Is Esk Pike a Wainwright?
Yes. Esk Pike is one of the 214 Wainwrights: number 9 of 30 in Book 4, The Southern Fells, of Alfred Wainwright’s Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells.
Climbing Esk Pike from Seathwaite, Borrowdale
Desk-checkedChecked against the map data on ; not yet walked for this page.Report a problem
Esk Pike is 885 m high, 11th of the 214 Wainwrights by height, and belongs to the Southern Fells in Book 4. This route reaches it from the car park at Seathwaite. The car park is paid, holds about 60 cars and lies at about 125 m. The Youth Hostel stop at Honister, served by the 77A, is the nearest bus stop with a current service, 1.6 km away in a straight line. The Glaramara route shares the first 700 m or so.
At 5.6 km with about 770 m of ascent, this is a long and steady walk. A short lane and a track lead onto a bridleway, which crosses Hind Gill at about 0.8 km and Grains Gill at Stockley Bridge, about 1.5 km in. By then it has climbed only to about 190 m.
From Stockley Bridge a path, mostly with a rock surface on the map, climbs for about 2.5 km, crossing Ruddy Gill at about 2.6 km and reaching about 620 m by 4 km. A bridleway and a path then lead to Esk Hause, the saddle at about 4.75 km and 757 m.
From Esk Hause almost all the path is graded mountain hiking by OpenStreetMap. It runs level for about 200 m, then climbs the last 130 m of height to a summit cairn at 885 m.
About 5 km of the line follows public footpaths and bridleways, and about 5 km crosses open access land.
The GPX file is the line from the car park to the summit. Return the same way, or plan another descent with a map before you set out.
Download the GPXFree. The route is © OpenStreetMap contributors and the file is released under the Open Database Licence: you may copy, share and adapt it.
Where Esk Pike stands
Nearest Wainwrights
- Allen Crags1.0 km away · 785 m
- Rossett Pike1.3 km away · 651 m
- Great End1.3 km away · 910 m
- Bowfell1.3 km away · 903 m
- Scafell Pike2.1 km away · 978 m
Straight-line distances between summits.
All the fells in The Southern FellsAll 214 Wainwrights
Map and route data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.
Heights along the route from OS Terrain 50. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (NaPTAN, Bus Open Data Service, Lake District National Park Authority rights of way).
Access land © Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.
Heights, grid references and summit positions come from The Database of British and Irish Hills v18.3, used under CC BY 4.0.