Pavey Ark

Written and walked by Lee McCoy · Summited June 2024

Home › Fells › Pavey Ark

702 mWainwright — Central Fells+6 bonus Birketts within 3 km Severe in cloud

Pavey Ark at 702m (2,302ft) is the great crag above Stickle Tarn in Great Langdale — its massive cliff face dropping nearly 100m from rim to tarn and offering some of the finest rock climbing in the Lake District.

Summit conditions on Pavey Ark

On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 11° to 4°C, gusts to 62 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

62 mph, our estimate for the open top in the worst daylight hour

The Met Office 2 km model’s gust of 52 mph times our exposure factor of 1.2. The summit line above gives Open-Meteo’s highest gust for the whole day, 62 mph, before any exposure factor.

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

14.3 mm 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 checked cold: feels like 0 °C, no ice or snow forecast; cloud: a clear-top reading of 20 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

Full 7-day summit forecast ↓

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 →

Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (opens in new tab)

Routes up Pavey Ark

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.

Compared	Langdale Pikes Round	Langdale Horseshoe
Starts from	Great Langdale (New Dungeon Ghyll)	Great Langdale (New/Old Dungeon Ghyll)
Distance and climb	12.12 km, 884 m of climb	20.9 km, 1,770 m of climb
Time, fast to steady	~3¾–5¼ h	~7–9½ h
Scrambling	Easy scramble: Pike of Stickle's summit rocks, up and back (km 9.1–9.3). Avoid Jack's Rake on Pavey Ark unless you're a confident scrambler — the walkers' route reaches the same summit.	Easy scramble: Pike of Stickle's summit rocks (km 5.1–5.2). A short, awkward rock step that turns a walk into a scramble and regularly stops people dead.
Exposure	Moderate	Hard
Navigation	Hard	Hard
Steepest stretch	Climb of about 39% at 1.0 km (Severe)	Descent of about 40% at 17.9 km (Severe)
After the summit	Over Harrison Stickle, Pike of Stickle, Loft Crag and Thorn Crag	Over Harrison Stickle, Thorn Crag, Loft Crag, Pike of Stickle, Black Crags (Mickleden), Rossett Pike, Bowfell, Shelter Crags, Crinkle Crags - Gunson Knott (Fifth Crinkle), Crinkle Crags - Fourth Crinkle, Crinkle Crags - Long Top (Second Crinkle), Crinkle Crags South Top (First Crinkle), Cold Pike and Pike of Blisco
Walked or planned	Walked by Lee, June 2024	Planned: drawn, not yet walked
Car park at the start	New Dungeon Ghyll (LDNPA, paid)	Stickle Ghyll (NT, paid)
Bus to the start	516 at the start	516 at the start

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 Pavey Ark, really?

Short version: Pavey Ark is a straightforward fell walk that happens to have one of Lakeland’s most serious scrambles on its face — and you never have to touch it. The walkers’ path avoids the crag entirely and reaches the same summit; on our own grading the Langdale Pikes round that takes it rates exposure only Moderate. Steep, rocky and a proper hill day, but no scrambling required.

How to avoid Jack’s Rake: simply don’t start up the crag. The Rake is the obvious diagonal line slanting up the cliff above Stickle Tarn. The walkers’ path keeps right around the crag and comes at the summit from behind. There is no shame in the walk-round: it is the normal way up this fell.

Is Jack’s Rake harder than Striding Edge? They are different kinds of hard, and on our own ratings the Rake is the more serious of the two. We grade Striding Edge ourselves because our Helvellyn route goes over it — exposure Severe, a Grade 1 arête where the drops on both sides are the whole character of the thing, but where you can usually see your line and back off it. We deliberately don’t route up Jack’s Rake: our hazard rating for it is extreme — the only such rating on this fell — because it is a committing line up a crag face, polished by boots, lethal when wet, and hard to retreat from once you are in it. Its characteristic emergency isn’t a slip on an open ridge; it is being stuck partway up, unable to go on or back. If you are weighing the two, that difference — retreat versus commitment — matters more than any grade.

How we check →

Conditions and 7-day summit forecast

Modelled for the 702 m summit (Open-Meteo). Check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

Full 7-day forecast

Tue 27 Oct

11° / 4°

62 mph

14.3 mm (100%)

Wed 28 Oct

8° / 5°

43 mph

18.9 mm (100%)

Thu 29 Oct

8° / 6°

28 mph

0.1 mm (33%)

Fri 30 Oct

8° / 5°

29 mph

0.0 mm (23%)

Sat 31 Oct

9° / 0°

13 mph

0.0 mm (18%)

Sun 1 Nov

8° / 0°

9 mph

0.0 mm (10%)

Mon 2 Nov

6° / 1°

19 mph

0.0 mm (0%)

Taken 27 October 2026, 08:13 UTC; the live forecast replaces it when it loads. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (opens in new tab)

Pro mountain forecasts: MWIS · Met Office mountain forecast

Parking & buses for Pavey Ark

Parking

Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.

New Dungeon Ghyll (LDNPA, paid) — 0.1 km from the start of Langdale Pikes Round (straight line)

Walking base for Sergeant Man, High Raise (High White Stones), Thunacar Knott and Pavey Ark — the 'Langdale Pikes Round' route starts 127 m away. Also serves 'Langdale Horseshoe'. Fees: pay and display at the machine; whether it takes cards is not published (the Authority's machine records, FOI/2026.500).

Directions When people arrive, and what it costs →Something changed here?

Public toilets (~133 m straight line) — Free

Stickle Ghyll (NT, paid) — 0.1 km from the start of Langdale Horseshoe (straight line)

Walking base for Pavey Ark, Harrison Stickle, Thorn Crag and Loft Crag — the 'Langdale Horseshoe' route starts 67 m away. Also serves 'Langdale Pikes Round'. Paid National Trust car park - the prices we used to show here came from an aggregator rather than the Trust, so we no longer publish a figure; check the machine on arrival, and members should bring their card (National Trust car-park list, checked August 2026). Unpaved surface (OSM-tagged). Height barrier (community-reported). Direct start up Stickle Ghyll for the Langdale Pikes.

Typically full before 10:00 on fine weekends, Apr-Oct — Lee McCoy, local observation, 9 August 2026.

Directions Something changed here?

If it is full: Old Dungeon Ghyll (NT, paid) (1.0 km); Blea Tarn (NT, paid) (3.2 km, 93 m up)

Public toilets (~147 m straight line) — Free

Old Dungeon Ghyll (NT, paid) — 1.8 km from summit (straight line)

Head of Great Langdale — Bowfell, Crinkle Crags, Pike o' Blisco, the Langdale Pikes. Free for NT members (checked August 2026).

Typically full before 10:00 on fine weekends, Apr-Oct — Lee McCoy, local observation, 9 August 2026.

Directions Something changed here?

If it is full: Stickle Ghyll (NT, paid) (1.0 km, 24 m up); Great Langdale, valley road verge (free) (0.8 km) a few spaces only; Side Pike (verge) (0.8 km) a few spaces only

Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel Sticklebarn

2 more places to park near Pavey Ark

Great Langdale, valley road verge (free) — 1.9 km from summit (straight line)

On the valley road, between the Stickle Ghyll and Old Dungeon Ghyll car parks. The 'Langdale Horseshoe' route starts 370 m away.

Directions Something changed here?

Side Pike (verge) — 2.5 km from summit (straight line)

0.9 km from Side Pike.

Directions Something changed here?

Positions are approximate.

Of the pay-and-display machine tickets sold at New Dungeon Ghyll from 17 August 2024 to 31 March 2026, 33% were bought before 10am (our count of FOI/2026.500 ticket data). Contains public sector information provided by the Lake District National Park Authority and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

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 516 stops at New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel, a 140 m walk from the start of Langdale Pikes Round — a route we rate Severe overall (hardest: steepness). As timetabled from 27 October to 1 November. Towards Kendal (516): Tuesday to Thursday, Sunday 20:13; Friday and Saturday 22:33. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 23 September 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.

Stagecoach 516 “Langdale Rambler”

Ambleside – Skelwith Bridge – Elterwater – New Dungeon Ghyll – Old Dungeon Ghyll

Catch it from: Ambleside · Windermere (change at Ambleside)

The Langdale bus — Pikes, Bowfell, Crinkle Crags, Pike o' Blisco all walkable from the Dungeon Ghyll stops. Seasonal frequency varies; check before relying on the last bus back.

Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.

Getting there across the Lake District: Buses · Parking map · By train · By boat

Hazards on Pavey Ark

Hazard & Incident Information for Pavey Ark

Checked by Lee McCoy, 13 June 2026. Draws on published material from Langdale Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team. Editorial background, not a live callout feed.

Hazard: High

The largest crag in the Central Fells, and the setting for Jack's Rake, a serious scramble where a fall can be fatal and where walkers get cragfast partway up, unable to go on or back. There is, however, a straightforward walkers' path that avoids the crag entirely.

Jack's Rake: A committing grade 1 scramble up the crag face that has caused several deaths and many serious falls and cragfast rescues. Exposed, polished and lethal when wet. Only for confident scramblers in dry conditions — and once committed it is hard to retreat. If in any doubt, don't.
Crag edge above Stickle Tarn: Steep cliffs drop from near the summit. Keep back from the edge, especially in wind or cloud.

Who should attempt this fell: You do not have to scramble to reach the summit — the path around to the north is a walk. Jack's Rake is a serious undertaking with a grim accident record; attempt it only if you are an experienced, confident scrambler and the rock is dry, and never as a way down.

What to watch for: Fatal and serious falls on Jack's Rake · Scramblers becoming cragfast on the Rake · Slips on wet, polished rock

Local Mountain Rescue: Langdale Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team (opens in new tab)

Safety: Always check current conditions, carry proper navigation equipment, and seek qualified instruction before heading onto the fells. In an emergency, call 999, ask for Police, then Mountain Rescue.

Report incorrect information (opens in new tab)

Navigating in cloud

Severe

Of the three things our terrain model measures, the highest reading here is the amount of near-level ground around the summit. A serious place to be caught in cloud: carry map and compass (or GPS) and know how to use them, or save it for a clear day.

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 Pavey Ark 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.

From Mountain Rescue England and Wales’s guidance on calling them out (opens in new tab) (read 26 October 2026).

Map, GPX and nearby Birketts

Free mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap, with SRTM elevation data (switch layers top-right).

Parking, toilets and buses: Parking & buses ↑.

Birketts within 3 km of Pavey Ark

These Birkett tops are not Wainwright summits. Distances are straight lines: check the ground and access on a map before adding one.

0.9 km SSWThorn Crag644 m · Central

1.2 km NNECodale Head732 m · Central

2.1 km NLow White Stones731 m · Central

2.3 km ECastle How (Raw Pike)498 m · Central

2.7 km SSESide Pike362 m · Southern

2.9 km WBlack Crags (Mickleden)588 m · Southern

Routes over Pavey Ark

Langdale Horseshoe

Summits: Pavey ArkHarrison Stickle Thorn Crag Loft Crag Pike of Stickle Black Crags (Mickleden)Rossett Pike Bowfell Shelter Crags Crinkle Crags - Gunson Knott (Fifth Crinkle)Crinkle Crags - Fourth Crinkle Crinkle Crags - Long Top (Second Crinkle)Crinkle Crags South Top (First Crinkle)Cold Pike Pike of Blisco

Download GPX Planned route · not yet walked

Picked for its light in: June, August

Warnings: The Bad Step (Crinkle Crags, Long Top). A short, awkward rock step that turns a walk into a scramble and regularly stops people dead. There is a bypass path round its west side, on your right as you come south off Long Top — use it if you are unsure. Do not attempt Jack’s Rake on Pavey Ark unless you know what you are taking on. It is a graded scramble with real exposure, not a path. The walkers’ line goes round. 21 km, 1,660 m and fifteen tops. This is a full, committing day. Start early, and decide your turn-back time before you leave the car. The Crinkles are the classic place to descend the wrong side in cloud. Know which valley you want before you are in it. Bowfell: The rocky top has crags on several sides and the paths are not always obvious in mist; know your bearing for the descent before you set off. Loft Crag: The small abrupt summit stands right above Gimmer Crag, a sheer climbing buttress falling to Langdale. Keep well back from the southern edge near the top, especially in cloud or wind — and if scrambling on the south side, be aware climbers may be on the crag below.

From the hazard notes for Loft Crag · Bowfell, each with its sources.

Route guide: Langdale Horseshoe →

Langdale Pikes Round

Summits: Sergeant Man High Raise (High White Stones)Thunacar KnottPavey ArkHarrison Stickle Pike of Stickle Loft Crag Thorn Crag

Download GPX Walked by Lee, June 2024

Best season: Any season in good conditions; the plateau behind the Pikes is featureless in cloud.

Warnings: Avoid Jack's Rake on Pavey Ark unless you're a confident scrambler — the walkers' route reaches the same summit. Boggy ground and confusing navigation on the High Raise and Sergeant Man plateau in mist. Steep, rocky ground around the Pikes. Loft Crag: The small abrupt summit stands right above Gimmer Crag, a sheer climbing buttress falling to Langdale. Keep well back from the southern edge near the top, especially in cloud or wind — and if scrambling on the south side, be aware climbers may be on the crag below. The boggy plateau has few landmarks, and the sheer drops of Pavey Ark and Harrison Stickle lie close by. In mist a wrong bearing off Thunacar Knott can take you to a cliff edge. Navigate carefully by compass and know where the crag edges are before you move.

From the hazard notes for Loft Crag, each with its sources.

Route guide: Langdale Pikes Round →

Every line here is a guide, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate for yourself and carry a map and compass. How to use this guide.

On the hill: terrain and water on Pavey Ark

Water & shelter on the way up

On the Langdale Horseshoe route:

possible water source (5 m off the line) possible water source (6 m off the line) possible water source (81 m off the line) toilets (10 m off the line) toilets (11 m off the line) New Dungeon Ghyll (144 m from the start, straight line)

On the Langdale Pikes Round route:

possible water source (7 m off the line) shelter (weather shelter, mapped, not checked; 6 m off the line) New Dungeon Ghyll (110 m from the start, straight line)

Treat water from the fell before you drink it. A mapped point is not proof the water is drinkable, so carry your own or use a supply you know is safe. Never drink untreated from a beck, stream or tarn — even clear-looking hill water can carry giardia or cryptosporidium from livestock upstream and leave you seriously ill. Use a treatment method suited to what might be in the water, and follow the device’s own instructions. Boiling and ordinary filters do not make water with dissolved metals or chemicals safe: where that is possible, choose another source.

On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.

About Pavey Ark

Wainwright described the approach from the valley with its dramatic build-up to the crag as one of the great walk-ins in Lakeland. The views back down to Stickle Tarn from the summit rim are stunning. The summit gives excellent views along the Langdale ridge and north towards High Raise.

Field notes

As you can see from the route I took in the map below I took my time trying to find the Wainright summit of Pavey Ark - not knowing I had already claimed it and I could have spared the hilarity of the stranger who was almost walking in lock-step with me over from Harrison Stickle. In most circumstances you would just visit the true summit and not walk down toward's Easy Gully - which didn't didn't look easy from my vantage point. In fine weather the view from the summit is dominated by Stickle Tarn and over to Tarn Crag. This definitely would be in my top 10 list of favourite fells.

— Lee McCoy, who walked it on our Langdale Pikes Round route in June 2024

My Strava hikes over Pavey Ark

1 logged hike pass over this summit:

8 Wainwrights today - had some catching up to do! (opens in new tab) — 14.5 km · 1013 m ascent · 4h 23m moving · 1 June 2024

Data from Strava.

Classifications & hill data

Is Pavey Ark a Wainwright?

Pavey Ark is a Wainwright. It is also on the Birkett list, the Synge list, the Nuttall list and the Fellranger list.

Selected lists

702 m

Height

2,302 ft

In feet

NY 2845 0790

Grid ref

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 Pavey Ark

The 360° skyline from Pavey Ark

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

North-east: Dollywaggon Pike (8 km), High Crag (8 km), Fairfield (8 km), Cofa Pike (8 km), Nethermost Pike (9 km), Helvellyn (9 km), Helvellyn Lower Man (9 km), St Sunday Crag (10 km), Gavel Pike (10 km), Stybarrow Dodd (12 km), Great Dodd (14 km)
East: Great Rigg (8 km), Hart Crag (9 km), Dove Crag (9 km), Red Screes (11 km), Stony Cove Pike (14 km), Thornthwaite Crag (15 km), High Street (16 km), High Raise (17 km)
South: Swirl How (7 km), Grey Friar (8 km), Great How (8 km), Brim Fell (10 km), The Old Man of Coniston (10 km)
South-west: Crinkle Crags (4 km), Crinkle Crags (5 km)
West: Esk Pike (5 km), Great End (6 km), Ill Crag (6 km), Broad Crag (7 km), Scafell Pike (7 km), Great Gable (8 km), Scafell (8 km)
North-west: Looking Steads (4 km), Glaramara (5 km), Sail (15 km), Wandope (15 km), Crag Hill (16 km), Grasmoor (17 km), Grisedale Pike (17 km)

On the clearest days the far horizon adds: Snowdon (168 km, Wales), Carnedd Llewelyn (156 km, Wales), Cairnsmore [Black Craig of Dee] (98 km, Scotland), Great Whernside (79 km, England), Y Garn (162 km, Wales), Winter Hill (100 km, England), Buckden Pike (74 km, England), Shalloch on Minnoch (120 km, Scotland).

Computed from Copernicus GLO-30 terrain; distant tops from the Database of British and Irish Hills v18.4 (opens in new tab) (CC BY 4.0). See how we compute the view · and the summit intervisibility report below.

Sunrise and sunset on Pavey Ark

Pavey Ark sits close to the flat-horizon case. Even on its longest wait of the modelled year (on 1 May) first light is only 9 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	04:45 BST ±5.0 min	04:37	+8 min
Equinox	06:15 GMT ±5.0 min	06:15	—
Midwinter	08:27 GMT ±5.0 min	08:33	-6 min

The northern horizon stands at about 0.92° from here.

Last light — when the sun leaves Pavey Ark

The evening here runs close to the flat-horizon case. Even on its earliest evening of the modelled year (on 1 March) last light is only 16 minutes before almanac sunset, so the published sunset time is a fair guide on Pavey Ark.

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	21:55 BST ±5.0 min	21:52	+3 min
Equinox	18:12 GMT ±5.0 min	18:26	-14 min
Midwinter	15:36 GMT ±5.0 min	15:49	-13 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 Pavey Ark

On a clear day — computed sightlines, curvature- and refraction-corrected.

63Wainwrights in view+11 marginal

168 kmFurthest sightlineSnowdon (Yr Wyddfa) · possible under favourable refraction

1Sea in viewMorecambe Bay

On the clearest days the view reaches across to Wales and Scotland.

Far horizons

Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) WalesSSW · 168 km clear
Carnedd Llewelyn WalesSSW · 152 km clear
Merrick ScotlandNW · 117 km clear
Ingleborough Yorkshire DalesSE · 57 km clear
Whernside Yorkshire DalesESE · 52 km clear
Morecambe Bay bay/estuaryS · 36 km in view

All 63 Wainwrights in clear view (nearest first)

Thunacar Knott, Harrison Stickle, Sergeant Man, Pike of Stickle, Blea Rigg, Tarn Crag (Easedale), Lingmoor Fell (Brown How), Pike of Blisco, Gibson Knott, Bowfell, Silver How, Helm Crag, Crinkle Crags - Long Top (Second Crinkle), Esk Pike, Steel Fell (Dead Pike - Steel Fell), Stone Arthur, Wetherlam, Loughrigg Fell, Scafell Pike, Seat Sandal, Great Carrs, Nab Scar, Heron Pike (Rydal), Swirl How, Great Rigg, Scafell, Grey Friar, Holme Fell, Dollywaggon Pike, Fairfield, Black Fell, Nethermost Pike, Low Pike, Hart Crag, High Pike (Scandale), Helvellyn, Dove Crag, Brim Fell, Dale Head, High Spy, St Sunday Crag, The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man), Hindscarth, Red Screes, Robinson, Baystones (Wansfell), Stybarrow Dodd, Stony Cove Pike (Caudale Moor), Ard Crags, Causey Pike, Thornthwaite Crag, Scar Crags, Sail, Sour Howes, Ill Bell, Wandope, Yoke, Crag Hill (Eel Crag), Sallows, High Street, Grasmoor, Grisedale Pike, High Raise (High Street)

How the view from Pavey Ark 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 Pavey Ark. 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.

Places to stay near this fell

From Great Langdale: 3 places in Grasmere

Frequently asked questions about Pavey Ark

How hard and how dangerous is Jack's Rake?

Jack's Rake is a Grade 1 scramble that cuts diagonally up the face of Pavey Ark. Although 'only' Grade 1, it is steep, committing and exposed, the rock is polished, and because the groove acts as a natural drainage channel it is wet and slippery after rain. It is a well-known accident hotspot that has claimed lives.

Only attempt it if you're a confident scrambler, in dry conditions, with a head for heights — and never in wet, ice or strong wind. Once committed it is hard to retreat.

Sources: British Mountaineering Council — Jack's Rake (opens in new tab)

Can you climb Pavey Ark without doing Jack's Rake?

Yes — and most walkers do. From Stickle Tarn a path skirts to the right (north) of the crag and climbs gentler ground to the summit (the North Rake area), avoiding the cliff entirely with no scrambling.

So you can enjoy Pavey Ark and its tremendous views over Stickle Tarn without ever setting foot on Jack's Rake. If in any doubt about the Rake, take the walkers' route.

Sources: Langdale Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team (opens in new tab)

How do you get to Pavey Ark, and how long does it take?

The usual approach is from the New Dungeon Ghyll in Great Langdale, up the popular Stickle Ghyll path to Stickle Tarn — about 45–60 minutes to the tarn, from where the cliff (and the start of Jack's Rake) is in full view.

Allow roughly 3.5–4 hours for a round taking in Pavey Ark and Harrison Stickle, longer for a fuller Langdale Pikes circuit.

Sources: The Great Outdoors — Jack's Rake route guide (opens in new tab)

Is Pavey Ark suitable for beginners or children?

By the walkers' route, yes — a fit beginner or sure-footed older child can reach the summit on the path that avoids the crag. Keep well back from the cliff edge at the top, which drops sheer to Stickle Tarn.

Jack's Rake is not for beginners or children — it's a serious, exposed scramble with a grim accident record. Don't take an inexperienced party onto it.

Sources: Langdale Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team (opens in new tab)

What should I wear and take for Pavey Ark?

Wear proper walking boots with good grip and carry warm, waterproof layers — even the walkers' route is a proper fell. Take a map and compass: the broad plateau behind the summit (toward Thunacar Knott) is featureless and the crag edge is close by.

If you intend Jack's Rake, go only in dry, settled conditions with scrambling confidence — and have the sense (and a plan) to switch to the walkers' route if the rock is wet or the weather turns.

Sources: MWIS — Lake District forecast (opens in new tab)

Questions from Google’s “People also ask”. · Last updated 2026-06-14 · Suggest a question or correction (opens in new tab)

Pavey Ark

Summit conditions on Pavey Ark

Wind on the top

Rain, and the becks

Routes up Pavey Ark

How hard is Pavey Ark, really?

Conditions and 7-day summit forecast

Parking & buses for Pavey Ark

Parking

Buses

Hazards on Pavey Ark

Hazard & Incident Information for Pavey Ark

Navigating in cloud

If you need Mountain Rescue

Map, GPX and nearby Birketts

Birketts within 3 km of Pavey Ark

Routes over Pavey Ark

On the hill: terrain and water on Pavey Ark

Water & shelter on the way up

About Pavey Ark

Field notes

My Strava hikes over Pavey Ark

Classifications & hill data

Is Pavey Ark a Wainwright?

Selected lists

The view from Pavey Ark

The 360° skyline from Pavey Ark

Sunrise and sunset on Pavey Ark

Last light — when the sun leaves Pavey Ark

What you can see from Pavey Ark

Places to stay near this fell

Frequently asked questions about Pavey Ark

Other fells near Pavey Ark