England · Lake District National Park

Cold Fell

Cold Fell, 291 m, Cumberland
Cold Fell, 291 m, Cumberland. Photo by Michael Graham, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Height
290.7 m · 954 ft
Grid reference
NY 05815 09192
Coordinates
54.46934, -3.45479
County / area
Cumberland
OS Landranger
89
OS Explorer
OL4S OL6N 303
Summit feature
no feature
Key col
NY 0554 1009 (211.5 m)

About Cold Fell

This Cold Fell rises in the west of the Lake District above the road linking Ennerdale Bridge and Calder Bridge, a route known as Cold Fell Road and much used by Sellafield workers living in Cockermouth. The fell is grassy and nowhere steep, and the summit is very flat, looking out over the west Cumbrian coast and Sellafield. A group of horses roams freely across it and neighbouring fells.

Wainwright included it in The Outlying Fells of Lakeland but, unusually, declined to set out an ascent: if you cannot find the top with a map, he suggested, take some good advice, old man, and pack it in. He recorded the height as 955 feet.

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

Access rights here

Conditional Right to roam: Right to roam only on mapped CRoW open access land.

Permission needed Wild camping: Needs the landowner's permission — the Dartmoor commons are the only exception in England.

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
Sunset
Daylight
Civil twilight ends

Computed astronomically for 54.469, -3.455. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Summit weather live

Loading forecast for the summit (291 m)…

Forecast adjusted to summit altitude. Weather data from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0).

Finding the summit

Surveyor's note

flat summit area.

The recorded summit point is no feature. That distinction matters on broad or flat tops, where the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.

Record revised
08-May-25
Drop measured from
NY 0554 1009 · 211.5 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.

Which hill this one belongs to

Cold Fell is not counted as an independent hill in its own right. In prominence terms it belongs to Pillar (892 m) — the nearest Marilyn you can reach from this summit without first dropping below its key col, 212 m.

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

PeakHeightDistance
Ponsonby Fell 315 m 3.2 km
Lank Rigg 541 m 4.3 km
Dent 346 m 4.4 km
Flat Fell 272 m 4.6 km
Grike 488 m 5.6 km
Crag Fell 523 m 6.5 km