Great Mell Fell at 537m (1,760ft) is an isolated, conical summit above the Vale of Matterdale, its distinctive shape standing out from the surrounding farmland.
Summit conditions on Great Mell Fell
On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 12° to 6°C, gusts to 41 mph, 14.3 mm of rain forecast over the whole day, midnight to midnight.
Against our lines, Tuesday 27 October: wind, cold and cloud from the Met Office UKV 2 km model (daylight hours, as in the verdict above); rain from the summit line’s forecast (the whole day). A tile is large when this top is past its line.
Wind on the top
Past the line
43mph, our estimate for the open top in the worst daylight hour
The Met Office 2 km model’s gust of 40 mph times our exposure factor of 1.09. The summit line above gives Open-Meteo’s highest gust for the whole day, 41 mph, before any exposure factor.
under 25
25–35
35–45
45–55
55+
The line Our line: 25 mph, where our wind Scale begins its 25–35 band: “balance affected; buffeting on exposed ground”. MWIS (opens in new tab) describes what wind does to a walker across a range rather than at a line: from about 20–25 mph it starts to affect your balance.
Estimated: it is not calibrated against summit readings, and the two forecasts can disagree by more than a band.
Rain, and the becks
Past the line
14.3mm of rain over the whole day, midnight to midnight
The same figure as the summit line above and the 7-day forecast.
The line Our line: 6 mm in the day, where our scorer counts a day as soaking. We read rainfall, never river levels: becks in spate.
Open-Meteo’s forecast. It says nothing about rain already in the ground.
Also checkedcold: feels like 3 °C, no ice or snow forecast; cloud: a clear-top reading of 46 out of 100, over our in-cloud line of 20. Under a line is not the same as fine: it means only that these figures are under the lines we use.
Not in these tiles Lightning, river levels, snow or ice already lying, and the ground under your feet. A tile cannot see them, so an empty space here never means they are absent.
Snow figures with a second opinion: Powered by Met Office data
Wainwrights are scored for walking conditions each morning from the Met Office’s UK forecast model, read for each summit through Open-Meteo; the forecast figures are Open-Meteo’s, worked out for the summit’s height. How we check →
Choose the way up before the car park: these two routes start from two places, and the last two rows give the parking and bus at each route’s own start. Full maps further down.
509, 1.8 km walk from Matterdale End, outside Brook House Farm. The UB1 and UB2 run until 1 November 2026, the last day of their season.
UB1, 1.0 km walk from Horrockwood, opposite The Quiet Site. The UB2 runs until 1 November 2026, the last day of its season.
Times run from fast to steady pace (Naismith’s rule). Scrambling quotes each route’s own notes; “not mentioned” means they do not say, not that the ground has none. Each route’s page has its map, stages and GPX.
Distance, climb and the steepest stretch are measured from each route’s GPX track; the other grades are set on the ground, judged from the map or estimated from OpenStreetMap, and each route page says which. How we check →
How hard is Great Mell Fell?
The shortest way up we hold is Great Mell Fell — 3.47 km, 274 m of ascent, ~1–1¾ h. On our scale its hardest axis is steepness — Moderate.
These are the route page’s grades, set by the rules on how we grade: length and steepness measured from its GPX track, the others set on the ground, judged from the map or estimated from OpenStreetMap. The route page says which. How we check →
Conditions and 7-day summit forecast
Modelled for the 537 m summit (Open-Meteo). Check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
Vehicles are left at their owner’s risk: we list places people park and cannot vouch for any of them. Take valuables with you and leave nothing on show.
Buses
The UB1 and UB2 stop at Horrockwood, opposite The Quiet Site, a 1.0 km walk and 106 m of ascent from the start of The Mell Fells & Gowbarrow Fell — a route we rate Hard overall (hardest: distance and steepness). The UB2 runs until 1 November 2026, the last day of its season. We haven’t published last buses, Sunday or winter service yet, so check the timetable before you rely on getting back.
Ullswater Hopper UB1
Troutbeck (Basecamp North Lakes) – Aira Force – Watermillock – Pooley Bridge – Howtown pier – The Hause (Martindale)
Catch it from: Pooley Bridge · Penrith (change to the 508 or 509)
The community hopper run for SITU by Stagecoach, a seasonal service: weekends and bank holidays from 28 March to 1 November 2026, and weekdays too from 26 to 29 May and from 29 June to 25 September (Stagecoach's 2026 timetable, read 9 October 2026). Calls at the steamer piers, the campsites and the hotels around the northern half of the lake, and the driver will stop anywhere safe on request. £3 single, dogs welcome, no bike trailer in 2026. With the 508 it gives Gowbarrow, Little Mell Fell and the Pooley Bridge end of the High Street ridge a second option.
We have not written a hazard card for this fell yet, and that is not a sign that it is low-hazard. Read the warnings on the route pages that climb it, check the forecast, carry a map and compass, and turn back in cloud if the ground is not what you expected. The National Park Authority’s What to pack page, AdventureSmart’s hill walking kit list and Mountain Rescue England and Wales’s safety page are linked from our what to carry guide.
Navigating in cloud
Fewer traps in cloud
Of the three things our terrain model measures, the highest reading here is the amount of near-level ground around the summit. This top is in the lowest of the index’s four bands, and a low band never means “safe”: carry map and compass and know how to use them.
In winter — snow, whiteout, cornices, buried features — every top demands full winter navigation skills whatever its band, and a broad, gentle summit can be the worst place of all. See walking in bad weather and the navigation guide.
How Great Mell Fell compares with all 214: the Clag Index (experimental).
If you need Mountain Rescue
Dial 999 or 112 and ask for the Police, then Mountain Rescue.
Before you call, have ready: where you are (a grid reference if you can – the OS Locate app shows yours on your phone), what has happened, how many of you there are, and your mobile number.
Then stay where you are until the rescue team contacts you.
If you cannot make a voice call because of a hearing or speech impairment, emergency SMS works only if you have registered first: text “register” to 999.
Wainwright described it as a pleasant, easy climb with surprisingly wide views — west-north-west to Blencathra and Skiddaw, and east across the Eden Valley to the Pennines. The ascent from Brownrigg Farm is short and straightforward through bracken and heather. Often combined with Little Mell Fell as a gentle half-day outing from Penrith or Ullswater. A good introduction to Lakeland fell walking for beginners.
This is the summit’s grid reference. If you call from anywhere else, give your own position, not this one.
The summit is also a Birkett.
Lists, height and summit position from the Database of British and Irish Hills; the feet are converted from its metres and the grid reference from that position. How we check →
The view from Great Mell Fell
The 360° skyline from Great Mell Fell
A computed 360° skyline — every visible named top labelled by distance and bearing, from the terrain model in perfect clarity, not photographed. Drag to pan; reveal the far four-nations horizon.
drag to pan · arrow keys
The skyline as a list, by direction
South-east: Red Crag (12 km), High Raise (13 km), Low Raise (13 km)
South: Birkhouse Moor (10 km), Gavel Pike (12 km), St Sunday Crag (12 km), Dollywaggon Pike (13 km), Rampsgill Head (13 km), Kidsty Pike (14 km), Fairfield (14 km), High Street (15 km), Dove Crag (15 km), Caudale Moor (15 km), Stony Cove Pike (16 km), Thornthwaite Crag (16 km), Red Screes (17 km)
South-west: Hart Side (7 km), Clough Head (7 km), Great Dodd (7 km), Green Side (8 km), Stybarrow Dodd (8 km), Raise (10 km), Catstye Cam (11 km), Helvellyn Lower Man (12 km), Helvellyn (12 km), Nethermost Pike (12 km), High Crag (13 km), Pillar (26 km)
West: Blencathra (8 km), Atkinson Pike (8 km), Knowe Crags (9 km), Grisedale Pike (20 km), Sail (20 km), Hobcarton Crag (21 km), Crag Hill (21 km), Eel Crag (21 km), Sand Hill (21 km), Hopegill Head (21 km), Wandope (22 km), Grasmoor (23 km)
On the clearest days the far horizon adds: Broad Law (101 km, Scotland), The Cheviot (108 km, England), Tinto (118 km, Scotland), Green Lowther (100 km, Scotland), White Coomb (93 km, Scotland), Queensberry (85 km, Scotland), Ettrick Pen (85 km, Scotland), Wisp Hill (74 km, Scotland).
Great Mell Fell sits close to the flat-horizon case. Even on its longest wait of the modelled year (on 1 September) first light is only 3 minutes after almanac sunrise, so the published sunrise time is a fair guide here.
Midsummer. The filled shape is the skyline as seen from the summit; the line is the sun’s path. Where they meet is first light — everything left of that point is the wait.
Times for 2026, in Lakeland clock time (GMT in winter, BST in summer) — and model outputs rather than observations.
First light
Almanac sunrise
Difference
Midsummer
04:34 BST ±5.0 min
04:35
-1 min
Equinox
06:15 GMT ±5.0 min
06:15
—
Midwinter
08:33 GMT ±5.0 min
08:33
—
A low, open northern horizon — the ground falls away northwards (mean -0.16°).
Last light — when the sun leaves Great Mell Fell
Great Mell Fell loses the sun early. Its earliest evening of the modelled year falls on 1 December, when last light is 23 minutes before almanac sunset — 15:28 against 15:51. The sun goes down to the south-west from here (226.8°), and the skyline on that bearing stands at 2.23°.
The evening of the same three days. A negative difference means a ridge takes the sun before the valley loses it.
Last light
Almanac sunset
Difference
Midsummer
21:45 BST ±5.0 min
21:53
-8 min
Equinox
18:27 GMT ±5.0 min
18:26
+1 min
Midwinter
15:30 GMT ±5.0 min
15:48
-18 min
These are daylight figures, not a descent plan: the light goes on fading for a good while after the sun leaves, and going down in it is a decision about your own ground and party, not about this table.
What you can see from Great Mell Fell
On a clear day — computed sightlines, curvature- and refraction-corrected.
How the view from Great Mell Fell compares with all 214 — the View Report: every Wainwright ranked by what you can see from the top.
How the skyline, light and sightlines are computed
Computed, not photographed. First light is the first minute the sun’s upper limb clears this summit’s own skyline and last light the last minute it is still clear of it, both solved against the 360° horizon profile behind The View from Great Mell Fell. Almanac sunrise and sunset are the flat-horizon convention. Every time carries a ± band from the 30 m elevation model — it smooths arêtes and cornices, so nothing here claims better than five minutes.
Sightlines from the Copernicus GLO-30 elevation model, which is a surface model: each 30 m cell holds the top of whatever stands there, trees and buildings included, rather than bare ground. Corrected for the Earth’s curvature and average atmospheric refraction. “Distant” sightlines and any over 100 km depend on exceptionally clear air. Modelled from Copernicus GLO-30 open elevation data — a guide to the view, not a guarantee of any single one.
We have not stayed at any of them. We take no bookings or affiliate fees. Distances are straight lines from each route start, never walking times. Properties found via OpenStreetMap (opens in new tab).
Frequently asked questions about Great Mell Fell
How do you climb Great Mell Fell?
From the lay-by on the lane along its south-eastern foot, near Brownrigg Farm: a clear path circles into the National Trust woodland, then climbs steadily to the open 537 m (1,760 ft) dome. Our walked loop is about 3.5 km — roughly 1–1¾ hours up and down — with the famous wind-bent pines near the top marking the way.
Its shape: a perfectly rounded, isolated cone standing apart from every other fell, so the summit feels like a viewing platform for the whole north-eastern district — Blencathra one way, the Dodds and Ullswater the other. The wind-sculpted trees on its flanks are a favourite of photographers, and the fell is National Trust land.
Is Great Mell Fell dog friendly?
Mostly — OpenStreetMap maps a gate and a stile on our route, so a dog may need one lift. It's grazed, so leads on; the woodland fringe has roe deer too.
