High Seat

About High Seat

Rising above the steep eastern wall of Mallerstang, this peat-crowned Hewitt is the Yorkshire Dales’ fourth highest summit. It is a remote moorland plateau marking England's primary east-west watershed, offering a superb perspective of the limestone scars on Wild Boar Fell and the deep, green trench of the River Eden below.

Key Statistics

Find It

Did You Know?

• •The name derives from the Old Norse 'sæti', meaning a seat or high pasture, a common term in the Pennines for flat-topped hills that command a significant view over the surrounding landscape.
• •The summit plateau acts as a major hydrological hub for the north of England; the peat bogs here are the shared birthplace of three significant rivers: the Eden, the Swale, and the Ure.
• •While it is surpassed in height by Whernside and Ingleborough, this fell holds the geographical distinction of being the highest point on the main east-to-west watershed of England within the Yorkshire Dales.
• •A popular ridge walk connects the summit to its neighbour, Hugh Seat, where Lady Anne’s Pillar stands as a monument to Sir Hugh de Morville, one of the four knights who assassinated Thomas Becket in 1170.
• •The terrain is notoriously uncompromising; the plateau is a labyrinth of 'black groughs' and peat hags that can easily swallow a walking pole or a boot if you spend too long admiring the view towards the Lake District fells in the west.