Humphrey Head

About Humphrey Head

A whale-backed limestone outcrop pushing into Morecambe Bay south of Allithwaite, Humphrey Head rises only 53 m but looks out over the bay towards Lancaster, Morecambe and Heysham, and across the Leven estuary to Ulverston. An Ordnance Survey trig point stands at the top.

Most of the headland is a nature reserve, owned by the Holker Estate and managed by Cumbria Wildlife Trust since 1992, with a wood on the eastern flank crossed by permitted paths. Humphrey Head Outdoor Centre has occupied the site since 1906 and is now run by Mere Mountains. Walking the sands to the west out to the point was once possible, but shifting sand has made that awkward without waterproof footwear. Marsh belonging to Kents Bank lies to the east.

Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Humphrey Head (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 54.158, -2.934. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Finding the summit

The recorded summit point is rock 150m N of trig point. 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

11-Oct-16

Drop measured from

SD387753 · 7 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.

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

Which hill this one belongs to

Humphrey Head is not counted as an independent hill in its own right. In prominence terms it belongs to Gummer's How (321 m) — the nearest Marilyn you can reach from this summit without first dropping below its key col, 7 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