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What is a fell, and what are all these lists? A plain guide to the Lakeland fell rounds — the most hazardous summits, and every fell covered on this site.

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The fells

What is a fell?

A plain guide to the Lakeland fell rounds — what the word means, the most hazardous summits flagged from Mountain Rescue reports, and how the different fell lists differ. Every fell covered on this site is here.

A fell is high, open upland

A fell is an area of high, open, uncultivated upland — a mountain, hill or stretch of rough high moorland. The word comes from the Old Norse fjall / fell, meaning mountain: a legacy of the Norse settlers who farmed these valleys over a thousand years ago.

In the Lake District and the north of England, “the fells” are the mountains, and to “go on the fells” is to head up into the high country. There is no fixed height that makes a fell — what matters is the open, rugged, upland character of the ground.

And the other name people ask about is a person, not a trade. A wainwright built wagons, just as a wheelwright made wheels and a cartwright made carts — but these fells carry the name because of Alfred Wainwright, who wrote the seven Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells between 1955 and 1966. So a fell is the ground itself, and a “Wainwright” is one of the 214 fells he chose to put in those books: one man’s judgement rather than a rule. That is what separates it from a Munro, which is any Scottish mountain over 3,000 feet — a measurement anyone can check, where Wainwright’s list is an opinion the rest of us inherited.

Jump to a list
WainwrightsOutlying FellsBirkettsFellrangersSyngesNuttallsMarilynsHuMPs

Most hazardous fells

These are the fells our Mountain Rescue hazard pages flag as most serious — read the linked page before you go. Ranked from the most serious; low-risk and not-yet-assessed fells are not shown. Whichever you choose, make sure your navigation is up to it: many of these tops are broad and featureless in cloud, where solid map-and-compass skills are what get you down safely — see our guide to Lake District navigation.

Risk level
  1. Scafell PikeExtreme
    Piers Gill — a deep hidden ravine beside the path that has killed walkers who stray off-line in mist.
  2. ScafellExtreme
    Broad Stand — a short rock step that lures Scafell Pike walkers into a lethal down-climb.
  3. HelvellynHigh
    Striding Edge & Swirral Edge — exposed knife-edge arêtes with a long fatal-fall history, lethal in wind or ice.
  4. BlencathraHigh
    Sharp Edge — a slabby, polished arête that is one of the most accident-prone spots in the Lakes when wet or iced.
  5. Pavey ArkHigh
    Jack's Rake — a committing, polished scramble up the crag face with repeated fatal falls.
  6. PillarHigh
    Pillar Rock and the exposed High Level Route, in remote country far from help.
  7. Great GableHigh
    A boulder-strewn summit that's a navigation trap in cloud, ringed by the steep Napes crags.
  8. BowfellHigh
    A confusing boulder summit and crag edges (the Great Slab) where nav errors lead onto steep ground.
  9. Dow CragHigh
    A major climbing cliff above Goat's Water — serious falls, rockfall and a cliff-edge summit.
  10. LingmellHigh
    Piers Gill (accident blackspot)
  11. Catstye CamModerate
    Usually climbed via Swirral Edge, whose rocky arête and steep flanks above Red Tarn cause falls.
  12. Crinkle CragsModerate
    The Bad Step — an awkward rock pitch on the main ridge amid complex, easily-lost terrain.
  13. Dollywaggon PikeModerate
    The steep stone-pitched zig-zags above Grisedale Tarn ice up dangerously in winter.
  14. Esk PikeModerate
    Remote rocky ground around Esk Hause where nav errors send walkers into wild upper Eskdale.
  15. FairfieldModerate
    A broad, featureless plateau — a classic compass-navigation trap, ringed by steep northern crags.
  16. GlaramaraModerate
    Loose rock and rockfall on the flanks, with a knobbly ridge that's easy to lose in mist.
  17. Great EndModerate
    North-face gullies that are a serious winter venue (avalanche/ice); easy to stray near the edge in cloud.
  18. Harrison StickleModerate
    Steep, rough, craggy descents to Langdale where walkers slip or get cliffed out.
  19. HaystacksModerate
    A maze of tops, tarns and crags that is genuinely confusing in mist, with steep drops.
  20. High StreetModerate
    A vast featureless plateau — the classic navigation trap — with crags above Blea Water.
  21. Kirk FellModerate
    The steep direct ascent through Kirkfell Crags where walkers become cragfast on 2,000 ft of unrelenting ground.
  22. Red Pike (Wasdale)Moderate
    A summit perched on the edge of crags above Mosedale, with confusing nav on a remote ridge.
  23. Red ScreesModerate
    Steep loose scree and crag edges above Kirkstone, plus the awkward Kilnshaw Chimney.
  24. St Sunday CragModerate
    Pinnacle Ridge, a grade-3 scramble, and steep crags dropping to Grisedale.
  25. SteepleModerate
    A narrow, exposed arête to a tiny summit in very remote country; a fatal fall has occurred here.
  26. The Old Man of ConistonModerate
    Honeycombed with deep disused quarries and mine shafts close to the paths.
  27. WetherlamModerate
    Riddled with open mine shafts and unstable spoil, plus a sprawling, easily-misread summit.
  28. YewbarrowModerate
    The Stirrup Crag scramble where walkers get cragfast, and the eroded Dore Head screes.
  29. CatbellsModerate
    Hugely popular but with polished rock steps and steep drops that catch out the unwary and children.
  30. Allen CragsModerate
    Esk Hause junction (navigation trap)
  31. Arnison CragModerate
    Steep climb & greasy rock
  32. Arthur's PikeModerate
    The craggy north-west face above Ullswater
  33. Bannerdale CragsModerate
    The crag edge above Bannerdale
  34. BarfModerate
    The direct ascent past the Bishop (steep loose scree)
  35. Base BrownModerate
    The steep, loose nose ascent
  36. BirksModerate
    Steep flanks — stay on the ridge
  37. Blea RiggModerate
    Confusing rocky ridge & navigation
  38. Bleaberry FellModerate
    Boggy, indistinct ground & navigation
  39. Bowscale FellModerate
    Steep, loose path by Bowscale Tarn & eastern crags
  40. BrandrethModerate
    Gillercomb crags to the east
  41. Brim FellModerate
    The eastern crags above Levers Water (Raven Tor)
  42. Calf CragModerate
    Boggy, knolly ridge & navigation
  43. Carrock FellModerate
    Crags, loose rock & the hidden Rake Trod
  44. Causey PikeModerate
    Steep north flank — no path (mapping-app trap)
  45. Caw FellModerate
    Remoteness and the long walk-out
  46. Clough HeadModerate
    The crag-guarded western face
  47. Crag Hill (Eel Crag)Moderate
    Eel Crag (north face above Coledale)
  48. Dale HeadModerate
    The northern edge / Dalehead Crags (by the summit)
  49. Eagle CragModerate
    The crag route & scrambling
  50. Fleetwith PikeModerate
    Fleetwith Edge (the nose)

Each rating is our own summary of published Mountain Rescue incident reports — open any fell's hazard page to see the sources behind it.

The fell lists, and how they differ

Over the years walkers and surveyors have drawn up different lists of fells, and they fall into two broad families.

Guidebook rounds are one person's chosen selection of fells worth climbing — subjective, opinionated and almost always confined to the Lake District. They include the Wainwrights (the classic 214), the Outlying Fells, the Birketts (the most complete Lakeland round), the Fellrangers and the Synges. Two walkers' lists can disagree about what counts as a separate fell.

Prominence lists are objective and rule-based, defined by measurement rather than opinion, and usually cover the whole country. A summit qualifies by its height and/or its prominence — how far you must descend before you can climb anything higher. They include the Nuttalls (2,000 ft with 15 m of drop), the Marilyns (150 m of drop, any height) and the HuMPs (100 m of drop). The same fell often appears on several lists at once — Scafell Pike, for instance, is a Wainwright, a Birkett, a Synge, a Nuttall and a Marilyn.

Browse all 214 Wainwrights

Every fell from Alfred Wainwright’s seven Pictorial Guides, sorted by how many bonus Birketts lie within 3 km — so the best-value tops for combined bagging rise to the top. Tick one off here and it shows as bagged on its own page too.

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Loading all 214 Wainwrights…

Bonus Birketts are the extra tops within 3 km you can bag on the same walk. The full, crawlable list of all 214 lives on the Wainwrights page; bagging the lot? Start from the Wainwrights map and tick them off as you go.