Thorn Crag
Thorn Crag at 644m (2,112ft) is a Birkett top in the Langdale Pikes in the Central Fells, 0.2 km east of Loft Crag and 0.3 km south-west of Harrison Stickle, above Great Langdale.
Summit conditions on Thorn Crag
On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 11° to 5°C, gusts to 62 mph, 14.3 mm of rain forecast over the whole day, midnight to midnight.
The forecast figures are Open-Meteo’s, worked out for the summit’s height. How we check →
Routes up Thorn Crag
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.
| Compared | Langdale Pikes Round | Langdale Horseshoe |
|---|---|---|
| Starts from | Great Langdale (New Dungeon Ghyll) | Great Langdale (New/Old Dungeon Ghyll) |
| Distance and climb | 12.12 km, 884 m of climb | 20.9 km, 1,770 m of climb |
| Time, fast to steady | ~3¾–5¼ h | ~7–9½ h |
| Scrambling | Easy scramble: Pike of Stickle's summit rocks, up and back (km 9.1–9.3). Avoid Jack's Rake on Pavey Ark unless you're a confident scrambler — the walkers' route reaches the same summit. | Easy scramble: Pike of Stickle's summit rocks (km 5.1–5.2). A short, awkward rock step that turns a walk into a scramble and regularly stops people dead. |
| Exposure | Moderate | Hard |
| Navigation | Hard | Hard |
| Steepest stretch | Climb of about 39% at 1.0 km (Severe) | Descent of about 40% at 17.9 km (Severe) |
| After the summit | No further tops | Over Loft Crag, Pike of Stickle, Black Crags (Mickleden), Rossett Pike, Bowfell, Shelter Crags, Crinkle Crags - Gunson Knott (Fifth Crinkle), Crinkle Crags - Fourth Crinkle, Crinkle Crags - Long Top (Second Crinkle), Crinkle Crags South Top (First Crinkle), Cold Pike and Pike of Blisco |
| Walked or planned | Walked by Lee, June 2024 | Planned: drawn, not yet walked |
| Car park at the start | New Dungeon Ghyll (LDNPA, paid) | Stickle Ghyll (NT, paid) |
| Bus to the start | 516 at the start | 516 at the start |
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 →
How hard is Thorn Crag?
The shortest way up we hold is Langdale Pikes Round — 12.12 km, 884 m of ascent, ~3¾–5¼ h. On our scale its hardest axis is steepness — Severe.
All axes: steepness: Severe · navigation: Hard · length: Moderate · exposure: Moderate · terrain: Not assessed.
These are the route page’s grades, set by the rules on how we grade: length and steepness measured from its GPX track, the others set on the ground, judged from the map or estimated from OpenStreetMap. The route page says which. How we check →
Conditions and 7-day summit forecast
Modelled for the 644 m summit (Open-Meteo). Check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
Full 7-day forecast
Taken 27 October 2026, 08:13 UTC; the live forecast replaces it when it loads. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (opens in new tab)
Parking & buses for Thorn Crag
Parking
Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.
2 more places to park near Thorn Crag
Positions are approximate.
Of the pay-and-display machine tickets sold at New Dungeon Ghyll from 17 August 2024 to 31 March 2026, 33% 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 516 stops at New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel, a 140 m walk from the start of Langdale Pikes Round — a route we rate Severe overall (hardest: steepness). As timetabled from 27 October to 1 November. Towards Kendal (516): Tuesday to Thursday, Sunday 20:13; Friday and Saturday 22:33. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 23 September 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.
Getting there across the Lake District: Buses · Parking map · By train · By boat
Hazards on Thorn Crag
Notes from the Langdale Pikes Round route
- Avoid Jack's Rake on Pavey Ark unless you're a confident scrambler — the walkers' route reaches the same summit.
- Boggy ground and confusing navigation on the High Raise and Sergeant Man plateau in mist.
- Steep, rocky ground around the Pikes.
- The boggy plateau has few landmarks, and the sheer drops of Pavey Ark and Harrison Stickle lie close by. In mist a wrong bearing off Thunacar Knott can take you to a cliff edge. Navigate carefully by compass and know where the crag edges are before you move.
If you need to get off (the leg from Loft Crag): Final ridge escape — the Mark Gate descent. Once on the return ridge you can bypass the minor rocky top of Thorn Crag altogether by staying strictly on the main, pitched Mark Gate path. This engineered trail gives a direct, non-technical descent off the ridge to Sticklebarn Tavern and the car park.
Quoted from the route page: its warnings and the note for the leg that reaches Thorn Crag.
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.
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.
From Mountain Rescue England and Wales’s guidance on calling them out (opens in new tab) (read 26 October 2026).
Map, GPX and nearby Birketts
Skip mapFree mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap, with SRTM elevation data (switch layers top-right).
Parking, toilets and buses: Parking & buses ↑.
Birketts within 3 km of Thorn Crag
These Birkett tops are not Wainwright summits. Distances are straight lines: check the ground and access on a map before adding one.
Routes over Thorn Crag
Download GPX Planned route · not yet walked
Download GPX Walked by Lee, June 2024
Every line here is a guide, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate for yourself and carry a map and compass. How to use this guide.
On the hill: terrain and water on Thorn Crag
Water & shelter on the way up
On the Langdale Horseshoe route:
On the Langdale Pikes Round route:
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.
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.
About Thorn Crag
My Strava hikes over Thorn Crag
1 logged hike pass over this summit:
- 8 Wainwrights today - had some catching up to do! (opens in new tab) — 14.5 km · 1013 m ascent · 4h 23m moving · 1 June 2024
Data from Strava.
Classifications & hill data
Is Thorn Crag a Wainwright?
Thorn Crag is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list and the Synge list.
Selected lists
This is the summit’s grid reference. If you call from anywhere else, give your own position, not this one.
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 →
Places to stay near this fell
From Great Langdale: 3 places in Grasmere