The Far Eastern Fells

The Nab

The Nab summit cairn, looking south to Rest Dodd with The Knott on the left and Red Screes on the Right.
Photograph taken: 13th April 2017

The Nab summit cairn, looking south to Rest Dodd with The Knott on the left and Red Screes on the Right.
Photograph taken: 13th April 2017
Looking down on The Nab from Rest Dodd. The peat hags across the ridge are clearly visible and even though the ridge path skirts to the east (right), it's not possible to avoid them completely.
Photograph taken: 13th April 2017

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Location map for The Nab

Wainwright top at The Nab

Context

The Nab is a Wainwright in The Far Eastern Fells area of the Lake District National Park.

Location

Grid Ref: NY 43428 15197
BNG e,n: 343428,515197
Lat/long: 54.528878,-2.875657
GeoJSON: [-2.875657,54.528878]
///W3W: magical.immediate.awards
Feature: small cairn

Elevation

Height: 576m / 1,890ft
Drop: 61.0m
Rank: 138 / 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

Rest Dodd: 1.7km; 182m; 37min

Details

There is one viable route from The Nab

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

2577

Local

Birkett, Synge, Wainwright

Birkett: Lake District hills over 1,000ft listed in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells. There are 541 Birketts, 211 are also Wainwrights.
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

Dewey, Dodd

Dewey: Hills in England, Wales, and the Isle of Man that are at least 500m high and less than 609.6m (2,000ft) with a drop of at least 30m on all sides. There are 31 Wainwrights in this class.
Dodd: Hills in Scotland, England, Wales, the Isle of Man, and Ireland between 500m and 599.9m high with a drop of at least 30m on all sides. There are 29 Wainwrights in this class.

Notes

This fell is not included in Mark Richards' Fellranger list. In his chapter on Rest Dodd, he says of The Nab, “…but for Martindale Deer Reserve [it] would be considered a separate fell…”. He does concede that, “…many walkers will correctly consider their round of all the fells incomplete without visiting the summit…”.

Geology

Bedrock

Whelter Knotts Tuff Formation

BGS code

WLT

Type

Igneous (extrusive)

Age

449.0 – 458.4 Ma

Period

Ordovician

Parent

Borrowdale Volcanic 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

This igneous rock is formed in bedded units of tuff that vary in grain size from fine-grained tuff to coarser-grained lapilli-tuff. Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected during a volcanic eruption. They are often referred to as pyroclastic deposits.

Daylight

Tuesday, 9th June 2026

Daylight

17 hours 12 minutes

Dawn