Kirk Fell
6 classifications here — Marilyn, HuMP, 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.
- Height
- 802 m · 2,631 ft
- Prominence
- 183 m
- Grid reference
- NY 19495 10486
- Coordinates
- 54.48332, -3.24412
- County / area
- Cumberland
- Region
- Lake District C&W
- OS Landranger
- 89 90
- OS Explorer
- OL4S OL6N
- Summit feature
- large windshelter
- Key col
- NY 2052 1065 (619.5 m)
About Kirk Fell
Kirk Fell sits between Great Gable and Pillar on the long ring of fells encircling Ennerdale, and also overlooks Wasdale to the south. Low passes at Black Sail and Beck Head cut it off from those two higher neighbours, which gives it a substantial relative height and Marilyn status — the thirteenth highest in the Lake District.
The direct south-western slope up from Wasdale Head is exceptionally steep, and Wainwright made a comic drawing of it. Ascents more often use one of the two passes, or take the fell in as part of the Mosedale Horseshoe, the round of fells above Mosedale, a side valley of Wasdale.
Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Kirk 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
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
- —
- Sunset
- —
- Daylight
- —
- Civil twilight ends
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Computed astronomically for 54.483, -3.244. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.
Summit weather live
Loading forecast for the summit (802 m)…
Forecast adjusted to summit altitude. Weather data from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0).
Finding the summit
The recorded summit point is large windshelter. On broad or flat summits the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.
- Survey method
- obvious summit
- Record revised
- 03-Jun-24
- Drop measured from
- NY 2052 1065 · 619.5 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.
The Kirk Fell group
One other listed summit sits in the same prominence group, with Kirk Fell as the independent hill at its head.
| Summit | Height | Drop |
|---|---|---|
| Kirk Fell East Top | 787 m | 36 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
| Peak | Height | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Kirk Fell East Top | 787 m | 0.5 km |
| Great Gable | 898.8 m | 1.6 km |
| Looking Stead (Pillar) | 627.7 m | 1.6 km |
| Green Gable | 799.9 m | 2 km |
| Yewbarrow North Top | 616.6 m | 2.3 km |
| Brandreth | 715 m | 2.4 km |