Watch Hill (Setmurthy Common)
Watch Hill (Setmurthy Common) is the higher, eastern top of the Watch Hill ridge at 255m (837ft), on the north-western edge of the Lake District above Cockermouth.
Is it worth going? — Today’s conditions & 7-day summit forecast
Modelled guidance for the 255 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
On the summit today (Fri 11 Sep): 15° to 10°C, gusts to 20 mph, 0.0 mm of rain forecast.
Forecast snapshot from 11 Sep 2026, 08:30 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 255 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.
Watch Hill (Setmurthy Common) at a glance
Getting there
Classifications & hill data
The short answers
Is Watch Hill (Setmurthy Common) a Wainwright?
Watch Hill (Setmurthy Common) is one of Wainwright's Outlying Fells, not one of the 214 in the Pictorial Guides. It is also on the Marilyn list.
Where do you park for Watch Hill (Setmurthy Common)?
The nearest car park we hold is Watch Hill, south-east car park, about 1.2 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Watch Hill, north (layby), 1.4 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.
Routes up Watch Hill (Setmurthy Common)
No route guide for this fell yet. The nearest routes we publish start close by:
- Rivings and Lothwaite — starts 3.5 km away
- Ling Fell & Sale Fell — starts 3.5 km away
Parking & buses for Watch Hill (Setmurthy Common)
Best parking to hike Watch Hill (Setmurthy Common)
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.
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 Watch Hill (Setmurthy Common) by bus
The X4 stops at Embleton, at Lambfoot, 1.4 km from the nearest parking for this fell. We haven’t mapped a route up it, so we can’t tell you the walk from there to the start. Last bus: Monday to Friday 21:32 towards Keswick (X5); Saturday 23:47 towards Keswick (X5); Sunday 17:52 towards Keswick (X5). Checked against the operator’s timetable, 7 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.
Hazards on Watch Hill (Setmurthy Common)
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
Skip mapFree mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap (switch layers top-right). Parking positions are approximate.
Nearest parking: Watch Hill, south-east car park, about 1.2 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.
Birketts near Watch Hill (Setmurthy Common) (within 3 km)
No bonus Birketts within 3 km — every Birkett near here is already a Wainwright summit, so just enjoy the walk.