Ether Knott

Rising above Borrowdale, this craggy summit marks the highest point of the sprawling Grange Fell plateau. It offers a rugged, characteristically Cumbrian landscape of heather and volcanic rock. From the cairn, the view down the Jaws of Borrowdale towards Derwentwater provides a classic perspective on the heart of the Lake District.

• •The name derives from the Old Norse 'knutr', meaning a rocky hill or 'knot', while 'Ether' likely stems from the Old English 'edre', meaning a watercourse, or the Old Norse 'eitr', referring to adders or sharp, cold winds.
• •Although Alfred Wainwright titled the chapter in his Pictorial Guide 'Grange Fell', he correctly identified the cairn on Ether Knott as the true summit of the entire fell complex.
• •The summit offers an exceptional view of the 'Jaws of Borrowdale', a dramatic narrowing of the valley where the slopes of this fell and Castle Crag almost meet, framed by the distant Skiddaw massif.
• •The surrounding land was part of the National Trust’s first major acquisition in the Lake District; it was purchased in 1910 as a memorial to King Edward VII following a public appeal led by Princess Louise.
• •The summit plateau is so densely packed with confusing rocky outcrops and heather-clad knolls that reaching the actual highest point often requires a fair amount of 'peak-testing' on several nearby rocks just to be sure.
• •It is a popular inclusion for those ticking off the Synges—a list of Lake District hills compiled by Tim Synge based on the work of Alfred Wainwright.