Birketts by Gowbarrow
Photo: © Lee McCoy
Start Aira Force (NT, paid)
Getting here Parking: Aira Force (NT, paid), 0.0 km from the start (straight line). Bus: the 508, 509, UB1 and UB2 stop at Matterdale, opposite Aira Force, a 240 m walk from this start. The UB1 and UB2 run until 1 November 2026, the last day of their season. Getting there ↓ · Route map ↓
Hardest part Hard steepness: Steepest sustained descent about 27% around the 9.8 km mark. Hard navigation: Care needed in cloud — ~31% featureless high ground. Hard – estimated from the map, not checked on the ground
Before you choose
- Access: The summits of Little Meldrum and Watermillock Fell (Little Mell Fell South Top) lie outside mapped CRoW open-access land. That layer records no CRoW right of access; public rights of way were not checked — it is not a statement that access is forbidden, and permissive access is not recorded in that layer. This line is computed rather than walked, so treat the access on it as unchecked — how we work this out.
- Aira Force plunges some 65 ft through a steep, narrow gorge with sheer sides, slippery rock and stone steps, and few natural viewing points or barriers. It's a busy honeypot — keep children and dogs close, stay behind railings and back from wet edges, and don't clamber for a better view of the falls.
Conditions on this route
We score every Lakeland Wainwright each morning on cloud, wind, rain and underfoot, and this route crosses 1 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.
See also walking in bad weather and today’s conditions.
Route map
1 Green Hill - Gowbarrow Park2 Gowbarrow Fell (Wainwright summit)3 Great Meldrum4 Little Meldrum5 Watermillock Fell (Little Mell Fell South Top)
Easy 83%Moderate 15%Hard 1%Severe
Heights on this chart and its high point are read from the track itself (a terrain model sampled along the line, or a GPS recording), so a top can differ from its listed height, usually reading lower.
Free mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap, with SRTM elevation data (switch layers top-right).
The elevation profile is under the map; the stage notes follow.
The walk, stage by stage
- 1
Start → Green Hill - Gowbarrow Park (1.7 km, 271 m)
From the main Aira Force car park, go up through the lower woodland and enclosures, then out onto the open moorland of Gowbarrow Park and up its steep grassy slopes to Green Hill.
WaypointsAira Force car park, fell wall boundary, Green Hill summit (439 m).
Decision pointAira Beck is the handrail at first. On the open fell, head north-east to the high ground; the paths are worn but braided.
Easy to get wrongThe woodland paths near Aira Force are stepped and busy. Above the trees the moor is lumpy and grassy and holds water after rain.
If you need to get offTurn round and come back down the way you came.
- 2
Green Hill - Gowbarrow Park → Gowbarrow Fell (Wainwright summit) (1.2 km, 51 m)
Carry on north across the lumpy top of Gowbarrow Park, through grassy hummocks and shallow dips, to its highest point, Airy Crag.
WaypointsGreen Hill, Gowbarrow Park plateau, Airy Crag (Gowbarrow Fell summit - 481 m).
Decision pointAiry Crag is rocky among grassy hummocks and stands out from a distance. The summit has an OS trig pillar.
Easy to get wrongEasy walking, but confusing in cloud: heather, bog and grassy knolls make a straight line hard to hold.
If you need to get offGo back over Green Hill to the start.
- 3
Gowbarrow Fell (Wainwright summit) → Great Meldrum (1.0 km, 40 m)
Leave Airy Crag north-east, down across the wide dip in the moor, on footpaths OSM maps, and up the grassy dome of Great Meldrum.
WaypointsAiry Crag, northern boundary wall, Great Meldrum summit (437 m).
Decision pointAn old boundary fence or wall crosses the saddle and is a rough guide. Great Meldrum is the broad grassy rise to the north-east.
Easy to get wrongFewer people come this way. The dip between Gowbarrow and Great Meldrum can be wet, with peat hags and marshy grass to work round.
If you need to get offTurn back south-west to Airy Crag and the paths down from it.
© Lee McCoy · 2 photographs - 4
Great Meldrum → Little Meldrum (1.0 km, 16 m)
Carry on north-east across quiet, rolling moor, down into another marshy saddle and up to the low, indistinct top of Little Meldrum.
WaypointsGreat Meldrum, connecting moorland saddle, Little Meldrum summit (404 m).
Decision pointKeep north-east. On a clear day Great Mell Fell, the big rounded hill to the north-west, is a good marker.
Easy to get wrongLittle effort, but wet underfoot, though OSM maps a footway and then a track along this stage. In mist these grassy bumps are hard to tell apart: there are no rocky features.
If you need to get offIf the bogs become impassable, turn back to Great Meldrum; no way down to the A5091 has been checked for this guide.
- 5
Little Meldrum → Watermillock Fell (Little Mell Fell South Top) (0.7 km, 29 m)
Drop slightly north-east from Little Meldrum, across a last patch of marshy ground, and up a little onto Watermillock Fell (Little Mell Fell South Top).
WaypointsLittle Meldrum, boundary fence, Watermillock Fell summit (424 m).
Decision pointFences cross this area; use them to find your way, but keep to the open fell and off enclosed farmland. The summit is hard to pick out from the moor around it.
Easy to get wrongMore moorland, with a track OSM maps across most of it. In late summer bracken can hide uneven ground.
If you need to get offNo way down to the A5091 has been checked for this guide; turn back the way you came, or go on to the route's own descent.
Watermillock Fell (Little Mell Fell South Top) → Finish (6.5 km, 183 m)
From Watermillock Fell, go north for about 200 m, then west, down along the north side of the fell, to the lowest point of the return at about 7.8 km (about 305 m). Turn south and climb back to the saddle below Great Meldrum that you crossed on the way out (about 8.7 km), then go back up the outward path south-west to Airy Crag (about 9.2 km). Leave the top west, down the steep west side, then turn south and go down to the car park.
WaypointsWatermillock Fell, the low point on the north side, the saddle below Great Meldrum, Airy Crag (Gowbarrow Fell summit), Aira Force car park.
Decision pointFrom the saddle, the path up to Airy Crag is the one you came out on.
Easy to get wrongA long 6.5 km return with a sting in it: about 170 m of climbing back over Gowbarrow late in the walk. The way down the west side is the steepest ground on the route, about 27% near 9.8 km.
If you need to get offTo skip the second climb over Gowbarrow, carry on west from the low point (about 7.8 km), at about the same height, round the fell's north-west side, for about 2.2 km. You rejoin the route at about 10.2 km for the last 1.8 km down to the car park. Keep to the paths. Do not shortcut straight down the steep, wooded, craggy slopes to the A592 by the lake: there are hidden drops and dense undergrowth.
© Lee McCoy
GPX track for your GPS or phone. Walked in part · km 0.8–2.7, km 3.4–5.8, km 7.9–8.7 from the map
Make it easier or harder
Short version: turn back at about 4.9 km and retrace your outward leg: about 9.8 km in all, against 12.0 km for the whole walk, with about 120 m of climbing on the way back over ground you came down. It is the same ground back, not a separate descent.
Summits bagged (5)
- 1Green Hill - Gowbarrow Park439 m
- 2Gowbarrow Fell (Wainwright summit)481 m
- 3Great Meldrum437 m
- 4Little Meldrum404 m
- 5Watermillock Fell (Little Mell Fell South Top)424 m
In the order you walk them — the same numbers the elevation profile, the stage notes and the pacing table use.
Conditions and timing
Check live conditions in the “From the fells” panel, on MWIS (opens in new tab) and the Met Office mountain forecast (opens in new tab) before you set off.
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.
- Gowbarrow Fell (Wainwright summit) — in late March the sun reaches it around 06:15, with the sunrise. In late September, about 07:00. It waits longest in late December — about a quarter of an hour after sunrise.
How to read these times
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.
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.
Getting there and back
Parking
2 more places to park near the start
Positions are approximate.
Vehicles are left at their owner’s risk: we list places people park and cannot vouch for any of them. Take valuables with you and leave nothing on show.
If the parking is full
There is no real plan B by car here. Every place we know beside this route serves the same walks and sits close together, so expect them to fill on the same mornings. Worth starting early, or having a different walk in mind before you set off. The bus below is the exception: it is not limited by car-park space, though it runs to a timetable and can be full.
- High Cascades (NT, paid) — joins the loop at about km 10.8 of 12: a 360 m walk to the line, and you walk the round from there
- The Hause, Little Mell Fell (verge) — joins the loop at about km 6 of 12: a 130 m walk to the line, and you walk the round from there
- Round How (layby) — joins the loop at about km 11.4 of 12: a 260 m walk to the line, and you walk the round from there
- By bus: buses stop at Matterdale, opposite Aira Force, a 240 m walk from the start. A bus is not affected by a full car park. Its return times are under Buses.
We never say whether anywhere has spaces today. Walks to the line are measured along mapped paths (OpenStreetMap), not in a straight line. How we choose these places.
No signal when you get there? RoutePark keeps this list on your phone: choose this walk’s GPX at home, keep it, and it opens offline.
Buses
The 508, 509, UB1 and UB2 stop at Matterdale, opposite Aira Force, a 240 m walk from this start. The UB1 and UB2 run until 1 November 2026, the last day of their season. The last bus is 18:02 towards Penrith (508) and 17:15 towards Martindale (UB1) and 15:15 towards Lowther (UB2), every day. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 7 September 2026; that timetable runs to 1 November 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.
The UB1 passes this route at 5.8 km (Horrockwood, opposite The Quiet Site, 570 m off the line). Other services cross it too — 508 at 12.0 km.
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before travelling.
Toilets and refreshments
The essentials
- Arrival The main Aira Force car park (National Trust), by the toilets, about 50 m from the start. Pay and display. 49 m in a straight line, not a walking distance. (Lake District National Park car-parks directory, checked 11 August 2026)
- Toilets Toilets are mapped about 95 m from the start. 97 m in a straight line, not a walking distance. (OpenStreetMap, as mapped on 13 September 2026, checked 13 September 2026)
- Refreshments Aira Force Tearooms is mapped about 160 m from the start. Opening hours are not recorded here. 162 m in a straight line, not a walking distance. (OpenStreetMap, as mapped on 13 September 2026, checked 13 September 2026)
- Limitation The summits of Little Meldrum and Watermillock Fell’s south top lie outside mapped open-access land. That is not a statement that access is forbidden, and rights of way were not checked. (our route notes (this route's own warnings), checked 28 September 2026)
Everything mapped near the start
At Aira Force (NT, paid), the closest parking we hold to where this route starts:
Distances are straight lines from the car park, not walking routes. Opening hours change; none of this is checked daily.
Water, shelter & getting away
Treat water from the fell before you drink it. A mapped point is not proof the water is drinkable, so carry your own or use a supply you know is safe. Never drink untreated from a beck, stream or tarn — even clear-looking hill water can carry giardia or cryptosporidium from livestock upstream and leave you seriously ill. Use a treatment method suited to what might be in the water, and follow the device’s own instructions. Boiling and ordinary filters do not make water with dissolved metals or chemicals safe: where that is possible, choose another source.
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors — an absent marker does not mean the facility isn’t there.
Getting there across the Lake District: Buses · Parking map · By train · By boat
Planning detail
How each grade on this page is set, and the timings stage by stage.
Difficulty profile
Hard overall — hardest: Steepness and navigation (estimated from the map, not checked on the ground); terrain not assessed; exposure not assessed on the ground
Five independent axes, not one score. None of them was set on the ground: they are computed from the recorded track and the map, which measures the line rather than surveying the ground.
How we grade: each axis is Easy, Moderate, Hard or Severe, and a route between two bands takes the higher one. Length: under 8 km, 8–14 km, 14–20 km, over 20 km. Steepness, the steepest 500 m of the track: under 15%, 15–25%, 25–35%, over 35%. Terrain, navigation and exposure are judged rather than measured, and each note says why. How we grade.
Pacing
| Summit | Cumulative | Ascent | Time (fast–steady) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Green Hill - Gowbarrow Park | 1.7 km | 271 m | 0:48–1:04 |
| 2Gowbarrow Fell (Wainwright summit) | 2.9 km | 322 m | 1:07–1:29 |
| 3Great Meldrum | 3.9 km | 363 m | 1:23–1:50 |
| 4Little Meldrum | 4.9 km | 379 m | 1:36–2:08 |
| 5Watermillock Fell (Little Mell Fell South Top) | 5.6 km | 407 m | 1:48–2:23 |
| Finish | 12.0 km | 591 m | 3:23–4:31 |
A fast–steady range from Naismith’s rule, deliberately on the slow side. Breaks, weather, rough ground and the slowest person in your party all add to it. How we time walks.
Access & barriers
Can a dog, a buggy or dodgy knees manage this route?
- Buggy: Stiles or rough going on the route.
- Knees: A sustained ~29% descent over 250 m around the 9.7 km mark — a little jarring on tired knees.
With a dog
Hardest for a dog here: stiles and gates. The steepest stretch is a sustained descent of about 27% around the 9.8 km mark.
- Stiles and gates: A stile of unmapped type at 8.6 km — a dog may need lifting over. (OpenStreetMap, mapped as of 26 July 2026)
- Drops and exposed ground: Not assessed on the ground; the map suggests Moderate. Graded from slope only (~29% max); treat exposure as unverified.
- Rock and scrambling: Ground underfoot: Not assessed.
- Ways off early: None recorded for this route.
- Livestock, shade and water: Not recorded for this route yet. We never call a stream safe for a dog to drink, so carry enough for both of you. The lead rules, and what to do around cattle, are on dogs on the fells.
On the line: 9 gates · 1 stile (type unmapped)
Barriers as mapped on OpenStreetMap, which can miss some. Spotted one? Tell us (opens in new tab). Barrier data as of 26 July 2026. Access data © OpenStreetMap contributors (via Overpass).
Places to stay near this start
- Lowthwaite Bed and Breakfast (opens in new tab) guest houseabout 3.9 km
- Low Gale (opens in new tab) self-cateringabout 4.4 km
We have not stayed at any of them. We take no bookings or affiliate fees. Distances are straight lines from the route start, never walking times. Properties found via OpenStreetMap (opens in new tab).
Walks from places nearby
- Walks from Aira Force — 0.5 km from this start
- Walks from Glenridding — 3.4 km from this start
Straight-line distance from this walk’s start. Those lists hold the routes we have mapped and every Wainwright and Outlying fell within about 5 km of the town, ranked nearest first.
