Whin Rigg (Wasdale)

About Whin Rigg (Wasdale)

Whin Rigg is modest in height, at 537 metres, but its northern side forms part of one of the Lake District's more dramatic landscapes: the Wastwater Screes drop over 450 metres from the summit to Wast Water below.

The name comes from Old Norse, hvin for gorse and hryggr for ridge, giving roughly 'gorse-covered ridge'. The fell lies in the western part of the national park, some 22 km south-east of Whitehaven.

Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Whin Rigg (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 54.420, -3.310. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Finding the summit

The recorded summit point is Wainwright/Birkett cairn. 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

23-Oct-23

Drop measured from

NY157040 · 478 m

Classification history: The 535m spot height at NY152034 on current maps is a lower point on the south top.

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

Whin Rigg (Wasdale) is not counted as an independent hill in its own right. In prominence terms it belongs to Illgill Head (609 m) — the nearest Marilyn you can reach from this summit without first dropping below its key col, 478 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