Cold Fell

About Cold Fell

Standing as the northernmost two-thousand-foot summit of the Pennines, this broad, windswept Marilyn offers a distinct sense of isolation. Its grassy slopes rise above the Eden Valley, providing an expansive vantage point over the Solway Firth towards the Southern Uplands and the distant, sharp skyline of the Lake District fells.

Key Statistics

Find It

Did You Know?

• •The name is a literal descriptive from the Old Norse 'fjall', meaning mountain or high ground. Given its exposed position at the northern edge of the range where it meets the full force of weather coming off the Solway, the 'Cold' prefix is a centuries-old warning to travellers.
• •It holds the distinction of being the most northerly Hewitt (Hill in England and Wales over Two Thousand feet) in the entire Pennine chain. To its north, the high ground drops away significantly toward the Tyne Gap before the land rises again into the Cheviots.
• •The summit offers a rare, clear-day sightline across the Solway Firth to the hills of Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland, while looking south provides a formidable view of the massive, flat-topped bulk of Cross Fell, the highest point in the Pennines.
• •The fell acts as a major catchment for the River Gelt; the water filters through the deep peat hags of the summit plateau to form the brooks that eventually carve the steep-sided, wooded Gelt Woods further downstream.
• •In a mountain range known for its uncompromising weather, naming a peak Cold Fell feels less like a geographical label and more like a direct warning from the locals who first mapped it.