Rannerdale Knotts

Rannerdale Knotts guarding Buttermere

Height: 355m (1,165ft)
Prominence: 66m (217ft)
Region: North Western Fells
Classifications: Wainwright, Birkett
Summit feature: Cairn
Times climbed: 2
Related trip reports:
Whiteless Pike, Grasmoor, Hopegill Head & Whiteside - 27/09/2015
Rannerdale Knotts - 18/04/2014

The summit cairn and its superlative view of Buttermere

What Wainwright said:

"Rannerdale is seen by most visitors to Buttermere - but only as a farm and a cottage and a patchwork of fields on the shore of Crummock Water. Alongside the fields, and thrusting as a headland into the lake, is the abrupt and rugged end of a low fell. This is Rannerdale Knotts, a mountain in miniature".

Rannerdale Knotts is one of the smaller Cumbrian hills and is overlooked by a number of surrounding fells, such as Grasmoor, Whiteless Pike and, across Crummock Water, Mellbreak. Despite this, Rannerdale Knotts is said to be the site of a battle between the native Cumbrians and Norsemen and the invading Normans in the late 11th or early 12th century.

The battle is thought to have taken place in the side valley of Rannerdale where the Norman army was ambushed and defeated by the native Britons and Norsemen at the Battle of Rannerdale though little historical evidence is available to support the story.

Thanks to its location, views from Rannerdale Knotts are superb, stretching the length of Buttermere and Crummock Water.

Return to Lake District – North Western Fells