England · Yorkshire Dales National Park

High Seat

2 classifications here — HuMP and Simm — belong to lists OpenFell holds only part of, so they have no list page. See how far the coverage goes.

High Seat, 709 m, North Yorkshire/Westmorland and Furness
High Seat, 709 m, North Yorkshire/Westmorland and Furness. Photo by John Illingworth, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Height
709 m · 2,326 ft
Grid reference
NY 80207 01244
Coordinates
54.40628, -2.30644
County / area
North Yorkshire/Westmorland and Furness
OS Landranger
91 92
OS Explorer
OL19S
Summit feature
no feature: ground 20m N of cairn
Key col
SD818980 (595 m)

About High Seat

High Seat overlooks the deep trench of Mallerstang from its eastern side, and is usually climbed from there. At 709 m it is the fourth highest fell in the Yorkshire Dales after Whernside, Ingleborough and Great Shunner Fell, though with only 112 m of relative height it is not a Marilyn and can be read as a subsidiary top of Great Shunner Fell to the east.

Hugh Seat lies to the south-east; across Mallerstang to the west is the more striking Wild Boar Fell, a metre lower. Curiously, High Seat is the highest point on the main east-to-west watershed of England within the Dales, the three higher fells all sitting some way off it. The Eden, the Swale and the Ure all rise in the peat bogs here.

Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on High Seat (Yorkshire Dales) (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 54.406, -2.306. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Summit weather live

Loading forecast for the summit (709 m)…

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

Finding the summit

Surveyor's note

cairn is at NY 80207 01261; there are two other cairns in the summit area at NY 80264 01331 and SW NY 80161 01177.

The recorded summit point is no feature: ground 20m 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
23-Oct-23
Drop measured from
SD818980 · 595 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.

RouteTotal lengthFrom summit
Lady Anne's Way155 km2 km

Route lines © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); distance from the summit computed by OpenFell.

Reaching High Seat by train

One National Rail station sits within 8 km of the summit — close enough to make a car-free day of it. Distances are straight lines, not walking routes.

StationFrom summitSummit lies
Kirkby Stephen6.7 kmSE of the station

Each station page lists every hill in its reach, long-distance paths from the door and a live-times link — see all stations with hills in reach. Station positions from NaPTAN (OGL v3.0).

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 High Seat
PlaceTypeRatingDistance
The Fat LambPub/bar/nightclub4 out of 55.9 km · W
Black Bull Nateby InnPub/bar/nightclub5 out of 56.1 km · NW
The Engine ShedPub/bar/nightclub5 out of 57 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

High Seat is not counted as an independent hill in its own right. In prominence terms it belongs to Great Shunner Fell (716 m) — the nearest Marilyn you can reach from this summit without first dropping below its key col, 595 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
Archy Styrigg695 m0.9 km
Hugh Seat688.1 m2.3 km
Nateby Common547 m4.1 km
Sails666.6 m4.7 km
Wild Boar Fell708.4 m5 km
Nine Standards Rigg661.9 m5.4 km