Ward's Stone

About Ward's Stone

Ward's Stone is the highest hill in the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire. Two trig points stand nearly a kilometre apart on its flat top: the western one sits on a group of large rocks, among them the boulder called the Ward's Stone, so large that it attracts boulderers and climbers, while the second looks out across the empty eastern reaches of the Forest of Bowland towards Wolfhole Crag, White Hill and, in the distance, Ingleborough.

The route in from Grit Fell is difficult, threading across Cabin Flat between hidden pools of stagnant water whose presence is given away by patches of red grass; white markers are supposed to show the way but more often lead walkers astray. A second path approaches from Tarnbrook, where limited parking can be found, and on the southern slope are the rocky outcrops of Thorn Crag, Hell Crag and Long Crag, which are popular with climbers.

Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Ward's Stone (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 54.023, -2.624. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Finding the summit

The recorded summit point is small cairn on peat hag. That distinction matters on broad or flat tops, where the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.

Survey method

Leica Runner 20

Record revised

05-Feb-23

Drop measured from

SD 7882 6444 · 161.5 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.

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 Ward's Stone group

One other listed summit sits in the same prominence group, with Ward's Stone 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