Great Carrs

Great Carrs from Swirl Hawse

Height: 785m (2,575ft)
Prominence: 20m (66ft)
Region: Southern Fells
Classifications: Nuttall, sub Hewitt, Wainwright, Birkett
Summit feature: Cairn
Times climbed: 3
Related trip reports:
Dow Crag via the South Rake & the Coniston Fells - 09/12/2018
A Greenburn Round - 23/07/2017
The Coniston Round - 17/05/2014

The cairn perched on the summit outcrop

What Wainwright said:

"Curved like a scythe, the shapely ridge rising from the fields of Little Langdale to the crest of Rough Crags and climbing gradually thence along the rim of Wet Side Edge to a lofty altitude between deep valleys. The airy summit of Great Carrs follows at once, a splendid perch on the edge of the profound abyss of Greenburn".

Great Carrs stands above Wrynose Pass in the southern part of the Lake District.

Swirl How is the highest of the Coniston Fells and sends out a long sickle-shaped ridge first north and then curving around to the east. Great Carrs is the high point of this ridge, which continues as Wet Side Edge. Great Carrs, in common with many fells, has easy slopes to the west and crags to the east. These crags, falling directly from the summit, form the head of Greenburn.

The ridge southward to Swirl How is named Top of Broad Slack, Broad Slack being a steep grassy slope climbing out of Greenburn between the crags. This is the site of a wartime air crash and bears the sad remains of a Royal Canadian Air Force Handley Page Halifax bomber. The undercarriage, together with a wooden cross and memorial cairn is on the top of the ridge with the rest of the wreckage spread down Broad Slack.

The summit of Great Carrs is marked by a small cairn on grass, perched above the rocky abyss of the head of Greenburn. The view to the north takes in serried ranks of fells while in other directions the Isle of Man and Pennines can be seen.

Return to Lake District – Southern Fells