Skiddaw

About Skiddaw

Skiddaw rises just north of Keswick and dominates the skyline of the northern Lakes. Its 931-metre summit is traditionally called the fourth-highest in England, though depending on the prominence threshold applied it is also ranked third or sixth.

Of the English mountains at this height it is the most straightforward to walk up, and many guidebooks point occasional walkers towards it. It is also the opening summit of the Bob Graham Round when the circuit is run clockwise.

The name spreads across the surrounding country — Skiddaw Forest, Back o' Skidda, and the isolated Skiddaw House to the east, once a shooting lodge and later a youth hostel. It also names the local rock, Skiddaw slate, which has been made into tuned lithophones such as the Musical Stones of Skiddaw in the Keswick Museum and Art Gallery.

Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Skiddaw (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 54.651, -3.148. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Finding the summit

The recorded summit point is rock 5m S of trig point between trig point and shelter. That distinction matters on broad or flat tops, where the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.

Survey method

obvious summit

Record revised

06-Feb-21

Drop measured from

NY 3713 3065 · 224.7 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.

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 Skiddaw group

9 other listed summits sit in the same prominence group, with Skiddaw 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