Wainwrights Baggers

Book 7 · The Western Fells

Mellbreak

A 511 m Wainwright in The Western Fells, with one desk-checked ascent from Maggie's Bridge car park, Loweswater: 4.0 km and 490 m of climbing.

Explore Mellbreak in 3D

Is Mellbreak a Wainwright?

Yes. Mellbreak is one of the 214 Wainwrights: number 24 of 33 in Book 7, The Western Fells, of Alfred Wainwright’s Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells.

Climbing Mellbreak from Maggie's Bridge car park, Loweswater

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P500 m
The route in green, from the car park (P) to the summit (triangle), with the bus stop (B) where it falls on the map and nearby Wainwrights as dots. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

This route climbs Mellbreak from the National Trust's Maggie's Bridge car park near Loweswater. Parking is paid, the car park has room for about 10 cars, and it sits at about 125 m. The nearest bus stop with a current service is Lanthwaite Farm, about 2.4 km away in a straight line, served by the 77A.

The line is 4 km long and gains about 490 m. The first 1.7 km barely climb, rising and falling between about 115 m and 155 m. Roads and paved lanes account for about 830 m of this, and a service road crosses Park Beck at about 0.9 km. A bridleway follows from about 1.15 km.

At about 1.8 km the route takes a path that OpenStreetMap grades mountain hiking, and keeps to it all the way to the top. It climbs steeply at first, from about 185 m at 1.8 km to 500 m at 2.8 km, and passes Mellbreak North Top at about 2.85 km.

The route then drops for about 600 m, to about 440 m at 3.4 km, before climbing again to the summit at 511 m. The last few metres leave the mapped path, and no cairn or trig pillar is mapped at the top.

About 1.3 km of the line follows public bridleways, and 2.2 km crosses open access land. A 40 m stretch of the bridleway at about 1.7 km is on neither in the data. Mellbreak is 511 m high, 168th of the 214 Wainwrights by height, and belongs to the Western Fells in Book 7.

The GPX file is the same line, from the car park to the summit. Return the same way, or plan a different 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 Mellbreak stands

1 · Eastern2 · Far Eastern3 · Central4 · Southern5 · Northern6 · North Western7 · WesternMellbreak
Mellbreak among all 214 Wainwright summits, each in its true position.

Nearest Wainwrights

Straight-line distances between summits.

All the fells in The Western 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.