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

Whiteside East Top - a heather-covered summit slope with a rocky outcrop and a small cairn on the skyline, against a blue sky and bright cloud
Birkett — North Western (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Whiteside East Top (Whiteside) (Gasgale Crags)

Whiteside East Top (Whiteside) (Gasgale Crags) (719 m / 2,359 ft) is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells), one of the lesser-known North Western tops.

719 m
Height
+10
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX → Parking & buses →
719 mBirkett — North Western (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 719 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Fri 11 Sep): 11° to 8°C, gusts to 33 mph, 2.4 mm of rain forecast.

Fri 11 Sep
🌦️
11° / 8°
💨 33 mph
🌧 2.4 mm (100%)
Sat 12 Sep
🌧️
13° / 8°
💨 51 mph
🌧 26.1 mm (100%)
Sun 13 Sep
🌦️
11° / 7°
💨 20 mph
🌧 0.2 mm (74%)
Mon 14 Sep
🌧️
13° / 7°
💨 33 mph
🌧 12.7 mm (96%)
Tue 15 Sep
🌦️
12° / 7°
💨 32 mph
🌧 13.2 mm (100%)
Wed 16 Sep
🌦️
10° / 8°
💨 33 mph
🌧 5.4 mm (96%)
Thu 17 Sep
🌦️
9° / 7°
💨 37 mph
🌧 8.8 mm (98%)

Forecast snapshot from 11 Sep 2026, 08:30 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 719 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.

Whiteside East Top (Whiteside) (Gasgale Crags) at a glance

Whiteside East Top (Whiteside) (Gasgale Crags)

Whiteside East Top - a heather-covered summit slope with a rocky outcrop and a small cairn on the skyline, against a blue sky and bright cloud
© Lee McCoy

Whiteside East Top (Whiteside) (Gasgale Crags) (719 m / 2,359 ft) is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells), one of the lesser-known North Western tops. The name combines white (Old English hwit, white), and side (Old English side, a hillside). It also features on the Synge, Nuttall lists. Its nearest tops are Gasgale Crags (0.3 km E); Whiteside (Whiteside West Top) (0.5 km W); Hopegill Head (1.0 km E) — 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 Whiteside East Top (Whiteside) (Gasgale Crags)

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

Classifications & hill data

Birkett
Synge
Nuttall
719 m
Height
2,359 ft
In feet
NY 1752 2210
Grid ref

The short answers

Is Whiteside East Top (Whiteside) (Gasgale Crags) a Wainwright?

Whiteside East Top (Whiteside) (Gasgale Crags) is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list, the Synge list and the Nuttall list.

Where do you park for Whiteside East Top (Whiteside) (Gasgale Crags)?

The nearest car park we hold is Lanthwaite Green (NT), about 2.0 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Car park for Whiteside, 2.1 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 Whiteside East Top (Whiteside) (Gasgale Crags)?

The shortest way up we hold is The Grasmoor Round — 16.2 km, 1197 m of ascent, about 5.2 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is steepness — Severe.

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

My hikes over Whiteside East Top (Whiteside) (Gasgale Crags) (Strava)

1 logged hike pass over this summit:

Interactive route maps and photos load here for visitors with JavaScript. Data from Strava.

Parking & buses for Whiteside East Top (Whiteside) (Gasgale Crags)

Best parking to hike Whiteside East Top (Whiteside) (Gasgale Crags)

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

Lanthwaite Green (NT) — 2.0 km from summit (straight line)
At the foot of Grasmoor and Whiteside, Crummock Water.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Car park for Whiteside — 2.1 km from summit (straight line)
1.6 km from Whiteside. Added from the 5 Aug 2026 OSM candidate review. Fees: £7 up to 2 hours; £8 up to 4 hours; £9.50 all day. Charges apply at all times. Cash at machine; card/phone payment not available in all car parks (NT, checked Aug 2026). Free for NT members (checked Aug 2026). Charges apply at all times. Cash at machine; JustPark app at some car parks; card/phone payment not available in all car parks (NT, checked Aug 2026).
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Swinside (layby) — 2.2 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: Swinside (0.8 km), Dodd (Lorton) (1.1 km). Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Grasmoor (verge) — 2.3 km from summit (straight line)
1.6 km from Grasmoor.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Grasmoor (layby) — 2.4 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: Grasmoor (1.6 km), Lad Hows (1.7 km), Mellbreak North Top (1.8 km). Fee not verified — check signage on arrival.
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 Whiteside East Top (Whiteside) (Gasgale Crags) by bus

The 77 stops at Lanthwaite Green Farm (opp), 20 m from the start of The Grasmoor Round. Seasonal: the 77 does not run all year. 1 November 2026 is its last day, and it is not daily before then — a bus on 31 of the 56 days from 7 September. We don’t know when it returns. Confirmed with the operator, 29 August 2026. The last bus is 18:03 towards Keswick (77), every day. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 7 September 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.

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 (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.

Hazards on Whiteside East Top (Whiteside) (Gasgale Crags)

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: Lanthwaite Green (NT), about 2.0 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Whiteside East Top (Whiteside) (Gasgale Crags) (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 ENEGasgale Crags703 m · North Western
1.1 km NWDodd (Lorton)454 m · North Western
1.2 km NELadyside Pike704 m · North Western
1.2 km ESand Hill756 m · North Western
1.8 km NSwinside509 m · North Western
1.9 km EHobcarton Crag (Hobcarton Head)738 m · North Western
2.1 km SEEel Crag (Birkett)807 m · North Western
2.4 km NEHobcarton End634 m · North Western
2.6 km SSEThirdgill Head Man734 m · North Western
2.8 km SLad Hows426 m · North Western

Routes over Whiteside East Top (Whiteside) (Gasgale Crags)

16.17 km · ~1068 m ascent · loop · ~5–6.5 h · Hard

✎️ If you only do one round in the North Western Fells, this is it. Grasmoor is a bigger, wilder mountain than its modest reputation suggests, and the ridge from Whiteside over Gasgale Crags to Hopegill Head is as good as ridge walking gets outside the Langdales. Whiteless Pike at the end is a perfect little peak — and a punishing descent.

⬇️ Download GPX

Best season: Late spring to autumn, in clear conditions. Gasgale Crags is narrow and rocky, and Grasmoor’s summit plateau is a blank, stony expanse that is thoroughly disorientating in cloud.

⚠️ Warnings: The climb straight up Whiteside from Lanthwaite is brutally steep — a relentless, loose, eroded pull with little respite. It is the hardest 500 m on this route and it comes first. Gasgale Crags is a narrow, rocky ridge. It is not a scramble in the Sharp Edge sense, but it is airy, the rock is loose in places, and it wants care in wind or wet. Grasmoor’s summit is a featureless stony plateau with crags on three sides. In cloud it is a genuine navigation trap — take a bearing before you leave the cairn. The descent off Whiteless Pike is a knee-breaker — steep, sustained and relentless, right at the end of a long day. It is one of the steepest sustained descents in the Lakes. A long day with 1,068 m of ascent and ten tops. Navigation is graded hard: the high ground is broad and the drops are real.

Full route guide ↗

A planned line is a suggestion, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate independently and carry a map & compass. How to use this guide.

16.17 km · ~1197 m ascent · loop · ~5–7 h

⬇️ Download GPX

Full route guide ↗

A planned line is a suggestion, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate independently and carry a map & compass. How to use this guide.

On the hill: terrain and water on Whiteside East Top (Whiteside) (Gasgale Crags)

Water & shelter on the way up

On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.

Places to stay near this fell

High Swinside Holiday Cottages (opens in new tab) guest house

about 3.9 km from the start, in a straight line

The only property in this cluster that states how to put a large family under one roof: The Farmhouse sleeps 9 in four bedrooms and links to Little Swinside through a lockable connecting door for 11-12, so a Grasmoor-round party that arrives as two households can still eat together. Dogs are taken, there is a 7kw EV charger for the drive back over Whinlatter, and the site sorts its own walk suggestions into four bands (Gentle Strolls, Wonderful Rambles, Intermediate Fells, High Peaks & Horseshoes) - useful when half the party wants Whiteside and half wants the valley.

One of the three cottages started life in the 1800s as housing for the farm's workers; it still has the beamed ceilings, and the owners keep hens and sell guests their eggs.

  • Dogs “Three Holiday Cottages sleeping 2, 5, or 9 (2 of the cottages can be connected to sleep 11-12) Dog friendly 7kw EV Charger Good Wi-fi Hot tubs in a superb setting 20-35 mins walk to village shop & pub Fresh free range eggs”
  • Family rooms “It sleeps 9 in its four bedrooms. Alternatively it can be linked to Little Swinside to sleep 11 overall (via lockable connecting door).”

Crummockwater Cottages (opens in new tab) guest house

about 1.8 km from the start, in a straight line

Three self-catering cottages 1.82 km from the start, and the only place here whose owner has written down her own judgements rather than a list: go up Melbreak's Nose rather than down it, take Low Fell from Thackthwaite rather than straight up the fence line, walk Loweswater out and back on the far side using the old coffin route. For this start in particular, the fells she names in the view from the front of the house open with Whiteside, Grassmoor and Whiteless Pike - the three summits of the Grasmoor round - though she describes them as a view from the door, not as a walk she writes up. Her own walk pages cover Buttermere, Crummock, Loweswater, Low Fell, Melbreak, Blake Fell and three waterfalls.

The cottages are the converted barn and stables of a 16th-century manor house, reached through a carriage arch with 1797 cut into it.

Bridge Hotel (opens in new tab) hotel

about 4.2 km from the start, in a straight line

The largest bed stock in the radius and the only hotel here that publishes both a restaurant and a dog policy - 21 en-suite bedrooms plus 6 self-catering apartments in Buttermere village, with an EV point in the car park. Two things a family should know before booking rather than after: the bedrooms are deliberately unplugged, with no television, no radio and no mobile signal, and the hotel publishes a late-January closure. There is no email address and no contact form anywhere on the cached site, so the only route in is the phone or the booking engine.

It sells the absence of a signal as the point: the bedrooms have no television, no radio and no mobile reception.

  • Dogs “A true dog-friendly hotel in the Lake District”
  • Evening meal “Exceptionally friendly and professional service, homemade food, carefully selected local real ales with our staff who naturally go the extra mile to ensure your needs meet your expectations.”

Worth knowing before you book

These places state on their own site that they do not take children.

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 Whiteside East Top (Whiteside) (Gasgale Crags)