Cold Fell Cycling Guide

Experience Cold Fell cycling for a remote, exposed, and wonderfully quiet ride through the western fells.

Direction: North to South: Ennerdale Bridge to Calder Bridge​

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Overview

Cold Fell is the loneliest climb on this list: few visiting cyclists have heard of it, fewer still have ridden it, and that's exactly what makes it worth including. It sits in the quieter western fells, away from the honeypot valleys, with a genuinely different character from anything else on the Fred Whitton route.

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The Details

• Distance: 3.5km

• Elevation gain: 167m

• Average gradient: 4.5% 

• Maximum gradient: 12% (A sharp drag out of the village)

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History & Character

The high, windswept lane of Cold Fell marks a deeply layered cross-section of Cumbrian history, heavily tied to the region's ancient survival networks and old administrative boundaries. Long before it became a tarmac route for the Fred Whitton Challenge, this high mountain pass operated as a critical, unclassified medieval drove road. Coastal farmers from the Irish Sea lowlands would use the pass to herd vast numbers of cattle and sheep up into the higher fells for summer grazing, or navigate the high ridges to reach the regional livestock markets surrounding Calder Abbey. The remote nature of the fell essentially forced travellers to look out for their own safety, as the high common land was entirely exposed to the elements and cut off from the main low-level trading hubs.

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The road itself passes within a few metres of the Kinniside Stone Circle at Blakely Raise: a small but genuinely striking prehistoric monument, easy to miss if you're not looking for it, but a rare piece of ancient history sitting right beside a modern road. This modest Bronze Age ring consists of eleven small granite stones arranged on a level natural terrace known as Blakely Moss. However, the monument holds a fascinating and rather murky local backstory: in the 18th century, a local farmer dismantled the entire circle to use the heavy stones as gateposts for his fields. The circle sat ruined and scattered until 1925, when a local physician named Dr Quine of Frizington single-handedly reconstructed it, setting the bases of the stones permanently in concrete. While historians still debate how accurately his 20th-century reconstruction mirrors the original Bronze Age layout, its quiet setting amid the open moorland lends a deeply atmospheric, prehistoric presence to the climb.

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Further up the pass, the cultural history takes on a more understated, literary tone. Alfred Wainwright, in his guide to the Lake District's outlying fells, was famously vague about how to actually find Cold Fell's true geographic summit, explicitly telling readers who couldn't locate it with a map to simply give up: a fittingly understated introduction to one of the district's least-visited hills. On a clear day, however, the historical boundary markers give way to an industrial marvel. As you crest the high plateau, the open horizon is completely dominated by the massive, stark silhouette of the Sellafield nuclear complex sitting out on the coast. It is a striking visual juxtaposition: riding past an ancient Bronze Age monument while staring directly at the cutting edge of Britain’s 20th-century atomic history.

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What to Expect

By Lakeland standards it isn't a brutal climb with a modest gradient throughout and rarely pitching hard.  Its reputation has definitely grown due to its later position on the Fred Whitton route. The climb launches straight out of the quiet village of Ennerdale Bridge, immediately breaking your rhythm with a sharp, double-digit kick up through a narrow, tree-lined lane that ramps into the low teens for the first half kilometre. Because this opening stretch is sheltered by dense hedgerows and woodland, you are well protected from any initial valley winds, but the abrupt transition will have you dropping quickly into your easiest gears to keep momentum.

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Once you clear this initial gatekeeper ramp and cross the lower cattle grid, the trees vanish completely, and the true character of Cold Fell reveals itself. The gradient noticeably eases, settling into a long, rhythmic moorland drag that locks in at a steady 5.1% average gradient for the next two miles. Ridden fresh, it's a genuinely pleasant, wild stretch of road with big sky views that most of the Lakes' more famous climbs don't offer. The tarmac is wide, open, and well-engineered, allowing you to settle into a comfortable cadence.

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However, the open nature of this high plateau is a complete tactical double-edged sword. Because the high common is entirely bare and devoid of any tree cover or rock walls, it acts as a total weather trap. If you get caught out here when a freezing western gale is blowing in off the Irish Sea, the headwind turns this rolling, modest incline into a brutal, exhausting treadmill where keeping the bike moving feels like riding through wet cement.

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The real challenge of Cold Fell is its length and topography; it is an attritional climb that constantly twists past false horizons. It goes on and on, making it notoriously difficult to judge exactly where the high plateau actually ends. But if the weather behaves, the visual reward is unmatched. The open horizons let you look back toward the high western fells, take in a clear outlook across the low level Cumbrian coastal plain, and on a clear day, see all the way out to the silhouette of the Isle of Man sitting on the water. 

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Guide's Experience

Cold Fell is an interesting one. If you roll out of Ennerdale Bridge with fresh legs on an isolated loop, it is a beautifully scenic, highly manageable spin that never aggressively forces you out of the saddle. The tarmac is surprisingly rolling and wide. However, on the Fred Whitton course, this climb plays a completely different role. It strikes right after you have already conquered the mid-day hammer blows of Honister, Newlands, and Whinlatter. Coming so late in a brutal ride, its modest 4.5% average gradient becomes incredibly deceptive.

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The opening stretch out of the village kicks into a bit of a steep drag, and because the landscape quickly opens out into a completely bare, windswept moorland, there is absolutely nowhere to hide from the elements.  However, I guess the real psychological sting of Cold Fell is its length and topography. It is a long, draggy climb that constantly twists past false horizons. It goes on and on, which will have you constantly looking at your Garmin trying to work out when it actually ends.

 

But if your legs hold together, it is a magnificent place to be. From rolling past the ancient stones of the Kinniside Stone Circle at the midpoint provides the perfect, low-speed excuse to look left and take in the prehistoric scenery, to the great views at the top. 

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This climb features in our Fred Whitton Epic & Classic tours.​