England · Lake District National Park

Dale Head

WainwrightHewittNuttallMarilynHuMPSimmBirkettSyngeFellranger

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
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

Surveyor's note

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).

Rated places to eat within 10 km of Dale Head
PlaceTypeRatingDistance
The Yew TreeRestaurant/Cafe/Canteen5 out of 52.7 km · SE
Hazel Bank HotelHotel/bed & breakfast/guest house5 out of 53.6 km · E
The Royal Oak Hotel (Rostwaite)Hotel/bed & breakfast/guest house5 out of 53.6 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.

Listed summits in the Dale Head prominence group
SummitHeightDrop
Hindscarth727 m71 m
High Spy653 m148 m
High Spy North Top634 m16 m
Maiden Moor575 m10 m
Cat Bells451 m87 m
Castle Crag290 m76 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
Hindscarth727 m1.4 km
High Spy653.1 m1.4 km
Honister Crag634 m1.6 km
Fleetwith Pike648.9 m2 km
High Spy North Top634 m2.3 km
Robinson737.6 m2.6 km