Grey Knotts
mountain in United Kingdom

Grey Knotts is a fell in the English Lake District. It is situated one kilometre (2⁄3 mile) south of the B5289 road as it crosses the Honister Pass. It is well seen from mid-Borrowdale as it rises above Seatoller. Grey Knotts reaches a height of 697 metres (2,287 feet) and is part of a ridge which ascends from the woodland behind Seatoller and continues south-west and then south for four kilometres to Great Gable. The fell's name really only applies to the summit rocks, but has been adopted for the entire fell with the high ground in this area, locally known as Seatoller Fell on Ordnance Survey maps.
Topography
Grey Knotts is a "Wainwright" fell and also qualifies as a Nuttall, but this must be considered a borderline case, as it barely has the required 15 metres of prominence to the adjoining higher fell of Brandreth.
All the highlights of Grey Knotts are situated on the eastern (Borrowdale) side of the fell, Raven Crag, known as Gillercombe Buttress to rock climbers. It is a popular area for bouldering, using the large number of large boulders that have become detached from the main crag. There are also several conventional climbing routes up the main crag. Gillercomb (spelled like this on map) is a fine example of a hanging valley from which issues the stream of Sour Milk Gill, which descends into Borrowdale in a series of picturesque cascades.
The public source identifies “Grey Knotts” as mountain in United Kingdom. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Grey, Knotts and mountain.
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The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5608186. Authority coordinates are 54.503, -3.208. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Grey Knotts” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.