Whinlatter

Climbing Whinlatter from the Forestry Commission car park, Whinlatter

Desk-checkedChecked against the map data on 28 September 2026; not yet walked for this page.Report a problem

This route climbs Whinlatter from the Forestry Commission car park at Whinlatter. Parking is paid and the car park sits at about 310 m. The Visitors Centre bus stop, about 90 m away, is served by the 77 and 77A.

Because the start is high, the line is short and gentle: 2.5 km with about 230 m of ascent. It leaves the car park on a service road and short paths, then follows tracks for about 700 m, from about 0.26 km to 0.97 km. They are tracks the landowner opens by permission rather than public rights of way. By 1 km the line is at about 440 m, and the next 100 m are the steepest, rising to about 475 m.

A path then carries the route to the end. It climbs gently to about 520 m near the point OpenStreetMap names Whinlatter, at about 1.8 km, then dips to about 500 m before rising to the summit at 517 m, which OpenStreetMap names Brown How. No part of the line is graded for difficulty on the map.

Only about 80 m of the line is on a public bridleway, but 2.4 km crosses open access land, where walkers have a right of access on foot.

Whinlatter is 517 m high, 165th of the 214 Wainwrights by height, and belongs to the North Western Fells in Book 6.

The GPX file is the same line, from the car park to Brown How. Return the same way, or plan a longer walk 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.