432 mWainwright — Far Eastern Fells+5 bonus Birketts within 3 km Fewer traps in Clag
Steel Knotts at 432m (1,417ft) is a small, rocky summit above Martindale with excellent views of Ullswater from its craggy top. Wainwright included it in his Far Eastern Fells guide. The view north across Ullswater towards Pooley Bridge is the reason to come.
Summit conditions on Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa)
On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 13° to 6°C, gusts to 55 mph, 11.2 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
53mph, our estimate for the open top in the worst daylight hour
The Met Office 2 km model’s gust of 45 mph times our exposure factor of 1.18. The summit line above gives Open-Meteo’s highest gust for the whole day, 55 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.
Rain, and the becks
Past the line
11.2mm of rain over the whole day, midnight to midnight
The same figure as the summit line above and the 7-day forecast.
The line Our line: 6 mm in the day, where our scorer counts a day as soaking. We read rainfall, never river levels: becks in spate.
Open-Meteo’s forecast. It says nothing about rain already in the ground.
Also checkedcold: feels like 3 °C, no ice or snow forecast; cloud: a clear-top reading of 45 out of 100, over our in-cloud line of 20. 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 →
Choose the way up before the car park: these two routes start from two places, and the last two rows give the parking and bus at each route’s own start. Full maps further down.
Hands for a few steps: the last climb to Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa) (about km 8.4).
Hands for a few steps: between Bonscale Pike and Arthur's Pike (km 4.2–5.5).
Exposure
Not assessed
Not assessed
Navigation
Hard
Hard
Steepest stretch
Climb of about 36% at 2.0 km (Severe)
Climb of about 39% at 3.4 km (Severe)
After the summit
No further tops
No further tops
Walked or planned
Walked in part; km 0.4–1.0, km 2.8–4.3, km 5.6–6.7 from the map
Walked by Lee, September 2024
Car park at the start
Hallin Fell car park (free)
unnamed car park south-east of Hallin Fell (free)
Bus to the start
UB1, 530 m walk from Martindale Cattle Grid (near). Seasonal: the UB1 does not run all year. 1 November 2026 is its last day.
UB1, 540 m walk from Martindale Cattle Grid (near). Seasonal: the UB1 does not run all year. 1 November 2026 is its last day.
Times run from fast to steady pace (Naismith’s rule). Scrambling quotes each route’s own notes; “not mentioned” means they do not say, not that the ground has none. Each route’s page has its map, stages and GPX.
Distance, climb and the steepest stretch are measured from each route’s GPX track; the other grades are set on the ground, judged from the map or estimated from OpenStreetMap, and each route page says which. How we check →
Is Steel Knotts a hard walk?
It is one of the smallest Wainwrights at 432 m, and the climbing is short. The summit rock, Pikeawassa, is a proper little top rather than a rounded hump — a short objective, but a rocky one, and the way down from it to the church at the Hause is steep: about 39% on both our rounds.
What the height does not tell you is the ground around it. Our shorter round over it, with Swarth Fell and Loadpot Hill, is 9.7 km with 599 m of ascent, and we grade its navigation hard: this is quiet, pathless, rolling country above Martindale where it is easy to end up in the wrong valley.
Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.
Hallin Fell car park (free) — at the start of Swarth Fell and Loadpot Hill
Walking base for Swarth Fell (Ullswater), Loadpot Hill, Brownthwaite Crag and Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts) — the 'Swarth Fell and Loadpot Hill' route starts 6 m away. Also serves 'Hallin Fell'. Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
Hallin Fell, south-east car park (free) — at the start of Fusedale Circuit
Walking base for Hallin Fell, Sleet Fell, Low Birk Fell and Birk Fell (Bleaberry Knott - Birk Fell) — the 'Hallin Fell' route starts 8 m away. Also serves 'Birketts to the South of Ullswater'. Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
Hallin Fell (layby) — 1.3 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Swarth Fell (Ullswater), Loadpot Hill, Brownthwaite Crag and Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts) — the 'Swarth Fell and Loadpot Hill' route starts 421 m away. Also serves 'Hallin Fell'. Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
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 UB1 stops at Martindale Cattle Grid (near), a 530 m walk and 74 m of ascent from the start of Swarth Fell and Loadpot Hill — a route we rate Severe overall (hardest: steepness).Seasonal: the UB1 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 9 October 2026, its return on 16 October 2026. We haven’t published its last bus times, so check the timetable before you rely on getting back — times here are a guide, not a promise.
Ullswater Hopper UB1
Troutbeck (Basecamp North Lakes) – Aira Force – Watermillock – Pooley Bridge – Howtown pier – The Hause (Martindale)
Catch it from: Pooley Bridge · Penrith (change to the 508 or 509)
The community hopper run for SITU by Stagecoach, a seasonal service: weekends and bank holidays from 28 March to 1 November 2026, and weekdays too from 26 to 29 May and from 29 June to 25 September (Stagecoach's 2026 timetable, read 9 October 2026). Calls at the steamer piers, the campsites and the hotels around the northern half of the lake, and the driver will stop anywhere safe on request. £3 single, dogs welcome, no bike trailer in 2026. With the 508 it gives Gowbarrow, Little Mell Fell and the Pooley Bridge end of the High Street ridge a second option.
Steep crag edges above Ullswater: Bonscale Tower and the western drops off Arthur's Pike and Bonscale Pike are serious — keep well back, especially in cloud or wind.
Boggy, featureless plateau: the Loadpot Hill saddle is peat-hagged and wet, and the broad grassy tops give little to aim for in mist — a compass day if the cloud is down.
Summer bracken + a washed-out descent: the Brock Crag short-cut and the steep climb from Mellguards up Bonscale Pike can be thick, navigation-sapping bracken, with one eroded section underfoot — walking poles help.
Easy-to-miss summits: Wether Hill and Loadpot Hill both have their true top just off the obvious path — step the few metres across to be sure you've actually bagged them.
If you need to get off (the leg from Brownthwaite Crag): No way off this ridge has been checked for this guide; the way this guide describes is on along the ridge.
Quoted from the route page: its warnings and the note for the leg that reaches Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts).
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
Fewer traps in cloud
Of the three things our terrain model measures, the highest reading here is the amount of walkable ground near the summit that lies close to steep ground or crag. This top is in the lowest of the index’s four bands, and a low band never means “safe”: 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 Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa) 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.
Come by boat if you can. Howtown has almost nowhere to park and the eastern-shore lane is long and narrow, but the Ullswater Steamer pier is about 1 km from this start as the crow flies — sail in, walk the round, sail back, and the car never comes down the lane at all. If you are going back by boat, pick your return sailing before you set off, and allow for the whole walk, the walk to and from the pier and a margin; have a plan if you miss it. Sailings are seasonal, so check the timetable before you build a day around it. (Checked 4 Aug 2026; we don’t publish times here because a stale one would be worse than none.)
Warnings: Steep crag edges above Ullswater: Bonscale Tower and the western drops off Arthur's Pike and Bonscale Pike are serious — keep well back, especially in cloud or wind. Boggy, featureless plateau: the Loadpot Hill saddle is peat-hagged and wet, and the broad grassy tops give little to aim for in mist — a compass day if the cloud is down. Summer bracken + a washed-out descent: the Brock Crag short-cut and the steep climb from Mellguards up Bonscale Pike can be thick, navigation-sapping bracken, with one eroded section underfoot — walking poles help. Easy-to-miss summits: Wether Hill and Loadpot Hill both have their true top just off the obvious path — step the few metres across to be sure you've actually bagged them.
Treat water from the fell before you drink it. A mapped point is not proof the water is drinkable, so carry your own or use a supply you know is safe. Never drink untreated from a beck, stream or tarn — even clear-looking hill water can carry giardia or cryptosporidium from livestock upstream and leave you seriously ill. Use a treatment method suited to what might be in the water, and follow the device’s own instructions. Boiling and ordinary filters do not make water with dissolved metals or chemicals safe: where that is possible, choose another source.
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 Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa)
The 360° skyline from Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa)
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
South: Rest Dodd (4 km), High Raise (5 km), Rampsgill Head (5 km), The Knott (5 km), Thornthwaite Crag (8 km), Caudale Moor (8 km)
South-west: Gavel Pike (8 km), St Sunday Crag (8 km), Hart Crag (10 km), Dove Crag (10 km), Cofa Pike (10 km), Red Screes (10 km), Fairfield (10 km), Dollywaggon Pike (11 km)
West: Sheffield Pike (7 km), Birkett Fell (8 km), Hart Side (8 km), Green Side (9 km), Randerside (10 km), Raise (10 km), Stybarrow Dodd (10 km), Great Dodd (10 km), White Side (10 km), Clough Head (12 km)
North-west: Blencathra (15 km), Bannerdale Crags (15 km), Gategill Fell Top (15 km), Atkinson Pike (15 km), Knowe Crags (16 km), Tarn Crags Top (16 km), Bowscale Fell (16 km), Carrock Fell (18 km), Round Knott (19 km), Skiddaw Lesser Man (20 km), Skiddaw Little Man (20 km), Skiddaw South Top (21 km), Skiddaw Middle Top (21 km), Skiddaw (21 km), Skiddaw North Top (21 km), Broad End (21 km)
On the clearest days the far horizon adds: Tinto (126 km, Scotland), Wisp Hill (81 km, Scotland), Roan Fell (75 km, Scotland), Cauldcleuch Head (83 km, Scotland), Dun Rig (115 km, Scotland), Calkin Rig (71 km, Scotland), Pikethaw Hill (80 km, Scotland), Peel Fell (84 km, England).
Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa) waits for the sun. Its longest wait of the modelled year falls at midwinter, when the sun is up for 67 minutes before it clears this skyline — first light 09:39 against an almanac sunrise of 08:32. You are standing in shadow while the valley below is already lit. The sun comes up to the south-east from here (145.8°), and the skyline on that bearing stands at 5.95°.
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
05:20 BST ±5.0 min
04:36
+44 min
Equinox
07:13 GMT ±5.0 min
06:15
+58 min
Midwinter
09:39 GMT ±5.0 min
08:32
+67 min
A low, open northern horizon — the ground falls away northwards (mean 0.45°).
Last light — when the sun leaves Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa)
Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa) loses the sun early. Its earliest evening of the modelled year falls on 1 March, when last light is 25 minutes before almanac sunset — 17:23 against 17:48. The sun goes down to the west-south-west from here (253.4°), and the skyline on that bearing stands at 3.17°.
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
21:42 BST ±5.0 min
21:52
-10 min
Equinox
18:09 GMT ±5.0 min
18:25
-16 min
Midwinter
15:29 GMT ±5.0 min
15:48
-19 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 Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa)
On a clear day — computed sightlines, curvature- and refraction-corrected.
How the view from Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa) 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 Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa). 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).
Frequently asked questions about Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa)
