Great How
A short circular walk to the summit of Great How which stands isolated as far as other hills are concerned, beside the Thirlmere dam. Views are obscured for most of the walk by an assortment of trees, right until the summit when the wide vistas hoped for finally materialise as many of the trees have recently been felled. On the west side of the hill the path is along a quiet, narrow, undulating terrace with steep drops in places down to the water. In contrast the east side becomes noisy from the nearby main road and is mostly a forest road. There's nowt wrong with a bit of variety.
Parking is available at the United Utilities car park park at Legburthwaite.
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Great How - Thirlmere
This walk takes you to the top of the following hills: Great How (Thirlmere); and includes 1 Birkett and 1 HuMP.
- Maps:
50K: 90
25K: OL5
- Start:
- NY317195 (get directions via Google Maps)
- Near to:
- Ambleside, Braithwaite, Keswick, Thirlmere
- Tags:
- Birketts, circular
- Distance:
- 4.7km (2.9 miles)
- Ascent:
- 227m
- Min. time:
- 1 hrs 19 mins
- View in 3-D:
-
- Terrain:
- 2 - rough
- Bog Factor:
- 2 - soft
- Tech Diff:
- 2 - basic map reading
- Dog issues:
- None
Purchases:
Buy walk in Adobe/PDF format to print or for your phone or tablet
Buy route for your GPS
Walk height profile
note that gradients are usually grossly exaggerated
Route Description
Leave the car park by the pedestrian gate in the wall onto the permitted bridleway signposted "All Walks and Thirlmere dam". Carefully cross the A591 to the minor road the other side.
Walk along the road, past the caravan and camping site on the left, until just before the dam when the road bears right through an outcrop of rock. A set of stone steps on the left leads up to gate and signpost.
Legburthwaite Pedestrian Exit and High Rigg
Steps beside Thirlmere Dam to Great How path
Follow the narrow path above the water as it undulates, twists and eventually bears left to join the forest road. Bear left, and then almost immediately left again, onto a narrow track climbing up the hillside. At the top of this first rise the track curves round to the right and then left to climb more steeply over loose rock and gravel.
Great How path above Thirlmere
Great How Upper Track
The gradient eases again, and a path signposted "Great How Summit" appears on the right. Follow this path as it zigzags through the remains of tree felling debris to the two summit knolls. The south top is marginally higher than the north.
Great How Summit Path
Great How
From the summit, drop back down the path and track to the junction with the forest road. Turn left and follow this loose gravel road as it drops down and parallels the main road.
Just before reaching the main road at the buildings and gate, bear left immediately after the sign board onto a narrow path. Pass the rhododendrons above the buildings, and continue to reach the minor road to the dam at the private drive.
Go through both gates to the road. Turn right, and again carefully cross the main A591 to the permitted bridleway. Continue back to the car park.
On Great How
If you like this walk then why not try one of our other nearby walks:
| Name | Rating | Starts |
|---|---|---|
| High Rigg, Naddle Fell, and Wren Crag | | 10m (11 yards) away |
| The Dodds and Clough Head, via Sticks Pass and St John's in the Vale | | 0.6km (0.4 miles) away |
| Raven Crag and Castle Crag beside Thirlmere | | 1.2km (0.7 miles) away |
| High Tove and Armboth Fell from Thirlmere | | 2.6km (1.6 miles) away |
| Helvellyn round from Thirlmere | | 2.7km (1.6 miles) away |
| A Short Walk From Ashness Bridge to High Seat | | 4.8km (3.0 miles) away |
| Castlerigg Stone Circle | | 4.9km (3.1 miles) away |
| Walla Crag and the Great Wood | | 4.9km (3.1 miles) away |
| Walla Crag and Bleaberry Fell from Great Wood | | 5.0km (3.1 miles) away |
Unless otherwise stated the text in this walk is the copyright of Hug Solutions Ltd trading as The Hug and the photographs are the copyright of Elizabeth Oldham. Hill data is derived from Database of British and Irish hills which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Maps contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2011 and paths © OpenStreetMap Contributors,CC-BY-SA, 2011