Arnside Knott

About Arnside Knott

Rising above the Kent Estuary, this limestone hill provides a coastal perspective often missed by those heading deeper into the Lake District. Its wooded slopes and open pavements offer a gentle climb with wide-reaching views across the shifting sands of Morecambe Bay and towards the higher Lakeland summits.

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Did You Know?

• •The name derives from the Old Norse 'Arni’s saetr', meaning the summer pasture or shieling of a Viking settler named Arni. The suffix 'Knott' is a common Cumbrian term for a rocky or craggy hill.
• •At 159.1 metres, this is officially the lowest Marilyn in England. It only secured its place on the list of hills with 150 metres of prominence following a precision GPS survey in 2010, which confirmed it met the criteria by a slim 80-centimetre margin.
• •The hill is a premier site for lepidopterists, being one of the few places in England to host the Scotch Argus butterfly. The insects thrive here on the limestone-rich grasslands, alongside the rare High Brown Fritillary.
• •From the summit, the view across the Kent Viaduct is exceptional. On a clear day, the panorama extends to the distinctive flat-topped profile of Ingleborough in the Yorkshire Dales and the jagged silhouettes of the Langdale Pikes to the north.
• •The northern slopes were once home to the Arnside Golf Club, which operated from 1906 until the Second World War. While the course is long gone, the National Trust now uses Highland cattle to graze the land, helping to maintain the delicate ecological balance of the scrub.
• •Despite being the shortest of England's Marilyns, the hill refuses to be overlooked, ensuring its summit remains crowded by both rare butterflies and particularly photogenic, long-haired cattle.