Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts)
Steel Knotts at 432m (1,417ft) is a small, rocky summit above Martindale with excellent views of Ullswater from its craggy top.
Is it worth going? — Today’s conditions & 7-day summit forecast
Modelled guidance for the 432 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
On the summit today (Tue 28 Jul): 17° to 15°C, gusts to 31 mph, 3.0 mm of rain forecast.
Forecast snapshot from 28 Jul 2026, 04:58 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 432 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.
About the walk
Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts)
Routes up Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts)
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
Map & nearby Birketts
Skip mapFree mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap (switch layers top-right). Parking positions are approximate.
Nearest parking: Martindale, St Peter's church (free, limited), about 1.0 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.
Birketts near Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts) (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 Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts)
A planned line is a suggestion, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate independently and carry a map & compass.
✎️ 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.
The View from Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts)
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 Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts), 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).
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.
What you can see from Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts)
On a clear day — computed sightlines, curvature- and refraction-corrected.All 34 Wainwrights in clear view (nearest first)
Beda Fell (Beda Head), Hallin Fell, The Nab, Place Fell, Angletarn Pikes (Angletarn Pikes North Top), Rest Dodd, High Raise (High Street), Gowbarrow Fell (Wainwright summit), Brock Crags (Wainwright), Rampsgill Head, The Knott (High Street), Little Mell Fell, Hartsop Dodd, Sheffield Pike, Thornthwaite Crag, Hart Side, St Sunday Crag, Great Mell Fell, Raise, Stybarrow Dodd, Hart Crag, Great Dodd, Dove Crag, Red Screes, Dollywaggon Pike, Clough Head, Souther Fell, Blencathra - Hallsfell Top, Bannerdale Crags, Bowscale Fell, Lonscale Fell, Carrock Fell, Skiddaw Little Man, Skiddaw
How Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts)’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.
Best parking to hike Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts)
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.
Water & shelter on the way up
On the Fusedale Circuit route:
On the Swarth Fell and Loadpot Hill route:
💧 Treat water from the fell before you drink it. A mapped point is usually a tap or public supply, but never drink untreated from a beck, stream or tarn — even clear-looking hill water can carry giardia or cryptosporidium from livestock or a carcass upstream and leave you seriously ill. Run it through a filter or purifier (a LifeStraw, Sawyer Squeeze or HydraPak) or bring it to a rolling boil first.
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.
Buses to Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts) from Penrith / Ambleside / Windermere
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.
My hikes over Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts) (Strava)
1 logged hike pass over this summit:
- Fusedale Circuit - absolutely stunning weather. Could see for miles. (opens in new tab) — 15.5 km · 999 m ascent · 4h 10m moving · 6 Sep 2024
Interactive route maps and photos load here for visitors with JavaScript. Data from Strava.
Navigating Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts) in cloud
StraightforwardWalkable ground sits close to a lethal drop — in cloud it’s easy to walk straight onto steep ground. 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 Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts) compares with all 214 — the Clag Index: navigating in cloud. A relative, deliberately cautious guide; the site can’t navigate for you.
Other fells near Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts)
- 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
- Sour Howes
- Stony Cove Pike (Caudale Moor)
- Tarn Crag (Sleddale)
- The Knott (High Street)
- The Nab
- Thornthwaite Crag
- Troutbeck Tongue
- Wether Hill
- Yoke
Maps & guidebooks for Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa - Steel Knotts)
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