Wainwrights Baggers

Book 4 · The Southern Fells

Pike of Blisco

A 703 m Wainwright in The Southern Fells, with one desk-checked ascent from Old Dungeon Ghyll car park: 3.7 km and 610 m of climbing.

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Is Pike of Blisco a Wainwright?

Yes. Pike of Blisco is one of the 214 Wainwrights: number 21 of 30 in Book 4, The Southern Fells, of Alfred Wainwright’s Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells.

Climbing Pike of Blisco from Old Dungeon Ghyll car park

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BP500 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.

Pike of Blisco is 703 m high, 86th of the 214 Wainwrights by height, and belongs to the Southern Fells in Book 4. This route starts from the National Trust's Old Dungeon Ghyll car park, the same start as the Bowfell route, where parking is paid. It sits at about 100 m. The Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel bus stop is about 130 m away, served by the 516.

The line is 3.7 km long with about 610 m of ascent. The first 500 m are level. They cross Great Langdale Beck at about 190 m and follow Side Gates Road, a lane, for about 170 m, crossing Redacre Gill at about 380 m, before a track leaves the road.

The climb comes in stages. Between 0.5 km and 1.2 km the path rises from about 100 m to 225 m, with a short flight of rock steps, then pauses before a longer pull from about 225 m at 1.3 km to 505 m at 2.6 km. After a gentler stretch to about 3 km, the last 700 m climb from about 540 m to the top at 703 m. Parts of this final section, including about 100 m over rock on the map just below the top, are graded mountain hiking by OpenStreetMap. A cairn is mapped at the top.

About 1.2 km of the line follows public footpaths and 2.9 km crosses open access land, with about 180 m on the lane. Two short stretches near the car park, about 95 m in all, are on none of these in the data.

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 Pike of Blisco stands

1 · Eastern2 · Far Eastern3 · Central4 · Southern5 · Northern6 · North Western7 · WesternPike of Blisco
Pike of Blisco among all 214 Wainwright summits, each in its true position.

Nearest Wainwrights

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.