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12.62 km · ~362 m ascent · ~3–4 h · loop · 1 summit

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Ulthwaite Rigg

12.62 km
Distance
~3–4 h
Typical time
~362 m
Ascent
1
Summit
Download GPX →Planned route · not yet walked

Key facts

Distance 12.62 km
Ascent ~362 m
Descent ~364 m
Time ~3–4 h
Type Loop
One top on the Shap fells, out and back in 12.6 km with 362 m of climbing and nothing steeper than about 5%. The navigation is rated SEVERE — the only route here to carry that on any axis but steepness. About 3.1 hours.
✎️ 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.

Difficulty profile

LengthModerate12.62 km round.
SteepnessModerateSteepest sustained pull about 22% around the 9.5 km mark.
TerrainModerateMostly good mountain path — rough/natural surface. desk assessment — not field-verified
NavigationSevereSerious navigation in poor visibility — ~41% featureless high ground, 17 path junctions near the line. desk assessment — not field-verified
ExposureNot assessedExposure (drops, scrambling, how bad a slip would be) can’t be judged from gradient data alone, so we don’t guess. A rating appears once the route is editorially assessed or walked.

Five independent axes, not one score. “Desk” ratings come from maps and guidebooks, not yet walked — treat them as a guide, not a survey.

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 248 m to 489 m over 12.6 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%. 489 m 248 m 0 km 12.6 km 1

1 Ulthwaite Rigg

Easy 93%Moderate 7%HardSevere

~362 m
Total ascent
489 m
High point
280 m
Start height

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

This walk covers about 12.62 km with around 362 m of ascent, taking in 1 summit. 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: Stiles or rough going on the route.
  • Knees: A sustained ~22% descent around the 9.3 km mark — a little jarring on tired knees.

On the line: 23 gates · 2 step-over stiles · 4 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 2026-07-26. Access data © OpenStreetMap contributors (via Overpass).

Pacing

SummitCumulativeAscentTime (fast–steady)
1Ulthwaite Rigg5.4 km266 m1:31–2:01
Finish12.6 km362 m3:08–4:10

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 → Ulthwaite Rigg (5.4 km, 266 m)

    Climb of about 266 m over 5.4 km (around 5% average).

    Starting from the small parking area at the eastern end of the Wet Sleddale Reservoir, this route begins with a long, gradual valley approach. The walk traces the well-defined tracks and bridleways shadowing the reservoir and Sleddale Beck, eventually passing the isolated historic farmhouse of Sleddale Hall (famous as the filming location for Withnail & I). Beyond the hall, the track continues to climb gently up the valley. The ease of the bridleway eventually ends when you must break off to the right (north-west) to tackle the trackless, grueling pull up the heathery slopes to the summit of Ulthwaite Rigg. The gradient averages a gentle 5%, but the final off-path climb is steep, rough, and deeply tussocky

    Waypoints

    Wet Sleddale Reservoir (approx. 250m): The valley-bottom starting point near the dam. Sleddale Hall: The prominent, slate-roofed farmhouse sitting isolated on the fellside. Sleddale Beck Packhorse Bridge: The stone crossing on the approach. Ulthwaite Rigg Summit (502m): A minor, exceptionally grassy prominence marked by a modest cairn, sitting on the edge of the vast Shap Fells wilderness

    Decision point

    The Bridleway: For the first 4 kilometers, the bridleway is an infallible, highly visible track. Sleddale Hall: The building acts as an unmissable visual anchor in the middle of the valley

    Easy to get wrong

    Trackless Ascent: The moment you leave the bridleway to ascend Ulthwaite Rigg, you are entirely off-path. The ground is a brutal mix of dense, knee-high heather and deep tussock grass that actively fights your forward progress. Waterlogged Terrain: Wet Sleddale earns its name. Even during prolonged dry spells, the lower slopes and the final pull to the summit act as a giant sponge

    If you need to get off

    Before you leave the bridleway to climb the fell, the escape is incredibly simple: turn around and walk the wide track back to the reservoir. Once you begin the off-path climb, retreating back down the grassy slopes to the bridleway remains your safest option

  2. Ulthwaite Rigg → Finish (7.2 km, 97 m)

    Climb of about 97 m over 7.2 km (around 1% average).

    From Ulthwaite Rigg, the route turns north and then east to complete the vast, sweeping horseshoe of the Shap Fells. This 7.2-kilometer return leg is a notorious trudge. You will cross a series of trackless, desolate moorland bumps—including Great Saddle Crag, Wasdale Pike, and Sleddale Pike—where the 97m of total ascent is spread thinly across the undulating plateau. After clearing Sleddale Pike, the route drops across increasingly boggy ground toward the Lunch House (an old stone shooting hut), before following a line of grouse butts down through Poor Hag Wood to return to the reservoir car park

    Waypoints

    Great Saddle Crag (560m): The highest point of this return ridge, though visually indistinct from the surrounding moorland. Sleddale Pike (506m): A grassy dome often marked by a solitary wooden pole. The Lunch House: A stone shooting hut offering the only shelter on the entire ridge. Poor Hag Gill / Wood: The woodland boundary marking the end of the high moorland and the final descent funnel

    Decision point

    Shooting Butts: On the long descent from Sleddale Pike towards the Lunch House and Poor Hag, a line of wooden shooting butts serves as an essential, artificial breadcrumb trail guiding you off the fell. Compass Bearings: You must take strict, sequential bearings between the subsidiary tops (Ulthwaite Rigg → Great Saddle Crag → Sleddale Pike) to ensure you do not drift aimlessly across the Shap Fells

    Easy to get wrong

    The Shap Fells Slog: This is arguably some of the most exhausting terrain in the Lake District. There are virtually no paths. You are constantly weaving around black peat hags, deep standing water, and energy-sapping grass for miles. Clag Disorientation: This rolling, featureless plateau is a highly dangerous navigational trap in mist. Every grassy hump looks identical, and without crags or distinct ridge lines, walking in a straight line is impossible. Fatigue: The constant micro-navigation and high-stepping required to avoid the bogs will drain your legs far faster than a standard engineered mountain path

    If you need to get off

    Trap Warning: Do not bail south or east off the main ridge. This will drop you into the trackless wilderness of the Shap summit catchment or the A6, miles from your transport. Safe Route: If the bogs or weather become overwhelming, your safest bail is to turn strictly north, dropping roughly down the steep, trackless fellside back into the Wet Sleddale valley to intercept the valley-bottom bridleway

Summits bagged (1)

  1. 1Ulthwaite Rigg502 mPennines · Outlying Fell, Birkett, Synge

Getting there & parking

Wet Sleddale Reservoir Car Park — 0.0 km from the start (straight line)
2.4 km from Great Ladstones.
Directions Something changed here?
Keld (layby) 2 — 1.3 km from the start (straight line)
1.2 km from the 'West of Wet Sleddale - Birketts' route start; 1.3 km from the 'Ulthwaite Rigg' route start. Free (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
Oddendale, south-west (layby) — 1.5 km from the start (straight line)
1.5 km from the 'West of Wet Sleddale - Birketts' route start; 1.5 km from the 'Ulthwaite Rigg' route start. Free (OSM-tagged).
Directions Something changed here?
Keld (layby) — 1.6 km from the start (straight line)
Nearest published walking: 1.6 km from the 'West of Wet Sleddale - Birketts' route start; 3.5 km from Great Ladstones. Free (OSM-tagged).
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 UB2 at Askham, outside Stores, 14.9 km of walking from this start — not realistically reachable without a car. This looks like a seasonal service. Our timetable data has the UB2 stopping on 1 November 2026, but we haven’t confirmed that with the operator — so treat it as a reason to check rather than a date to plan around.

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

Safety & conditions

  • Upper Mosedale is peat-hag and tussock country with no paths — short route, slow miles. The plotted line is indicative; pick your own dry ground.

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

Download

Download GPX

GPX track for your GPS or phone.

Places to stay near this start

New Ing Lodge

about 4.2 km from the start, in a straight line

The only property in this cluster that answers the family questions from its own copy: family ensuite rooms, free parking, overnight laundry, an EV charger, a play area and a licensed bar, all in Shap village where the shop and the chippy are. It also scales down to camping from GBP 8 a night, so a party arriving late off Wet Sleddale without a room booked still has something. Ranked first on that, not on distance - it is 0.49 km further from the start than the Bothy but is the one that can take a family with a car and wet kit.

The whole lodge can be taken over on exclusive hire from GBP 500 a night, sleeping up to 30, with a sauna and hot tub, games room and firepit - a running club from Marsden books it for the same annual weekend every year.

  • Dogs “Stayed for 3 nights as a family with a German shephard in a family room, spotless, large and comfortable to say the least.”
  • Family rooms “Family Ensuite Rooms Double Ensuite Rooms FULLY LICENSED BAR Overnight Laundry Free Parking”
  • Evening meal “The staff can't help enough and the food is perfect!Log burner in the common room hits the spot every night.”
  • Parking “FULLY LICENSED BAR Overnight Laundry Free Parking GARDEN AREA PLAY AREA”

Shap Fell Bothy

about 4.7 km from the start, in a straight line

It is the only bed on this side of the start - on Shap Fell by the A6 rather than in the village - and it is the one place here that states a dog policy outright, in one sentence. It suits a self-sufficient pair or a group taking the whole building; it is emphatically not a wet-arrival option, because there is no running water, the toilet is a Portaloo in the side yard and the sleeping floor is upstairs. Ranked second not on distance but because the family who cannot cook for themselves cannot use it.

The bothy is a converted telephone repeater station, standing at 1,390 ft on Shap Fell with no neighbours for miles; the roof windows are there for star-gazing because the horizon is exceptionally low and wide and there is almost no light pollution.

  • Dogs “Dogs are welcome.”
  • Family rooms “The Bothy accommodates up to 8 people. In the upstairs there are 4 futon mattresses for the first 4 people to sleep on; additional guests can make use of the upstairs seating cushions or bring their own lilos, carrymats etc.”
  • Parking “Two very large lay-bys for ample parking within 70 yards.”
  • Children “The property is completely off-grid i.e. it is not connected to the electricity grid and has no running water.”

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.