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553 m · Birkett — Eastern (not a Wainwright summit) · Birketts to bag nearby, parking, buses, my hikes and live summit weather.

Birkett — Eastern (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Swineside Knott

Swineside Knott (553 m / 1,814 ft) is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells), one of the lesser-known Eastern tops.

553 m
Height
+10
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX →

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553 mBirkett — Eastern (not a Wainwright summit)+10 bonus Birketts within 3 km

Is it worth going? — Today’s conditions & 7-day summit forecast

Modelled guidance for the 553 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Tue 28 Jul): 16° to 14°C, gusts to 36 mph, 3.3 mm of rain forecast.

Tue 28 Jul
🌦️
16° / 14°
💨 36 mph
🌧 3.3 mm (100%)
Wed 29 Jul
🌧️
16° / 12°
💨 27 mph
🌧 4.3 mm (100%)
Thu 30 Jul
🌦️
14° / 6°
💨 29 mph
🌧 0.8 mm (78%)
Fri 31 Jul
🌤️
15° / 4°
💨 24 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (78%)
Sat 1 Aug
🌦️
15° / 6°
💨 12 mph
🌧 5.1 mm (54%)
Sun 2 Aug
☁️
16° / 4°
💨 18 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (24%)
Mon 3 Aug
🌦️
16° / 6°
💨 15 mph
🌧 0.4 mm (23%)

Forecast snapshot from 28 Jul 2026, 04:58 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 553 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

About the walk

Key information

Swineside Knott

Swineside Knott (553 m / 1,814 ft) is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells), one of the lesser-known Eastern tops. It rises the Matterdale. The name combines swine (Old English swin, swine or pigs), and side (Old English side, a hillside), and knott (Old Norse knútr, a rocky knoll). It also features on the Synge list. Its nearest tops are Brown Hills (0.3 km SW); Common Fell (0.8 km NE); Birkett Fell (1.5 km W) — it's usually taken in on a round of these neighbours. It's a worthwhile objective for anyone working through the Birkett list, or as a short extension to a bigger day on the higher neighbouring fells.

Routes up Swineside Knott

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

Swineside Knott & Gowbarrow
13.3 km · ~3.7 hr · Moderate
A satisfying loop over the heather tops of Gowbarrow above Ullswater, starting from the busy Aira Force car park — but climbing quickly away from the waterfall crowds onto quiet, rolling moorland that most of them never reach. The round takes in Brown Hills, Swineside Knott and Common Fell before the open summit of Gowbarrow Fell, a Wainwright with one of the finest views over Ullswater, which stays with you for much of the way. Moderate, with one steep early pull — save it for a clear day and let the lake do the rest.
Classifications & hill data
Birkett
Synge
553 m
Height
1,814 ft
In feet
NY 3790 1972
Grid ref

Map & nearby Birketts

Free mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap (switch layers top-right). Parking positions are approximate.

Nearest parking: Aira Force (NT, paid), about 2.1 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Swineside Knott (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.

0.3 km SSWBrown Hills551 m · Eastern
0.8 km NNECommon Fell552 m · Eastern
1.5 km WBirkett Fell725 m · Eastern
1.7 km NERound How387 m · Eastern
1.9 km NNWLow How497 m · Eastern
1.9 km NEBracken How373 m · Eastern
2.0 km SSWHeron Pike (Glenridding)612 m · Eastern
2.0 km NWHigh Brow575 m · Eastern
2.8 km ESEBirk Fell (Bleaberry Knott - Birk Fell)512 m · Far Eastern
2.8 km WSWGreen Side (White Stones - Green Side)794 m · Eastern

Routes over Swineside Knott

Swineside Knott & GowbarrowPlanned
13.27 km · ~649 m ascent · loop · ~3.5–5 h · Moderate
Summits: Brown HillsSwineside KnottCommon FellGowbarrow Fell (Wainwright summit)

⬇️ Download GPX

Best season: Any season in good visibility — this is a route for the views, so pick a clear day. The higher moorland can be wet and rough underfoot.

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.

Best parking to hike Swineside Knott

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

Aira Force (NT, paid) — 2.1 km from summit (straight line)
For Gowbarrow Fell and the path toward Great Dodd via Dockray.
Directions
🚺 Aira Force Car Park (130m) — Free · Accessible☕ Aira Force Tearooms
Dockray (roadside) — 2.2 km from summit (straight line)
Verge parking for the Dodds and Matterdale Common.
Directions

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 Swineside Knott & Gowbarrow route:

💧 possible water source (25 m)💧 possible water source (59 m)🚌 Aira Force - Park Brow Foot (90 m)🚌 Park Brow Foot - Aira Force (94 m)

💧 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 Swineside Knott from Penrith / Ambleside / Windermere

Stagecoach 508 “Ullswater Bus”
Penrith – Pooley Bridge – Aira Force – Glenridding – Patterdale (summer services continue over Kirkstone Pass to Troutbeck and Windermere)
Catch it from: Penrith · Windermere (summer only)
The key route from Penrith for the Eastern and Far Eastern fells: Helvellyn from Glenridding, Place Fell, the Hartsop fells. The summer Kirkstone extension drops you at the pass for Red Screes and Caudale Moor.

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

Other fells near Swineside Knott

Maps & guidebooks for Swineside Knott

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