Great Calva

Height: 690m (2,264ft)

Prominence: 142m (466ft)

Region: Northern Fells

Classifications: HuMP, Hewitt, Nuttall, Wainwright, Birkett

Summit feature: Cairn

Times climbed: 1

Related trip report:

Great Calva. Knott, Great Sca Fell, Meal Fell & Great Cockup – 17/04/2016

What Wainwright said:

“Great Calva occupies a splendid position overlooking the broad depression of Skiddaw Forest, with which it seems to be inseparably associated with, more so than even Skiddaw itself. The symmetrical pyramid neatly fills in the head of the valley opening south between the Skiddaw and Blencathra massifs”.

Great Calva is distant from roads and quite remote by Lakeland standards. It stands at the head of a major geological fault running through the centre of the Lake District, and so from the summit it is possible to see all the way south over Thirlmere.

A cairn stands at the top of the south ridge with another a little to the north at the highest point. The remains of an old fence runs between the two. A few yards east of the summit a stone windshelter has been constructed. There is some rock in evidence but grass and heather predominate.

The view southward, particularly from the lower cairn is unexpectedly good. Looking directly down the Glenderaterra Valley and the Vale of St John, the gap gives an unimpeded view as far as Loughrigg and Steel Fell.

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