Fountains Fell
3 classifications here — Marilyn, HuMP and Simm — belong to lists OpenFell holds only part of, so they have no list page. See how far the coverage goes.
- Height
- 667.8 m · 2,191 ft
- Prominence
- 242.9 m
- Grid reference
- SD 86417 71586
- Coordinates
- 54.13993, -2.20941
- County / area
- North Yorkshire
- Region
- Central Pennines
- OS Landranger
- 98
- OS Explorer
- OL2S OL2W OL30S
- Summit feature
- grassy knoll 15m N of cairn
- Key col
- SD 8466 7170 (424.9 m)
About Fountains Fell
Fountains Fell is a Yorkshire Dales hill with three summits. The main top, at 668 m, has a prominence of 243 m and so qualifies as a Marilyn.
Fountains Fell South Top reaches 662 m and counts as a Nuttall, while a third summit further south attains 610 m and is the most southerly 2,000 ft top in the Pennines. The fell's eastern slopes lie within the National Trust's Malham Tarn and Moor estate.
Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Fountains Fell (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 54.140, -2.209. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.
Summit weather live
Loading forecast for the summit (668 m)…
Forecast adjusted to summit altitude. Weather data from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0).
Finding the summit
cairn at SD 86413 71571 is lower.
The recorded summit point is grassy knoll 15m N of 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
- 21-Jul-24
- Drop measured from
- SD 8466 7170 · 424.9 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.
| Route | Total length | From summit |
|---|---|---|
| Pennine Way | 411 km | 0.6 km |
Route lines © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); distance from the summit computed by OpenFell.
The Fountains Fell group
2 other listed summits sit in the same prominence group, with Fountains Fell as the independent hill at its head.
| Summit | Height | Drop |
|---|---|---|
| Fountains Fell South Top | 663 m | 16 m |
| Darnbrook Fell | 624 m | 41 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Fountains Fell South Top | 663.4 m | 0.9 km |
| Darnbrook Fell | 624 m | 2.4 km |
| Pen-y-ghent | 694.1 m | 3.1 km |
| Plover Hill | 679.9 m | 3.9 km |
| Birks Fell | 610.4 m | 7.2 km |
| Yockenthwaite Moor | 643 m | 10.5 km |