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

Birkett — Northern (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

The Tongue

The Tongue at 553m (1,814ft) is a Birkett top in the Back o' Skiddaw country on the broad northern flanks of the Skiddaw massif, its moorland summit giving views across the Caldbeck Fells and north towards the Solway.

553 m
Height
+3
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX → Parking & buses →
553 mBirkett — Northern (not a Wainwright summit)+3 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 (Sat 12 Sep): 14° to 8°C, gusts to 45 mph, 17.8 mm of rain forecast.

Sat 12 Sep
🌧️
14° / 8°
💨 45 mph
🌧 17.8 mm (100%)
Sun 13 Sep
☁️
14° / 9°
💨 14 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (10%)
Mon 14 Sep
🌦️
16° / 11°
💨 34 mph
🌧 2.3 mm (94%)
Tue 15 Sep
🌦️
15° / 9°
💨 29 mph
🌧 3.1 mm (94%)
Wed 16 Sep
🌦️
12° / 8°
💨 26 mph
🌧 0.8 mm (39%)
Thu 17 Sep
🌦️
10° / 8°
💨 33 mph
🌧 7.2 mm (84%)
Fri 18 Sep
🌦️
12° / 8°
💨 35 mph
🌧 6.8 mm (75%)

Forecast snapshot from 12 Sep 2026, 18:50 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.

The Tongue at a glance

The Tongue

The Tongue at 553m (1,814ft) is a Birkett top in the Back o' Skiddaw country on the broad northern flanks of the Skiddaw massif, its moorland summit giving views across the Caldbeck Fells and north towards the Solway. Part of the rolling fell country typical of the Back o' Skiddaw area. A remote and atmospheric summit.

Routes up The Tongue

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

Classifications & hill data

Birkett
Synge
553 m
Height
1,814 ft
In feet
NY 3475 3016
Grid ref

The short answers

Is The Tongue a Wainwright?

The Tongue is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list and the Synge list.

Where do you park for The Tongue?

The nearest car park we hold is Souther Fell, north-east (layby 3), about 1.4 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Mungrisdale village hall (donation), 1.6 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.

How hard is The Tongue?

The shortest way up we hold is The Tongue Birkett — 10.6 km, 689 m of ascent, about 3.3 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is steepness — Severe.

All axes: steepness: Severe · navigation: Moderate · terrain: Moderate · length: Moderate · exposure: Easy.

Parking & buses for The Tongue

Best parking to hike The Tongue

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

Souther Fell, north-east (layby 3) — 1.4 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for Eycott Hill, Little Eycott Hill, Souther Fell and Scales Fell — the 'Eycott Hills' route starts 185 m away. Also serves 'Blencathra to Mungrisdale Common and over the back'. Paid parking (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Mungrisdale village hall (donation) — 1.6 km from summit (straight line)
For Bowscale Fell, Bannerdale Crags, Souther Fell and The Tongue. Honesty box at the village hall - OpenStreetMap recorded a suggested £2 a day in 2021, so bring change and read the box (2026-07-24 extract).
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
If it is full: Mosedale / Bowscale (verge) (2.7 km); Scales, A66 (layby) (4.4 km)
Souther Fell, north-east (layby 2) — 1.7 km from summit (straight line)
Walking base for The Tongue, Bowscale Fell, Eycott Hill and Little Eycott Hill — the 'The Tongue Birkett' route starts 113 m away. Also serves 'Eycott Hills'. Free (OSM-tagged). Grass surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Mungrisdale (verge, by the village hall) — 1.7 km from summit (straight line)
Roadside verge 240 m from the village hall car park — the same fells: Bowscale Fell, Bannerdale Crags, Souther Fell, The Tongue.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
If it is full: Mungrisdale village hall (donation) (0.2 km)
Roadside parking for The Tongue (free) — 1.9 km from summit (straight line)
1.9 km from The Tongue. Added from the 5 Aug 2026 OSM candidate review.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?

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 The Tongue by bus

The 509 stops at Mungrisdale, adjacent to Road End. From there it is 3.2 km and 77 m of ascent to the start of The Tongue Birkett — a walk in before the walk. Last bus: Monday to Friday 22:11 towards Penrith (X5) and 17:07 towards Patterdale (509) and 14:42 towards Hartsop (509); Saturday 22:11 towards Penrith (X5) and 17:07 towards Patterdale (509) and 14:42 towards Hartsop (509); Sunday 18:38 towards Penrith (X5) and 17:07 towards Patterdale (509) and 14:42 towards Hartsop (509). Checked against the operator’s timetable, 7 September 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.

Stagecoach 509
Penrith ↔ Keswick around Ullswater — calls at Pooley Bridge, Watermillock, Glenridding, Patterdale, Hartsop, Dockray, Matterdale, Mungrisdale and Threlkeld
Catch it from: Penrith · Keswick
The Ullswater side of the Penrith–Keswick corridor, and a second option where we previously showed only the 508. Reaches Helvellyn and Catstye Cam from Glenridding, Place Fell and Angletarn Pikes from Patterdale, the Hartsop fells, and Gowbarrow from Dockray. Frequency and season are not listed here because we have not verified a timetable — check Stagecoach before you rely on it. Note the Troutbeck on this route is the one on the A66 near Penrith, not the Troutbeck near Windermere.

Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.

Hazards on The Tongue

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.

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Souther Fell, north-east (layby 3), about 1.4 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near The Tongue (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.

1.1 km NWTarn Crags Top (Bowscale Fell East Top)665 m · Northern
2.8 km SWScales Fell682 m · Northern
3.0 km SWAtkinson Pike (Foule Crag)845 m · Northern

Routes over The Tongue

10.6 km · ~689 m ascent · loop · ~3–4.5 h
Summits: The TongueBowscale Fell

⬇️ Download GPX

⚠️ Warnings: The climb to The Tongue is largely pathless — rough grass and bracken with only intermittent sheep-trods. The plotted line is a guide, not a path; navigation needs care in mist.

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. How to use this guide.

Places to stay near this fell

Mosedale End Farm B&B (opens in new tab) guest house

about 2.3 km from the start, in a straight line

The nearest bed in the area we can actually evidence, at 2.31 km, and it answers more of our columns from its own pages than anything else here: an EV charge point, a room that sleeps two adults plus two children, a breakfast hamper delivered to the door, picnics, and its own private yard to park in. It also tells you the one thing most pages hide - that there is no bus - which matters on a Mungrisdale start where the alternative is a taxi.

Worth knowing: “Sorry we do not take DOGS or offer help the farmer or work experience days”

They run cameras on their own livestock and wildlife and lend guests a tablet to watch them from bed - a lambing camera in the lambing shed, a badger-sett camera and nest-box cameras.

  • Family rooms “THE GRAINERY SUITE A spacious en-suite bedroom with a king-size bed. Small kitchen area for basic food prep, with kettle, toaster, microwave, fridge, sink, and cupboard storage. Private balcony with outdoor seating.”
  • Packed lunch “Leave the car and walk all day for free. Picnics available.”
  • Parking “Mosedale End Farm is a traditional Lake District white farm house and is set back off the road, behind its own private yard where you may park your car.”

Scales Farm Country Guest House (opens in new tab) guest house

about 3.9 km from the start, in a straight line

It answers more of a wet walker's questions than anything else in this area, and answers them on its own pages: a boiler-room drying room, a private car park for eight, a ground-floor room for mobility-impaired guests, dog-friendly ground-floor rooms with their own exercise field opening straight onto Scales Fell, lockable storage for up to twelve bikes, free loan of poles, compasses and maps, and a bus stop directly opposite. It ranks second rather than first only because it is 1.57 km further out than Mosedale End and is silent on children in everything we hold.

The house is a 1650s farmhouse and barn, converted to a guest house in the early 1980s, and the owners were qualified hill-walking leaders for fifteen years before they bought it.

  • Drying room “We have a boiler room to provide heat and hot water which runs all year. This room is like a mini-sauna and is ideal for drying wet clothes and boots.”
  • Dogs “All three ground floor rooms are dog friendly with direct access to the garden and our own field.”
  • Parking “We have a large off road private car park that can easily accommodate 8 vehicles.”

What each place says about itself, quoted from their own site. We have not stayed at any of them, and there are no prices, no booking and no affiliate links. Distances are straight lines from each route start, never walking times. Properties found via OpenStreetMap (opens in new tab).

Other fells near The Tongue