England · Lake District National Park

Cunswick Scar

Cunswick Scar, 207 m, Westmorland and Furness
Cunswick Scar, 207 m, Westmorland and Furness. Photo by Arnold Price, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Height
207 m · 679 ft
Grid reference
SD 49155 94302
Coordinates
54.34173, -2.78360
County / area
Westmorland and Furness
OS Landranger
97
OS Explorer
OL7N
Summit feature
large cairn
Key col
SD492937 (170 m)

About Cunswick Scar

A limestone scar — a cliff or steep rock face — on the southern edge of the Lake District, Cunswick Scar carries a large cairn at its top from which the views open out widely. Wainwright did not give it a chapter of its own: it appears within the Scout Scar chapter of The Outlying Fells of Lakeland.

The limestone here and on the adjoining Cunswick Fell yields fossils, and the ground is valued for its plants and animals as well as its rock. Scout Scar and Cunswick Scar together hold Site of Special Scientific Interest status.

Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Cunswick Scar (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 54.342, -2.784. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Summit weather live

Loading forecast for the summit (207 m)…

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

Finding the summit

Surveyor's note

highest visible ground is on W edge of cairn and 4m N.

The recorded summit point is large cairn. 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
10-May-05
Drop measured from
SD492937 · 170 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.

Long-distance paths past this hill

One waymarked long-distance route runs within 2.5 km of the summit — useful if you are linking this hill into a longer walk, or want a made path for the approach.

RouteTotal lengthFrom summit
Dales Way129 km2.3 km

Route lines © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); distance from the summit computed by OpenFell.

Reaching Cunswick Scar 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.

StationFrom summitSummit lies
Burneside1.8 kmSW of the station
Kendal3 kmW of the station
Staveley4.4 kmSE of the station

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).

Rated places to eat within 10 km of Cunswick Scar
PlaceTypeRatingDistance
Wagtail KitchenTakeaway/sandwich shop5 out of 50.5 km · NE
Rins CoffeeTakeaway/sandwich shop4 out of 50.5 km · NE
The Two Sisters at PlumgarthsRestaurant/Cafe/Canteen5 out of 50.6 km · NE

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.

Which hill this one belongs to

Cunswick Scar is not counted as an independent hill in its own right. In prominence terms it belongs to High Street (829 m) — the nearest Marilyn you can reach from this summit without first dropping below its key col, 170 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