Is Clough Head a Wainwright?
Yes. Clough Head is one of the 214 Wainwrights: number 5 of 35 in Book 1, The Eastern Fells, of Alfred Wainwright’s Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells.
Climbing Clough Head from roadside parking by the Old Coach Road
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Clough Head is 726 m high, 74th of the 214 Wainwrights by height, and belongs to the Eastern Fells in Book 1. This route starts from free roadside parking beside the Old Coach Road, at about 150 m. The nearest bus stop is Blencathra House in Threlkeld, about 1.4 km away in a straight line, served by the 559.
The line is 2.7 km long and gains about 570 m, and it climbs from the start with no level stretch. It reaches about 340 m at 1 km and 580 m at 2 km, then eases a little over the last 200 m to the top at 726 m.
The first 400 m follow the Old Coach Road, a track with a gravel surface on the map. From there the route takes a path, with a short piece of track, that OpenStreetMap grades hiking for the rest of the way. No cairn or trig pillar is mapped at the summit, and the final few metres leave the mapped path.
About 2 km of the line crosses open access land, and only 33 m touch a public footpath. Everything beyond the Old Coach Road, about 2.3 km, is on paths the landowner opens by permission rather than public rights of way, and about 290 m of that is outside the access land. The Old Coach Road stretch, about 400 m, is on none of these in the data.
The GPX file is the same line, from the parking to the summit. Return the same way, or plan a longer walk with a map before you set out.
Download the GPXFree. The route is © OpenStreetMap contributors and the file is released under the Open Database Licence: you may copy, share and adapt it.
Where Clough Head stands
Nearest Wainwrights
- Great Dodd2.2 km away · 857 m
- High Rigg2.6 km away · 356 m
- Watson's Dodd3.0 km away · 789 m
- Stybarrow Dodd3.7 km away · 844 m
- Hart Side3.8 km away · 756 m
Straight-line distances between summits.
All the fells in The Eastern FellsAll 214 Wainwrights
Map and route data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.
Heights along the route from OS Terrain 50. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (NaPTAN, Bus Open Data Service, Lake District National Park Authority rights of way).
Access land © Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.
Heights, grid references and summit positions come from The Database of British and Irish Hills v18.3, used under CC BY 4.0.