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

Birkett — Eastern (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Wren Crag

Wren Crag is a rocky little top at the northern end of the High Rigg ridge, above Legburthwaite at the foot of St John's in the Vale near Thirlmere.

311 m
Height
+8
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX →

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311 mBirkett — Eastern (not a Wainwright summit)+8 bonus Birketts within 3 km

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

Modelled guidance for the 311 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Tue 28 Jul): 18° to 16°C, gusts to 28 mph, 1.7 mm of rain forecast.

Tue 28 Jul
🌦️
18° / 16°
💨 28 mph
🌧 1.7 mm (100%)
Wed 29 Jul
🌧️
18° / 13°
💨 27 mph
🌧 4.0 mm (100%)
Thu 30 Jul
🌦️
14° / 6°
💨 29 mph
🌧 2.1 mm (78%)
Fri 31 Jul
🌤️
16° / 4°
💨 23 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (78%)
Sat 1 Aug
🌦️
16° / 5°
💨 14 mph
🌧 5.4 mm (54%)
Sun 2 Aug
🌫️
18° / 5°
💨 18 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (24%)
Mon 3 Aug
🌦️
17° / 6°
💨 15 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 311 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

Wren Crag

Wren Crag is a rocky little top at the northern end of the High Rigg ridge, above Legburthwaite at the foot of St John's in the Vale near Thirlmere. A Birkett, it is an easy first objective on the popular round over High Rigg: a short pull through Scots pine leads to an open top with a sudden view of Skiddaw and Blencathra ahead and Castle Rock across the vale. The old corpse road to St John's church passes below. A lot of view for a small hill.

Routes up Wren Crag

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

Birketts North of Thirlmere
13.8 km · ~4.3 hr
Classifications & hill data
Birkett
311 m
Height
1,020 ft
In feet
NY 3159 2014
Grid ref

Map & nearby Birketts

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

Nearest parking: Legburthwaite (United Utilities, small), about 1.2 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Wren Crag (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.

0.7 km SECastle Rock339 m · Eastern
1.4 km SGreat How (Thirlmere)333 m · Eastern
1.6 km NWHigh Rigg (High Rigg South Top)343 m · Eastern
1.6 km WSWThe Benn (Sippling Crag)446 m · Eastern
1.8 km NECalfhow Pike660 m · Eastern
2.0 km SWCastle Crag (Shoulthwalte)404 m · Eastern
2.1 km ELittle Dodd (St John's Common)785 m · Eastern
2.8 km SSEBrown Crag610 m · Eastern

Routes over Wren Crag

Birketts North of ThirlmerePlanned
13.83 km · ~910 m ascent · loop · ~4–5.5 h
Summits: Castle RockWren CragHigh Rigg (High Rigg South Top)The Benn (Sippling Crag)Castle Crag (Shoulthwalte)Great How (Thirlmere)

⬇️ Download GPX

⚠️ Warnings: Access: The summits of The Benn (Sippling Crag), Castle Crag (Shoulthwalte) and Great How (Thirlmere) lie outside mapped CRoW open-access land. That records no statutory right of access — it is not a statement that access is forbidden, and permissive access is not recorded in that layer. This ground is above Thirlmere, a working reservoir managed by United Utilities, whose car parks at Legburthwaite and Swirls we list under parking. This line is computed rather than walked, so treat the access as unchecked and look for the courteous way through — how we work this out.

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 Wren Crag

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

Legburthwaite (United Utilities, small) — 1.2 km from summit (straight line)
St John's in the Vale — Sticks Pass side, High Rigg, Raven Crag.
Directions
🚺 Legburthwaite Car Park (155m) — Free
Swirls, Thirlmere (paid) — 3.3 km from summit (straight line)
The standard west-side route up Helvellyn via Browncove Crags.
Directions
🚺 The Swirls Car Park (461m) — Free · Accessible · RADAR key🚺 Armbroth Car Park (1587m) — Free

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 Birketts North of Thirlmere route:

🛖 map (14 m)🛖 map (111 m)🛖 map (134 m)🚌 Thirlmere Dam Road End (252 m)

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

Buses to Wren Crag from Penrith / Ambleside / Windermere

Stagecoach 555
Kendal – Staveley – Windermere – Ambleside – Rydal – Grasmere – Thirlmere (Wythburn & Swirls) – Keswick
Catch it from: Windermere · Ambleside
Year-round, roughly hourly. The backbone bus of the A591 — ideal for Helvellyn (Wythburn/Swirls), Fairfield, the Central fells and anything around Grasmere/Rydal. From Penrith, take the X4/X5 to Keswick and change.

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

Other fells near Wren Crag

Maps & guidebooks for Wren Crag

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