MAP: Ordnance Survey Explorer 31 (1:25,000) and Landranger 91 (1:50,000)

FURTHER READING: You’ll find frequent visits to Cross Fell, particularly for the skiing, described in the writings of the late and much-missed A. Harry Griffin, as well as many other incidental pleasures from this finest of outdoor writers on the Cumbrian and Westmorland fells. Try his

Adventuring in Lakeland (Robert Hale, 1980) in particular.

FACILITIES: Plenty of pubs, cafés and chip shops in Alston, and a fine bothy, Greg’s Hut, named in memory of the keen skier and mountaineer John Gregory, who was a devotee of Cross Fell. The bothy, at 2400ft, to the north-east of Cross fell summit, was originally a blacksmith’s shop for the nearby and long-disused lead mines. It was restored by the Mountain Bothies Association as an open shelter in the early 1970s.