Great Rigg
766m (2514ft)
The Eastern Fells, The Lake District, Cumbria, England
You can find Great Rigg & all the walks that climb it on these unique free-to-access Interactive Walk Planning Maps: (click/TAP to select)
1:25,000 scale OS Explorer Maps (the ones with orange/yellow covers):
1:50,000 scale OS Landranger Map (the ones with pink/magenta covers):
See Great Rigg and the surrounding tops on our free-to-access 'Google Style' Peak Bagging Maps:
See Great Rigg and the surrounding tops on our downloadable PDF Peak Bagging Maps:
*Walk & bag all 35 Wainwrights in The Eastern Fells area of The Lake District in just 8 easy-to-follow circular walks.
*This version is marked with the walk routes you need to follow to Walk all 214 Wainwrights in just 59 walks. Click here for more information.
NB: Whether you print off a copy on to paper or download it to your phone, these PDF Peak Baggers Maps will prove incredibly useful when your are up there on the tops and you cannot get a phone signal!
Fellow go4awalkers who have already walked, climbed, summited & bagged Great Rigg
Melfyn Parry walked up Great Rigg on November 21st, 2023 [from/via/route] Followed route C247 - walked out of Ambleside on the A591 & just after Scandale Bridge we crossed the road to follow the lane into the Rydal Hall estate, went passed the cafe & the Hall & then turned right to pass Rydal Mount. Here we veered left to take the stone steps path to the top of Nab Scar, again following a well defined path we were soon on Heron Pike. Continuing along the path with a slight detour to ascend Heron Pike north top. Continuing on to Great Rigg & onwards to Fairfield. We stopped here for lunch & the clouds lifted to give great views over towards Helvellyn & Sunday Crag. After pausing to take some photos we retraced our steps for a few metres before heading left to follow the ridge line to ascend Hart Crag, then Dove Crag & then High Pike. The undulating ridge takes you through some quite boggy areas & on to Low Pike & then down to High Sweden Bridge (a fascinating old bridge). All that was left to do from here was to follow the trail downwards in to Ambleside returning to the village by the Salutation Hotel. [with] DS [weather] Visibility was very good below 800m. By lunchtime the cloud had lifted even more to give clear views of the whole horseshoe. A dry day with sunny intervals, quite cold above 600m but very pleasant below this level. - Doing the walk in a clockwise direction as per C247 is best as the ascent anticlockwise would be much more of a cardio vascular workout.
David Higginbottom climbed Great Rigg on February 8th, 2023 [from/via/route] Route 247 [with] Carolyn [weather] Very poor
James Hughes bagged Great Rigg on June 26th, 2023 [from/via/route] Nab Scar, Heron Pike, Great Rigg, Fairfield, Hart Cragg, Dove Cragg, High Pike, Low Pike [with] Solo [weather] Four seasons in a day. Unsettled with showers at times, cold & misty around Fairfield, improved on descent into Ambleside. - Chatted with Andrew from Littleborough. Outraged by parking cost & then toilet fee. Pint at Golden Rule (Robinsons Cumbria Way) at end.
Rob Prikanowski hiked Great Rigg on June 21st, 2023 [from/via/route] c247 [weather] Cloudy but dry, strong wind, top in the mist.
Angeline Grieveson summited Great Rigg on April 5th, 2023 [with] Dotty
Sarah Moore conquered Great Rigg on December 5th, 2022 [from/via/route] c247 / The Fairfield Horseshoe (from Ambleside) [with] On my own [weather] Beautiful start with a cold edge... turning to icy cold with sleet & minimal visibility between Great Rigg - Fairfield - Hart Crag. - This one scared me. The realisation that if I slipped up at Fairfield then I don't know that I could have waited an hour plus for mountain rescue was very scary. Used the GPS & was proud of myself but major "eeek"
Martin Hartshorne scaled Great Rigg on September 12th, 2022 [with] finley [weather] Low cloud then sunshine to finish
Mr Davison walked up Great Rigg on November 18th, 2017 [from/via/route] Fairfield horseshoe [with] Ian F, Ian F, Mike, Gary, Simon, Martyn, Andy [weather] sunny,
Christine Shepherd climbed Great Rigg during May, 2007 [from/via/route] Walked from Ambleside using Walk c247 'The Fairfield Horseshoe' Did this walk for the fifth time on 19.6.22 [with] Tony Sailes [weather] Sunny at first but cloudy on the summit. - Made other visits to the summit on 30.9.07, 15.8.08, 26.2.12, 25.3.18 & on 30.4.11 when I battled with some of the strongest winds I have ever walked in to reach the summit before giving up 'The horseshoe' & making my way down to Grasmere.
Tony Halliday bagged Great Rigg on May 28th, 2022 [from/via/route] Circular walk starting at rydal taking in nab scar heron pike rydal fell great rigg Fairfield hart crag dove crag high pike & low pike known as the fairfield circular or round [with] My boarder terrier jimmy boo and George also my wife sal [weather] The weather was warm start dry sunny no wind but cooler on the summit some clouds - A tough circular roughly 11 miles great views over rydal water & Windermere & surrounding fells a brutal start of 3.5 hours of climbing & equally as brutal 3.5 hours of going down ended with a nice couple of pints & the sun came out in all its glory in the beer garden
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