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14.68 km · ~957 m ascent · ~4.5–6 h · loop · 3 summits

Home / Routes / Alternative Hardknott Round (Green Crag, Harter Fell & Hard Knott)
Severe steepnessLoopPlanned

Alternative Hardknott Round (Green Crag, Harter Fell & Hard Knott)

14.68 km
Distance
~4.5–6 h
Typical time
~957 m
Ascent
3
Summits
Download GPX →Planned route · not yet walked

Key facts

Distance 14.68 km
Ascent ~957 m
Descent ~963 m
Time ~4.5–6 h
Best season Late spring to autumn, in dry weather. The ground north of Green Crag is notably boggy and much slower when wet.
Type Loop
Start Hardknott Pass
A rugged Eskdale round over three characterful, quiet tops — Green Crag, Harter Fell and Hard Knott — through some of the wildest, least-walked country in the Lakes, with the Scafells filling the skyline. Rocky, boggy and lightly pathed: a proper fell day for those who like their hills empty.

✎️ Three wild, quiet Eskdale tops linked into a big round — boggy in stretches (notably north of Green Crag) and rocky underfoot; a dry, clear day makes all the difference.

✎️ 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.

🧭 The automated detail on this page — distance, climb, pacing and a first-pass difficulty read — is live. Hand-written field notes are being added.

Difficulty profile

LengthHard14.68 km — a long day out.
SteepnessSevereSteepest sustained pull about 44% around the 7.3 km mark.
TerrainHardBoggy (notably north of Green Crag), tussocky and rocky; slow and worse when wet.
NavigationModerateLightly pathed and rough — care needed in poor visibility.
ExposureModerateRocky summit tors (Harter Fell, Green Crag) — a hands-on move or two, no sustained exposure.

Five independent axes, not one score — all field-checked on the ground here, with nothing left as a desk estimate.

Conditions on this route

We score every Lakeland Wainwright each morning on cloud, wind, rain and underfoot, and this route crosses 3 of them. The worst summit governs the verdict — a route is only as kind as its roughest top.

Modelled guidance — not a substitute for the mountain forecast or your own judgement. See how every fell ranks today →

Daylight & turnaround

Daylight is short from October to February — check today’s sunrise and sunset before you set off, and carry a head-torch and spare batteries. On short days, decide your turn-back time before you start.

Why this matters: 78% of Mountain Rescue call-outs come after midday — the day runs out on the way home, not on the way up. See also walking in bad weather and today’s conditions.

OpenTopoMap
Elevation profile, shaded by steepness
Elevation profile Rises from about 85 m to 640 m over 14.7 km, with the summits marked in order. The area beneath is shaded by sustained steepness over a 250 m window, in the same four bands as the route’s steepness rating: Easy under 15%, Moderate 15 to 25%, Hard 25 to 35%, Severe above 35%. 640 m 85 m 0 km 14.7 km 123

1 Green Crag2 Harter Fell (Eskdale)3 Hard Knott

Easy 62%Moderate 29%Hard 6%Severe 4%

~957 m
Total ascent
640 m
High point
91 m
Start height

Free mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap (switch layers top-right).

This walk covers about 14.68 km with around 957 m of ascent, taking in 3 summits. The map above shows the line; the elevation profile and stage notes are below.

Access & barriers

Can a dog, a buggy or dodgy knees manage this route? A quick read from the gates and stiles mapped along the way.

Dog
Mostly gates
Buggy
Not buggy-able
Knees
Steep in places
  • Dog: A stile of unmapped type — a dog may need lifting over.
  • Buggy: Not a pushchair route.
  • Knees: A sustained ~30% descent around the 8.4 km mark — a little jarring on tired knees.

On the line: 5 gates · 3 step-over stiles · 2 stiles (type unmapped)

These are mapped barriers, from OpenStreetMap — coverage in the Lakes is good but not guaranteed complete. Spotted a stile or gate we’ve missed? Tell us and we’ll fix it. Barrier data as of 2026-07-12. Access data © OpenStreetMap contributors (via Overpass).

Pacing

SummitCumulativeAscentTime (fast–steady)
1Green Crag4.4 km396 m1:32–2:03
2Harter Fell (Eskdale)7.7 km761 m2:49–3:45
3Hard Knott11.3 km943 m3:49–5:05
Finish14.7 km957 m4:32–6:02

Naismith-based estimate — a fast/steady range. Your pace will vary. These use Naismith’s textbook constants (5 km/h, 600 m of ascent an hour). Measured against a pace fitted to 41 recorded Lakeland walks they run about 8% slow, and we have left them that way deliberately: a slow estimate strands nobody.

The walk, stage by stage

  1. 1

    Start → Green Crag (4.4 km, 396 m)

    Climb of about 396 m over 4.4 km (around 9% average).

  2. 2

    Green Crag → Harter Fell (Eskdale) (3.4 km, 365 m)

    Climb of about 365 m over 3.4 km (around 11% average).

    Easy to get wrong

    The stretch north of Green Crag is boggy and slow — pick your line carefully and expect wet feet when it’s been raining.

  3. 3

    Harter Fell (Eskdale) → Hard Knott (3.5 km, 183 m)

    Climb of about 183 m over 3.5 km (around 5% average).

  4. Hard Knott → Finish (3.4 km, 14 m)

    Descent of about 458 m over 3.4 km.

Summits bagged (3)

  1. 1Green Crag489 mSouthern · Wainwright, Birkett, Fellranger, Synge, HuMP
  2. 2Harter Fell (Eskdale)653 mSouthern · Wainwright, Birkett, Fellranger, Synge, Nuttall, Marilyn
  3. 3Hard Knott550 mSouthern · Wainwright, Birkett, Fellranger, Synge, Marilyn

In the order you walk them — the same numbers the elevation profile, the stage notes and the pacing table use.

Getting there & parking

Goat Crag (layby) — 0.0 km from the start (straight line)
Walking base for Green Crag, Harter Fell (Eskdale) and Hard Knott — the 'Alternative Hardknott Round (Green Crag, Harter Fell & Hard Knott)' route starts 25 m away. Free (OSM-tagged). Grass surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
Goat Crag, south-east (layby) — 0.2 km from the start (straight line)
Walking base for Green Crag, Harter Fell (Eskdale) and Hard Knott — the 'Alternative Hardknott Round (Green Crag, Harter Fell & Hard Knott)' route starts 204 m away. Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
Roadside parking for Horsehow Crags south (free) — 0.3 km from the start (straight line)
Approx 8 spaces. 1.1 km from Horsehow Crags. Added from the 5 Aug 2026 OSM candidate review.
Directions Something changed here?
Horsehow Crags (layby) — 0.8 km from the start (straight line)
Nearest fells: Horsehow Crags (0.8 km), Border End (1.2 km), Demming Crag (1.2 km). Free (OSM-tagged). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
Wha House, Eskdale (NT, free) — 1.0 km from the start (straight line)
Upper Eskdale - Slight Side, Harter Fell and the Scafell approaches.
Directions Something changed here?

Positions are approximate. Lakeland car parks fill before 9am on fine weekends.

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.

Every option near this start, on the parking map →

💧 No mapped drinking water or shelter on this route — that doesn’t mean there is none, and never drink untreated from a beck. (Facilities data © OpenStreetMap contributors.)

Buses

The nearest bus stop we hold is the 516 at Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel (at), 10.9 km of walking from this start — not realistically reachable without a car.

Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com or Traveline before travelling.

If the parking is full

There is no real plan B here. Every place we know beside this route serves the same walks and sits close together, so if one is full the others usually are too. Worth starting early, or having a different walk in mind before you set off.

  • Roadside parking for Horsehow Crags north
  • Goat Crag, south-east (layby)
  • Border End car park

Worked out from the parking we hold within walking reach of this route and the other walks each place serves — two places that serve the same walks fill for the same reasons. We are not saying whether anywhere has spaces today, and we never will: this is what exists, not what is free.

When the sun reaches the tops

Not sunrise — the moment the sun clears the skyline from that summit, which on a fell with high ground to its east can be a good deal later. The two equinoxes are shown because they fall in the walking season, and late December too wherever a top keeps you waiting then; the clock gap between the equinoxes is British Summer Time, not the hill. Rounded to the nearest quarter hour and meant as a general idea, not a schedule.

  • Green Crag — in late March the sun reaches it around 06:30, about a quarter of an hour later. In late September, about 07:15. It waits longest in midsummer — about half an hour after sunrise.
  • Harter Fell (Eskdale) — in late March the sun reaches it around 06:15, with the sunrise. In late September, about 07:00.
  • Hard Knott — in late March the sun reaches it around 06:15, with the sunrise. In late September, about 07:00. It waits longest in midsummer — about half an hour after sunrise. In late December, not until about 09:00.

Modelled from a 30 m elevation model against each summit’s own skyline — the same figures the fell pages carry, never observed. Cloud is not in it.

Safety & conditions

  • The ground north of Green Crag is boggy — wet, tussocky and slow, and worse after rain. Pick a dry spell and expect to lose time here.
  • Rough, rocky and only lightly pathed — navigation needs care in poor visibility. Carry map and compass.
  • A long, remote round (nearly 15 km, 950 m of ascent) with little quick escape; start early and carry food, water and layers.
  • Livestock on the lower fields; keep dogs under close control.

Check live conditions in the “From the fells” panel, on MWIS and the Met Office mountain forecast before you set off.

Make it easier or harder

Short version: turn back at about 5.9 km (drop to Start) — roughly half the distance.

Download

Download GPX

GPX track for your GPS or phone.

Places to stay near this start

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

YHA Eskdale

about 1.5 km from the start, in a straight line

The only bed in this radius that answers the whole 6pm-to-8am sequence from its own page: a shared drying room, parking at the hostel, breakfast from 07:30 (the same minute reception reopens), a snack menu 18:00-20:00 and a licensed bar so nobody drives, a self-catering kitchen, a cot and a highchair. It is also the only property here that publishes any child age policy at all, and that policy has a price attached: a family with under-12s cannot use the dorm beds and must buy private rooms or a Landpod. Reception is shut 10:00-17:00, so an early finisher on the Hardknott round cannot check in mid-afternoon.

Worth knowing: “Dogs: Pets are not permitted at YHA Eskdale, except in our Camping & Cabins accommodation or when hiring the whole hostel through YHA Exclusive Hire. Assistance dogs are welcome - please notify us at the time of booking.”

Purpose-built in the 1930s out of local pink granite by John Downer, it stayed open right through the war; YHA commissioned solar panels and a biomass wood-fuelled boiler here in 2008 and opened a solar garden in 2010.

  • Drying room “Shared drying room”
  • Family rooms “Four rooms that sleep up to 5 people each. They include 1 set of bunk beds and a high sleeper bunk with a double bed underneath.”
  • Evening meal “Food and drink: Breakfast is served to guests daily from 07:30 – 09:00. Our snack menu is also available from 18:00 - 20:00.”
  • Packed lunch “With tasty breakfasts, packed lunches and evening meals, groups are sure to find something tasty to eat at YHA Eskdale (see sample menu )”
  • Parking “Parking: There is parking at the hostel.”
  • Children “People of all ages are welcome at YHA. Guests aged under 16 must be accompanied by an adult aged 18 years or older. Guests aged 16 and 17 years old who are unaccompanied by an adult can only stay in private rooms in 24/7 staffed hostels, with parental consent. See our under 18s admissions policy for more information and the list of hostels. Under 12s are not permitted in dorm rooms. Children under 3 can stay with us for free.”

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 the route start, never walking times. Properties found via OpenStreetMap.

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