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397 m · Outlying Fell — South Lakeland · Birketts to bag nearby, parking, buses, my hikes and live summit weather.

Outlying Fell — South LakelandAlso a Birkett

Whiteside Pike

Whiteside Pike is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells), a quiet Far Eastern top reached by few walkers.

397 m
Height
+0
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX → Parking & buses →
397 mOutlying Fell — South Lakeland✓ summit is also a Birkett+0 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 397 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Fri 11 Sep): 14° to 8°C, gusts to 20 mph, 1.9 mm of rain forecast.

Fri 11 Sep
🌦️
14° / 8°
💨 20 mph
🌧 1.9 mm (98%)
Sat 12 Sep
🌧️
16° / 9°
💨 45 mph
🌧 24.1 mm (100%)
Sun 13 Sep
🌦️
15° / 9°
💨 15 mph
🌧 0.1 mm (26%)
Mon 14 Sep
🌧️
16° / 10°
💨 36 mph
🌧 14.3 mm (94%)
Tue 15 Sep
🌦️
15° / 9°
💨 34 mph
🌧 3.4 mm (77%)
Wed 16 Sep
🌦️
12° / 9°
💨 34 mph
🌧 1.8 mm (59%)
Thu 17 Sep
🌦️
13° / 10°
💨 37 mph
🌧 4.8 mm (76%)

Forecast snapshot from 11 Sep 2026, 08:30 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 397 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.

Whiteside Pike at a glance

Whiteside Pike

Whiteside Pike is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells), a quiet Far Eastern top reached by few walkers. It rises the Kentmere valley. The name combines white (Old English hwit, white), and side (Old English side, a hillside), and pike (Old Norse pík, a peak). It also features on the Synge list. Its nearest tops are Todd Fell (1.0 km NW); Lamb Pasture (1.5 km NE); The Forest (Borrowdale Head) (nameless (Bannisdale Horseshoe)) (2.2 km N) — 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.

Field notes

If your knees are failing on the clockwise direction around the Grasmoor Round I'd take time out here to rest them. Although it's not the worst of descents it does keep going. In places you'll be battling the bracken if traversing in the summer months and you may be tempted to go the “past less travelled” to cut some of the route off and then it can get a bit slippery or steep. You also get a splendid view of Rannderdale Knotts that is worth taking in.

Routes up Whiteside Pike

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

Classifications & hill data

Outlying Fell
South Lakeland
Birkett
Synge
397 m
Height
1,302 ft
In feet
NY 5207 0151
Grid ref

The short answers

Is Whiteside Pike a Wainwright?

Whiteside Pike is one of Wainwright's Outlying Fells, not one of the 214 in the Pictorial Guides. It is also on the Birkett list and the Synge list.

Where do you park for Whiteside Pike?

We hold no car park within 2.5 km of the summit, so there is no short walk-in to recommend here. 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 Pike?

The shortest way up we hold is Harrop Pike & Ancrow Brow - Birketts — 20 km, 601 m of ascent, about 5 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is steepness — Severe.

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

Parking & buses for Whiteside Pike

Best parking to hike Whiteside Pike

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

Selside car park — 2.7 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest published walking: 2.6 km from the 'Bannisdale Fell - Long Crag' route start; 2.4 km from Ulgraves. Compacted surface (OSM-tagged). Fee not verified — check signage on arrival.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Lamb Pasture (layby) — 2.9 km from summit (straight line)
1.7 km from Lamb Pasture.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Lamb Pasture, north-east (layby) — 3.0 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest fells: Lamb Pasture (1.5 km). Fee not verified — check signage on arrival.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Garth Row (layby) 2 — 3.5 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest published walking: 4.2 km from the 'Bannisdale Fell - Long Crag' route start; 2.0 km from Ulgraves. Fee not verified — check signage on arrival.
Directions (opens in new tab)Something changed here?
Garth Row car park — 3.9 km from summit (straight line)
Nearest published walking: 4.3 km from the 'Bannisdale Fell - Long Crag' route start; 2.5 km from Ulgraves. 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 Pike by bus

The nearest bus stop we hold is the 555 at Staveley, outside Abbey Square, 8.5 km of walking from the start — not realistically reachable without a car.

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

Hazards on Whiteside Pike

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: Selside car park, about 2.7 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Whiteside Pike (within 3 km)

No bonus Birketts within 3 km — every Birkett near here is already a Wainwright summit, so just enjoy the walk.

Routes over Whiteside Pike

20.03 km · ~601 m ascent · loop · ~5–6.5 h

⬇️ Download GPX

⚠️ Warnings: The Bannisdale watershed section holds a 2 km+ pathless stretch of tussock and peat hag — featureless in mist and slow in any weather. The plotted line there is a bearing, not a path.

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

We have not verified an independent place near this fell — these are the chains and charities that serve it.

Mosedale Cottage (opens in new tab) hut

about 4.0 km from the start, in a straight line

This is the only property inside the radius whose cached page is actually about itself, and it is emphatically not a bed for a family - it is the roof a Harrop Pike walker should know about before committing to a 20.03 km day whose middle third is a bearing across the Bannisdale watershed. It sits on the Mosedale/Swindale side of that watershed rather than on the Longsleddale road, so it is a bail-out and a shelter, not a base: 3.95 km straight-line from Sadgill, which is a number for a map and not a walk-in - the ground between is over the tops and unmeasured by us. What its page does give is usable: a grid reference to put on the map (NY 495 095 on LR90), a stove with the explicit warning that no fuel is available locally, and the MBA's standing party-size restriction with no number attached, which is the one thing a group of four or more should resolve before relying on it. Ranked 1 only because it is the sole row here with evidence; on family usefulness it ranks nowhere.

Its whole facilities list is two lines that contradict each other for anyone planning a night: there is a working stove, and no fuel anywhere near it. Warmth here is something you carry in on your back along with the sleeping bag.

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 Pike