The strange story of Gragareth

Gragareth (pronounced ‘grey-greth’ by locals) is a funny beast. It was promoted to county summit of Lancashire in 1974, when the northern edge of the historic county of Lancashire (including part of the Lake District) was pulled into the newly created Cumbria, depriving Lancastrians of the Old Man of Coniston. But new data from Ordnance Survey suggests it may now have lost the title to Green Hill, which sits two miles north of Gragareth’s trig point on the same broad plateau and is apparently one metre higher. That said, the whole massif is still commonly referred to as Gragareth, and the highest point of Green Hill is totally unmarked, meaning that Gragareth’s trig point still remains the county high point you can actually reach and know you’ve done it.

Either way, Gragareth’s most famous landmark is indisputable: the enigmatic cairns known as the Three Men of Gragareth, which stare out over the moorland from a commanding viewpoint above Leck Fell House on the west flank of the mountain.