Gowbarrow Fell (Wainwright summit)
3 classifications here — 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
- 481.2 m · 1,579 ft
- Prominence
- 9 m
- Grid reference
- NY 40762 21821
- Coordinates
- 54.58811, -2.91820
- County / area
- Westmorland and Furness
- Region
- Lake District E
- OS Landranger
- 90
- OS Explorer
- OL5S
- Summit feature
- trig point
- Key col
- NY406217 (472 m)
About Gowbarrow Fell (Wainwright summit)
Gowbarrow Fell, a name read as 'windy hill', is a low outlier of the Eastern Fells standing north of Ullswater. Aira Beck bounds one side and carries the waterfall of Aira Force, which draws a steady stream of visitors.
In earlier centuries the fell formed part of Gowbarrow Park, a medieval hunting park held by the lords of Greystoke. The National Trust bought the fell together with 750 acres of the park in 1906.
Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Gowbarrow 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 54.588, -2.918. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.
Summit weather live
Loading forecast for the summit (481 m)…
Forecast adjusted to summit altitude. Weather data from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0).
Finding the summit
trig point is Wainwright/Birkett but rocks 3m S and 8m S are higher (16 cm below FB); N knoll of S top (Hill 7833) 105m S at NY 40730 21722 is 1cm higher than rocks.
The recorded summit point is trig point. That distinction matters on broad or flat tops, where the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.
- Survey method
- Leica NA730/Leica 530
- Record revised
- 09-May-12
- Drop measured from
- NY406217 · 472 m
Classification history: Highest point and Hump is Hill 7833.
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 Royal Hotel | Pub/bar/nightclub | 5 out of 5 | 1.5 km · W |
| Aira Force Tearoom | Restaurant/Cafe/Canteen | 5 out of 5 | 1.7 km · SE |
| Barrow Island Rugby Club | Pub/bar/nightclub | 5 out of 5 | 2.1 km · NW |
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
Gowbarrow Fell (Wainwright summit) is not counted as an independent hill in its own right. In prominence terms it belongs to Little Mell Fell (505 m) — the nearest Marilyn you can reach from this summit without first dropping below its key col, 472 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Little Mell Fell | 505.1 m | 2.7 km |
| Hallin Fell | 388 m | 3.2 km |
| Great Mell Fell | 536.6 m | 3.7 km |
| High Dodd | 501 m | 3.7 km |
| Place Fell | 657 m | 4.9 km |
| Bonscale Pike | 524 m | 4.9 km |