Claife Heights

About Claife Heights

Claife Heights is less a peak than a stretch of upland west of Windermere, and Wainwright was blunt about it: no definite summit, with the highest ground somewhere around 900 feet. The Ordnance figure of roughly 270 metres attaches to a broad rise rather than a distinct top.

Its 177 metres of prominence is enough to make it a Marilyn, which is unusual for ground of this height and reflects how cleanly it stands apart from the fells around it. Wainwright gave it a chapter in The Outlying Fells of Lakeland, describing a clockwise circuit from Far Sawrey that passes Moss Eccles Tarn. He called the Heights delightful, while noting that forestry had since closed off walking lines and shut down views that were once open.

Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Claife Heights (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 54.368, -2.953. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Finding the summit

The recorded summit point is outcrop 2m SSW of trig point. On broad or flat summits the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.

Survey method

Abney level

Record revised

03-Jun-24

Drop measured from

SD 3531 9933 · 93.8 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 Claife Heights by train

One National Rail station sits 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 Claife Heights group

One other listed summit sits in the same prominence group, with Claife Heights 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