Watch Hill

About Watch Hill

This 235.7-metre top is one of the tops on the Watch Hill ground at the north-western edge of the Lake District, near Cockermouth, and is listed among Wainwright's Outlying Fells. The higher point of the same upland, about 254 metres, carries Marilyn status thanks to its wide separation from neighbouring fells.

Naming across the area is inconsistent: Setmurthy Common covers the ground including the high point, while Watch Hill, and sometimes The Hay, are applied to the western part. A separate Watch Hill of 172 metres stands some 19 km south-west near Whitehaven. The detached position of this upland opens views to Skiddaw, Blencathra, Grisedale Pike and the Lord's Seat group, as well as over Cockermouth and the Solway Coast AONB.

Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Watch Hill (Cockermouth) (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 54.675, -3.319. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Finding the summit

The recorded summit point is no feature. On broad or flat summits the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.

Survey method

Abney level

Record revised

23-Feb-25

Drop measured from

NY 1509 3187 · 232.4 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.

Which hill this one belongs to

Watch Hill is not counted as an independent hill in its own right. In prominence terms it belongs to Watch Hill (255 m) — the nearest Marilyn you can reach from this summit without first dropping below its key col, 232 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