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

Birkett — Southern (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Thornythwaite Fell

Thornythwaite Fell at 574m (1,883ft) is a Birkett top on the broad fell above the Borrowdale valley between the Castle Crag gorge and the Allen Crags ridge, giving views down Borrowdale and across to the surrounding fell ridges.

574 m
Height
+7
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX →

Home › Fells › Thornythwaite Fell

574 mBirkett — Southern (not a Wainwright summit)+7 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 574 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Tue 28 Jul): 15° to 14°C, gusts to 38 mph, 6.6 mm of rain forecast.

Tue 28 Jul
🌧️
15° / 14°
💨 38 mph
🌧 6.6 mm (99%)
Wed 29 Jul
🌧️
15° / 12°
💨 33 mph
🌧 10.2 mm (100%)
Thu 30 Jul
🌦️
12° / 6°
💨 29 mph
🌧 2.8 mm (87%)
Fri 31 Jul
🌤️
14° / 2°
💨 23 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (86%)
Sat 1 Aug
🌦️
14° / 5°
💨 15 mph
🌧 4.5 mm (82%)
Sun 2 Aug
☁️
15° / 7°
💨 19 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (35%)
Mon 3 Aug
🌦️
15° / 6°
💨 16 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 574 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

Thornythwaite Fell

Thornythwaite Fell at 574m (1,883ft) is a Birkett top on the broad fell above the Borrowdale valley between the Castle Crag gorge and the Allen Crags ridge, giving views down Borrowdale and across to the surrounding fell ridges. Part of the fell country above Seatoller. A pleasant summit in the heart of the beautiful Borrowdale valley.

Routes up Thornythwaite Fell

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

The Borrowdale Fells (Rosthwaite Fell round)
13.1 km · ~4 hr · Hard
A wild, little-trodden round of the rough Borrowdale fells above Rosthwaite and Stonethwaite — Bessyboot, Dovenest Top and Thornythwaite Fell — a maze of rocky knolls, hidden tarns and peat hags with huge views to the Scafells. Quiet and full of character, but pathless and boggy: a fair-weather fell day, not a wet-day plod.
Classifications & hill data
Birkett
Synge
574 m
Height
1,883 ft
In feet
NY 2454 1184
Grid ref

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Seathwaite Farm, Borrowdale (free verge), about 1.1 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Thornythwaite Fell (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.

1.0 km SSECombe Head735 m · Southern
1.0 km ERosthwaite Fell (Rosthwaite Cam)612 m · Southern
1.2 km ESEDovenest Top (Dovenest Crag) (Stonethwaite Fell)633 m · Southern
1.7 km SLooking Steads (Glaramara)774 m · Southern
2.1 km SRed Beck Top (Glaramara South Top) (Lincomb Head - Glaramara)720 m · Southern
2.6 km SHigh House Tarn Top (High House - Allen Crags)683 m · Southern
2.8 km SWSeathwaite Fell (Great Slack - Seathwaite Fell)631 m · Southern

Routes over Thornythwaite Fell

The Borrowdale Fells (Rosthwaite Fell round)Planned
13.09 km · ~802 m ascent · loop · ~4–5.5 h · Hard
Summits: Rosthwaite Fell - BessybootDovenest Top (Dovenest Crag) (Stonethwaite Fell)Thornythwaite Fell

✎️ One of the quietest corners of Borrowdale — but pathless, boggy and easy to lose your way. A round for a clear, dry day with the map out, not a wet or misty one.

⬇️ Download GPX

Best season: Late spring to autumn, in clear, dry weather. This is emphatically a fine-weather round.

⚠️ Warnings: Paths are faint or absent for much of this round, through a confusing maze of knolls, hags and hollows. Only attempt it in good visibility — in cloud or mist the navigation here is genuinely hard and it’s easy to get lost. Carry map and compass (or GPS) and know how to use them.; Boggy, tussocky and rough underfoot — slow going, and much worse after rain. Save it for a dry spell.; A committing round with little quick escape — start early and allow more time than the distance suggests.; Livestock on the lower fields; keep dogs under close control.

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 Thornythwaite Fell

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

Seathwaite Farm, Borrowdale (free verge) — 1.1 km from summit (straight line)
Free verge parking on the Seathwaite lane — the honeypot start for the Scafells, Great Gable and Glaramara. Arrive very early.
Directions
🚺 Public toilets (1002m) — Free
Seatoller (NT, paid) — 2.3 km from summit (straight line)
Pay & display at the foot of Honister. Bus terminus for Borrowdale.
Directions
🚺 Rosthwaite Village (1669m) — Free · Accessible🚺 Public toilets (1903m) — Free☕ Honisters Yew Tree Coffee House

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 The Borrowdale Fells (Rosthwaite Fell round) route:

💧 possible water source (4 m)🛖 map (7 m)🚌 General Store (N bound) (92 m)🚌 General Store (S bound) (109 m)🚌 Howe Lane End (S bound) (317 m)🚌 Howe Lane End (N bound) (318 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 Thornythwaite Fell from Penrith / Ambleside / Windermere

Stagecoach 78 “Borrowdale Rambler”
Keswick – Lodore – Grange – Rosthwaite – Seatoller
Catch it from: Keswick (connect via 555 or X4/X5)
Year-round, frequent in season. Serves all the Borrowdale starts — Glaramara, the Scafells and Great Gable via Seathwaite (alight Seatoller, 20 min walk up the lane).
Stagecoach 77 / 77A “Honister Rambler”
Keswick – Portinscale – Hawse End (Catbells) – Grange – Seatoller – Honister Pass – Buttermere – Lorton – Whinlatter – Keswick (circular)
Catch it from: Keswick (connect via 555 from Windermere/Ambleside or X4/X5 from Penrith)
Seasonal (roughly Easter–October). Brilliant for the North Western fells: Catbells, Dale Head from Honister, the Buttermere fells and Whinlatter.

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

Other fells near Thornythwaite Fell

Maps & guidebooks for Thornythwaite Fell

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