Dale Head
6 classifications here — Marilyn, HuMP, Simm, Birkett, Synge and Fellranger — belong to lists OpenFell holds only part of, so they have no list page. See how far the coverage goes.
- Height
- 754 m · 2,474 ft
- Prominence
- 397.7 m
- Grid reference
- NY 22289 15325
- Coordinates
- 54.52724, -3.20228
- County / area
- Cumberland
- Region
- Lake District C&W
- OS Landranger
- 89 90
- OS Explorer
- OL4S
- Summit feature
- no feature 18m W of large cairn
- Key col
- NY 2245 1355 (356.3 m)
About Dale Head
Dale Head occupies the north-western sector of the Lake District, standing directly north of Honister Pass — the road linking Borrowdale with Buttermere — which makes its position easy to fix from either valley.
At 753 m it carries a long list of entries: Wainwright, Hewitt, Nuttall, Marilyn, HuMP, Simm, Birkett, Synge and Fellranger.
Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Dale Head (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 54.527, -3.202. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.
Summit weather live
Loading forecast for the summit (754 m)…
Forecast adjusted to summit altitude. Weather data from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0).
Finding the summit
ground at cairn (Wainwright/Birkett) at NY 22310 15330 is 30cm lower.
The recorded summit point is no feature 18m W of 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
- 03-Jun-24
- Drop measured from
- NY 2245 1355 · 356.3 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.
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).
| Place | Type | Rating | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Yew Tree | Restaurant/Cafe/Canteen | 5 out of 5 | 2.7 km · SE |
| Hazel Bank Hotel | Hotel/bed & breakfast/guest house | 5 out of 5 | 3.6 km · E |
| The Royal Oak Hotel (Rostwaite) | Hotel/bed & breakfast/guest house | 5 out of 5 | 3.6 km · E |
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 Dale Head group
6 other listed summits sit in the same prominence group, with Dale Head as the independent hill at its head.
| Summit | Height | Drop |
|---|---|---|
| Hindscarth | 727 m | 71 m |
| High Spy | 653 m | 148 m |
| High Spy North Top | 634 m | 16 m |
| Maiden Moor | 575 m | 10 m |
| Cat Bells | 451 m | 87 m |
| Castle Crag | 290 m | 76 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
| Peak | Height | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Hindscarth | 727 m | 1.4 km |
| High Spy | 653.1 m | 1.4 km |
| Honister Crag | 634 m | 1.6 km |
| Fleetwith Pike | 648.9 m | 2 km |
| High Spy North Top | 634 m | 2.3 km |
| Robinson | 737.6 m | 2.6 km |