Great Gable at the head of Wastwater

Great Gable

Height899m (2,949ft)

Prominence425m (1,394ft)

RegionWestern Fells

Climbed5 Times

"Great Gable is a favourite of all fellwalkers, and first favourite with many. Right from the start of one's apprenticeship of the hills, the name appeals magically. It is a good name for a mountain, strong, challenging, compelling, starkly descriptive, suggesting the pyramid associated with the shape of mountains since early childhood." — A. Wainwright

Standing centrally at the head of Wasdale, Ennerdale, Borrowdale, and Langdale, Great Gable occupies a commanding position in the Lake District. Its iconic, symmetrical pyramid profile from Wasdale is instantly recognisable, earning the fell a permanent place as the central feature of the Lake District National Park's official logo.

To rock climbers, Great Gable is hallowed ground. Its southern crags—the Great Napes—were the crucible of British rock climbing. It was here in 1886 that Walter Parry Haskett Smith completed the first solitary ascent of Napes Needle, a dramatic detached pinnacle of rock. This historic climb is widely regarded as the birth of rock climbing as an independent sport in England.

Great Gable's summit plateau

The rocky, boulder-strewn summit plateau features a famous memorial plaque fixed to the rock adjacent to the highest point. Dedicated in 1924 by the Fell and Rock Climbing Club, it commemorates 20 members who lost their lives in the First World War. Every year on Remembrance Sunday, hundreds of walkers make the steep pilgrimage to the summit to observe a silent two-minute tribute surrounded by the high fells.

Whether approached via the classic traverse from Honister, the steep ascent from Wasdale Head via Moses' Trod, or as part of the popular horseshoe with neighboring Green Gable, reaching the top demands a proper scramble over scree and rock. The reward is a 360-degree panorama over almost every major mountain group in Cumbrian country.