England · Lake District National Park

Grey Friar

WainwrightHewittNuttallSimmBirkettSyngeFellranger

4 classifications here — 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.

Grey Friar, 773 m, Westmorland and Furness
Grey Friar, 773 m, Westmorland and Furness. Photo by Mick Knapton at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Height
773 m · 2,536 ft
Grid reference
NY 26010 00361
Coordinates
54.39334, -3.14105
County / area
Westmorland and Furness
OS Landranger
89 90
OS Explorer
OL6N
Summit feature
SE cairn
Key col
NY265006 (695 m)

About Grey Friar

Grey Friar is the north-westerly outpost of the Coniston Fells, roughly 13 km west-south-west of Ambleside, and the least walked of the group — it sits somewhat aside from the usual round.

It is a bulky fell, forming the eastern wall of the Duddon Valley over several kilometres. Every stream off it drains to the Duddon rather than to Coniston Water.

Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Grey Friar (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
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Sunset
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Daylight
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Civil twilight ends
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Computed astronomically for 54.393, -3.141. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Summit weather live

Loading forecast for the summit (773 m)…

Forecast adjusted to summit altitude. Weather data from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0).

Finding the summit

Surveyor's note

cairn 40m NW at NY 25989 00396 is about 50cm lower.

The recorded summit point is SE 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
08-Jun-09
Drop measured from
NY265006 · 695 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 Grey Friar
PlaceTypeRatingDistance
Sun HotelPub/bar/nightclub4 out of 54.8 km · SE
Black Bull HotelPub/bar/nightclub5 out of 55 km · SE
The Green Housekeeper CafeRestaurant/Cafe/Canteen4 out of 55 km · SE

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

Grey Friar is not counted as an independent hill in its own right. In prominence terms it belongs to The Old Man of Coniston (802 m) — the nearest Marilyn you can reach from this summit without first dropping below its key col, 695 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
Great Carrs785 m1.2 km
Swirl How802.4 m1.3 km
Brim Fell795.9 m2.1 km
Black Sails745 m2.3 km
Dow Crag778 m2.6 km
The Old Man of Coniston802.4 m2.8 km