Great Dodd

About Great Dodd

Great Dodd, whose name simply means big round hill, is the highest fell on the Helvellyn range north of Sticks Pass. The main ridge here runs north to south between Thirlmere and Ullswater, and Great Dodd's summit is a smooth grassy dome — much like Watson's Dodd and Stybarrow Dodd to the south, the three together sometimes going by the name of the Three Dodds.

All three are built of Borrowdale Volcanic Group rock, their tops capped by a single sheet laid down by enormous volcanic explosions during the formation of a caldera roughly 450 million years ago. Approaches come from High Row near Dockray on the east, from Legburthwaite on the west, or along the ridge track from either direction; three gill climbs on the western flank interest scramblers with climbing experience.

Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Great Dodd (CC BY-SA 4.0). Heights, prominence and grid references come from the Database of British & Irish Hills, not from Wikipedia.

Access rights here

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

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Sunset

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Daylight

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Civil twilight ends

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Computed astronomically for 54.576, -3.019. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Finding the summit

The recorded summit point is no feature: ground 30m SSE 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

20-Nov-09

Drop measured from

NY342181 · 748 m

Classification history: B&L give position of main cairn NY342204.

Survey notes are field observations recorded in the Database of British & Irish Hills (v18.3, CC BY 4.0) by the hill-surveying community.

Which hill this one belongs to

Great Dodd is not counted as an independent hill in its own right. In prominence terms it belongs to Helvellyn (950 m) — the nearest Marilyn you can reach from this summit without first dropping below its key col, 748 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