Is Kidsty Pike a Wainwright?
Yes. Kidsty Pike is one of the 214 Wainwrights: number 18 of 36 in Book 2, The Far Eastern Fells, of Alfred Wainwright’s Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells.
Climbing Kidsty Pike from Mardale Head car park
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This route starts from Mardale Head car park, the same free car park as the High Street route here, with room for about 25 cars at about 250 m. The two lines share their first 320 m, as far as the crossing of Mardale Beck. No bus stop with a current service lies within 6 km.
Kidsty Pike is 781 m high, 46th of the 214 Wainwrights by height, and belongs to the Far Eastern Fells in Book 2. The line to it is 4.4 km long and gains about 590 m, most of it in the second half.
For the first 2 km the route barely climbs. It follows the track OpenStreetMap names Gatescarth Pass for a short way, then paths graded hiking, passing Haweswater Reservoir at about 600 m. Heights rise to about 280 m at 1.2 km and fall back below 250 m before the route crosses Riggindale Beck by Bowderthwaite Bridge at about 1.85 km.
The climb begins at about 2 km. A path graded mountain hiking by OpenStreetMap rises from about 290 m to 570 m by 3.2 km, the steepest stretch. A path graded hiking takes the last 1.2 km more gently to the summit cairn at 781 m.
About 2.8 km of the line follows public footpaths, with 87 m of byway open to all traffic, and 3.9 km crosses open access land.
The GPX file is the same line, from the car park to the summit. Return the same way, or work out another descent with a map before you go.
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 Kidsty Pike stands
Nearest Wainwrights
- Rampsgill Head0.5 km away · 792 m
- High Raise (High Street)0.9 km away · 804 m
- The Knott (High Street)1.0 km away · 739 m
- High Street1.6 km away · 829 m
- Rest Dodd1.8 km away · 696 m
Straight-line distances between summits.
All the fells in The Far Eastern 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.