Gavel Pike

About Gavel Pike

Rising as a rocky shoulder off the south-eastern ridge of St Sunday Crag, this rugged Birkett offers a dramatic vantage point over the depths of Deepdale. It provides a sharper, more intimate perspective of the crags leading toward Fairfield than the main summit, with a character defined by its steep, craggy eastern face.

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Did You Know?

• •The name derives from the Old Norse 'gafl', meaning a gable-end. This describes the hill's appearance from the floor of Deepdale, where it appears as a steep, triangular gable at the end of the ridge.
• •While excluded from Alfred Wainwright’s pictorial guides, the fell was championed by Bill Birkett. He argued that Gavel Pike’s position provides a far superior perspective of the rugged Link Cove and the face of Fairfield than the actual summit of St Sunday Crag.
• •The summit offers a particularly clear, head-on view of Cofa Pike—the sharp, rocky tooth on the ridge connecting Fairfield to St Sunday Crag—which looks significantly more formidable from this specific angle.
• •It is most commonly visited as a brief detour from the main path climbing from Deepdale Hause. The terrain here is noticeably rockier and more 'alpine' in feel than the gentler grassy slopes found further north on the main ridge.
• •Gavel Pike serves as an excellent litmus test for hill-bagging dedication; thousands of walkers pass within a two-minute stroll of its cairn every year, yet most remain blissfully unaware they have bypassed a summit.