Last updated: October 2026
Bleaklow Head Ethel
A few years ago, I shared a rather bold statement: “I’m not a summit bagger”.
In the post, I talked about why I love going to the mountains and how they make me feel. The scale, spaciousness and quiet always puts things into perspective, giving me a reset from everyday life.
That’s still how I feel in the mountains but, hand on heart, I’m not sure I can stand by the claim not to be a summit bagger anymore. The thing is, I have a list of Lake District Wainwrights that I’d like to tick and I’ve been slowly working my way through the list of Peak District Ethels.
What are the Peak District Ethels?
The Ethels are 95 Peak District hilltops over 400m above sea level, plus some significant lower prominent hills. They were mapped and released on a smartphone app in 2021 by the CPRE for Peak District and South Yorkshire.
Why are they called Ethels?
The group of hills are named after Ethel Haythornthwaite who founded the CPRE in 1924. She was a leading environmentalist, helping to protect wild areas in the Peak District from development by organising their purchase for public access.
She also played a huge part in creating the Peak District National Park (Britain’s first national park). So, without Ethel Haythornthwaite, we may not have the Peak District National Park.
Where are the Peak District Ethels?
The Ethels cover the whole of the Peak District National Park, including the six county tops of Cheshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, and Greater Manchester.
They include:
The Sixers - 4 hills with summits over 600m
The Fivers - 27 hills with summits at 500m or more
The Sub-Fivers - 37 hills with summits at 400m or more and 27 prominent hills with character lower than 400m
Whether you want a wild and desolate high moorland walk in the Dark Peak, or a gentle, rolling wander in the White Peak, there’s something for everyone.
How does the Ethel Ready app work?
The app displays all the Ethels in two ways:
Alphabetically in a list
Located on an interactive map
The alphabetical list of Ethels
This shows the following details for each Ethel:
Name
Height (m)
Grid reference
Whether it’s a trig point
Whether there’s a route for that Ethel in the app
A tick box to record completion (where you can adjust the date)
By clicking on an individual Ethel, you can access more information. This includes a brief write up about the Ethel, whether it’s a County Top, and any access information.
Some Ethel summits are on private land, so you may need to tick it from the nearest accessible point (shown on the map view).
The map view of Ethels
By using the map view, you can see which Ethel’s are near your current location. You can also check whether any are close enough to tick in one walk.
I also look at the map view when close to a summit top that doesn’t have a trig point, helping me locate the right spot.
One thing I love about the map view is the three different views. You can filter as follows:
The location of all 95 Ethels (with completed ones filled in)
The location of all completed Ethels
The location of all Ethels still left to walk
That last view is a great way to plan where you want to go next.
What’s the best way to walk the Peak District Ethels?
There are tons of ways to walk the Ethels:
Join them all up for a long challenge in one go.
Make it a life long challenge by ticking a few each year.
Do one at a time.
Tick three or four together on a longer walk.
And all the different ideas in between!
We started walking Ethels by geographical location. Because we live on the northern boundary of the Peak District National Park, we began by working our way south.
At first it was north of the Woodhead Pass, then Snake Pass, then the next road down, and so on. But we’ve got so far through now that we’re just kind of picking where we feel like going next.
We’ve walked 75 of the 95 Ethels, so there’s just 20 left to tick. They’re all furthest away (maybe we should have started with those 😂) but we’re enjoying exploring new corners of the Peak District - a place we thought we knew well until we started walking the Ethels.
Route ideas for the Peak District Ethels
If you’re looking for inspiration and route maps, the best bet is to do a Google search. You’ll find some great blogs, but here are three I’ve looked at in the past:
The Wandering Wildflower - great if you want someone else to do all the planning for you and can cope with the amount of pop up ads.
The Walking Englishman - a bit of a clunky website, but I have used it once or twice to find routes.
UK Hillwalking - well-known website listing all the Ethels and handily putting them into broad geographic locations - you can also subscribe to the list and tick to complete.
👆 just a few pics of our Ethel summits
You may also be interested in reading:
Walking the Peak District Ethels (will be published 30/10/2026)
Walk: Wessenden and West Nab (8.5 mile walk via Deer Hill Reservoir and Meltham)
Walk: Wessenden and Black Hill on the old and new Pennine Way routes
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