°), and the skyline on that bearing stands at 3.53°.
Midsummer. The filled shape is the skyline as seen from the summit; the line is the sun’s path. Where they meet is first light — everything left of that point is the wait.
Times for 2026, in Lakeland clock time (GMT in winter, BST in summer) — and model outputs rather than observations.
First light
Almanac sunrise
Difference
Midsummer
04:54 BST ±5.0 min
04:38
+16 min
Equinox
06:21 GMT ±5.0 min
06:16
+5 min
Midwinter
08:48 GMT ±5.0 min
08:34
+14 min
A low, open northern horizon — the ground falls away northwards (mean 0.03°).
Last light — when the sun leaves Starling Dodd
Starling Dodd holds the light. On not one of the sixteen dates modelled does the sun leave this summit before almanac sunset — the ground falls away westward rather than standing over you, and at midsummer it is still in the sun 3 minutes after the valley has lost it.
The evening of the same three days. A negative difference means a ridge takes the sun before the valley loses it.
Last light
Almanac sunset
Difference
Midsummer
21:57 BST ±5.0 min
21:54
+3 min
Equinox
18:33 GMT ±5.0 min
18:27
+6 min
Midwinter
15:57 GMT ±5.0 min
15:50
+7 min
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 Starling Dodd
On a clear day — computed sightlines, curvature- and refraction-corrected.
43Wainwrights in view+4 marginal
178 kmFurthest sightlineSlieve Binnian · possible under favourable refraction
2Sea in viewIrish Sea, Solway Firth
On the clearest days the view reaches across to Scotland, the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland.
How the view from Starling Dodd compares with all 214 — the View Report: every Wainwright ranked by what you can see from the top.
How the skyline, light and sightlines are computed
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 Starling Dodd. 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.
Sightlines from the Copernicus GLO-30 elevation model, which is a surface model: each 30 m cell holds the top of whatever stands there, trees and buildings included, rather than bare ground. 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.
We have not stayed at any of them. We take no bookings or affiliate fees. Distances are straight lines from each route start, never walking times. Properties found via OpenStreetMap (opens in new tab).
