The Northern Fells

Mungrisdale Common

The small summit cairn at Mungrisdale Common is rather underwhelming after a long, damp trudge. This view looks west to the Skiddaw massif with Lonscale Fell on the left.
Photograph taken: 14th April 2018

The small summit cairn at Mungrisdale Common is rather underwhelming after a long, damp trudge. This view looks west to the Skiddaw massif with Lonscale Fell on the left.
Photograph taken: 14th April 2018
The main characteristic of Mungrisdale Common is that it is wet. Getting to the “summit” is an exercise in dodging pools of open water. This view looks to the tiny summit cairn (centre) with Bakestall and the slopes of Skiddaw on the left, and Great Calva on the right.
Photograph taken: 23rd August 2023
The view of Mungrisdale Common from Great Calva summit with Blencathra behind. Wainwright: “…the Common, from whatever side it is seen, has no more pretension to elegance than a pudding that has been sat on.”
Photograph taken: 24th April 2022

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Location map for Mungrisdale Common

Wainwright top at Mungrisdale Common

Context

Mungrisdale Common is a Wainwright in The Northern Fells area of the Lake District National Park.

Location

Grid Ref: NY 31055 29228
BNG e,n: 331055,529228
Lat/long: 54.653414,-3.070111
GeoJSON: [-3.070111,54.653414]
///W3W: regularly.flushes.tripling
Feature: small cairn

Elevation

Height: 633m / 2,077ft
Drop: 2.4m
Rank: 121 / 214

Details: Locating Wainwright tops

It's easy to make the mistake of thinking that the Wainwright top is at the true summit of a fell. For many fells in the 214, this is not the case. Wainwright often chose a top because of its aspect or view rather than its height. This is what sometimes makes finding the Wainwright tops so confusing.

Locating a top is also complicated by the fact that features change over time. Cairns come and go, some grow and some shrink, fence posts are added or removed. Although the summit sketches in Wainwright's guides and the photographs in this guide are useful aids for identification, the features shown are subject to change, especially on popular fells. See Fleetwith Pike for an example of how cairns change.

Important: The accuracy of GPS on smartphones is ±5m at best but could be as much as 8m out. Please bear this in mind when using the location data.

Route planning

Fells

Bannerdale Crags: 2.7km; 85m; 40min
Blencathra: 2.4km; 252m; 53min
Bowscale Fell: 3.3km; 105m; 50min

Details

There are 3 viable routes from Mungrisdale Common

The Wainwright guides indicate “ridge routes” from each fell and although this is useful, it doesn't always allow for effective route planning. The routes shown here are the Wainwright ridge routes (indicated with ) plus any other viable routes (indicated with ), not necessarily linked by a ridge. This list provides a more comprehensive network of potential routes that can be used when planning days out on the fells.

All routes have been plotted in the OS Maps app. The distance, ascent and time values are those given for the plotted routes. Time values are for moderately fit walkers without breaks. They should therefore be considered minimum values for the purposes of route planning.

Classification

DoBIH No

2340

Local

Synge, Wainwright

Synge: Lake District hills over 300m listed in Tim Synge's The Lakeland Summits. The book aims to list every significant summit over 300m in height within the National Park, 646 in total. It includes all 214 fells in Wainwright's Pictorial Guides, including Castle Crag at 290m.
Wainwright: Lake District hills included in volumes 1-7 of Wainwright's A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells. There are 214 Wainwrights in all. This is a curated list, not based on height criteria.

National

Unclassified

Unclassified: A hill with no national classification.

Notes

Only Wainwright and Synge believe this fell to be worthy of independent fell status, and even Wainwright isn't sure. “There is little… to provide even a passing interest for an ordinary walker, and nothing at all to encourage a visit”.

Geology

Bedrock

Kirk Stile Formation

BGS code

KST

Type

Sedimentary (marine)

Age

458.4 – 477.7 Ma

Period

Ordovician

Parent

Skiddaw Group

Details

Members, formations and groups

Member: A smaller unit of rock that shares common charateristics and features, often used in geology to describe specific layers within a formation.
Formation: A larger unit of rock that is distinct from other formations above and below. A formation may include two or more members.
Group: A stratigraphic unit that includes two or more associated formations that are usually contiguous or contain significant features in common.
Suite: A geological unit containing intrusive, highly deformed, or metamorthic rocks of the same type, lacking discernable stratification.
Complex: A geological unit containing intrusive, highly deformed, or metamorthic rocks of different types, lacking discernable stratification.

Notes

These sedimentary rocks are marine in origin. They comprise coarse- to fine-grained slurries of debris from the continental shelf flowing into a deep-sea environment, forming distinctively graded beds. They form thinly laminated to very thinly bedded dark grey siltstones and mudstones. They are underlain by the Loweswater Formation and overlain by the Eycott Volcanic Group.

Daylight

Tuesday, 9th June 2026

Daylight

17 hours 14 minutes

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