Black Combe

About Black Combe

Black Combe occupies the south-west corner of the Lake District National Park, about 6.4 km from the Irish Sea and within the historic district of Millom. It stands alone, with no higher ground for some 16 km, and reaching 600 metres it falls just 10 metres short of Hewitt height.

That isolation is the point for most visitors. In clear conditions the panorama runs from the Scottish coast near Dumfries round to the Isle of Man 72 km west, and on exceptional days as far as Snowdon, 137 km south. Inland the Scafell and Coniston groups are laid out, with Skiddaw, Scafell, Scafell Pike and Helvellyn among them, and eastwards the Pennines, the Forest of Bowland and Blackpool Tower.

Sub-tops include White Combe, Stoupdale Head, Swinside Fell and Stoneside Hill; the first two are indexed in Wainwright's The Outlying Fells of Lakeland.

Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Black Combe (CC BY-SA 4.0). Heights, prominence and grid references come from the Database of British & Irish Hills, not from Wikipedia.

Access rights here

General position for England — local byelaws, seasonal restrictions and closures can override it. Full details: access rights in England ·check another location.

Daylight at this summit today

Sunrise

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Sunset

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Daylight

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Civil twilight ends

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Computed astronomically for 54.258, -3.329. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Finding the summit

The recorded summit point is ground on W side of shelter 8m W of trig point. That distinction matters on broad or flat tops, where the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.

Survey method

Abney level

Record revised

03-Jun-24

Drop measured from

SD 1807 9703 · 238.6 m

Survey notes are field observations recorded in the Database of British & Irish Hills (v18.3, CC BY 4.0) by the hill-surveying community.

Reaching Black Combe by train

3 National Rail stations sit within 8 km of the summit — close enough to make a car-free day of it. Distances are straight lines, not walking routes.

Each station page lists every hill in its reach, long-distance paths from the door and a live-times link — see all stations with hills in reach. Station positions from NaPTAN (OGL v3.0).

Get food nearby

3 places to eat or drink within 10 km of the summit, rated under the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (Scotland runs its own Food Hygiene Information Scheme, a pass/fail equivalent).

Classifications and ratings are the local authority's own and can be coarse — this is a lead, not a guarantee of opening hours or that food is served to non-residents. Follow a name through to the official rating page to check, and confirm before you rely on it.

Food hygiene data from the Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland (Open Government Licence v3.0). Distances and directions computed by OpenFell from the summit.

The Black Combe group

2 other listed summits sit in the same prominence group, with Black Combe as the independent hill at its head.

Grouping is by prominence alone: a summit belongs to the nearest higher Marilyn it connects to without a deeper intervening col. Over a large massif that can gather hills no one would walk in a single day, and which few would describe as parts of the same mountain — it is a measure of independence, not a suggested route.

Nearest listed peaks