Great Shunner Fell

About Great Shunner Fell

Great Shunner Fell is the highest ground in Wensleydale and the third-highest mountain in the Yorkshire Dales. The Pennine Way crosses the summit between Hawes and Keld; walker pressure had once worn vegetation from a strip 70 m wide until flagstones were laid from 1996 onwards. At the top a cross-shaped windbreak incorporates the trig pillar into its northern arm.

Limestone dominates the surrounding country, but millstone grit outcrops widely here and coal seams have been worked on the slopes. Great Sleddale Beck rises on the northern side and becomes the Swale below its meeting with Birkdale Beck, while the southern slopes drain to the Ure. The fell is the most southerly surviving British site for yellow marsh saxifrage, Saxifraga hirculus.

In clear conditions the view reaches Wensleydale, Ribblesdale and Swaledale, and on into Cumbria and County Durham.

Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Great Shunner 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

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 54.371, -2.235. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Long-distance paths past this hill

2 waymarked long-distance routes run 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 lines © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); distance from the summit computed by OpenFell.

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).

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 Great Shunner Fell group

9 other listed summits sit in the same prominence group, with Great Shunner Fell as the independent hill at its head.

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