Chapelfell Top
700m (2298ft)
The North Pennines, County Durham, England
You can find Chapelfell Top & all the walks that climb it on these unique free-to-access Interactive Walk Planning Maps: (click/TAP to select)
1:25,000 scale OS Explorer Map (the ones with orange/yellow covers):
1:50,000 scale OS Landranger Maps (the ones with pink/magenta covers):
Chapelfell Top on our free-to-access 'Google Style' Peak Bagging Map:
See Chapelfell Top and the surrounding tops on our downloadable PDF Peak Bagging Map:
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Vital Statistics:
| Length: | 9ml (14.5km) |
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| Ascent: | 1,651ft (503m) |
| Time: | 5 hrs |
| Grade: |  (Moderate) |
Route Summary:
St John's Chapel - Thatch Mires - Chapelfell Top - Fendrith Hill - Swinhope Moor - Dora's Seat - Swinhope Head - Swinside House - Daddry Shield - River Wear - Weardale - The Weardale Way - St John's Chapel
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Vital Statistics:
| Length: | 14ml (22.5km) |
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| Ascent: | 1,979ft (603m) |
| Time: | 7 hrs |
| Grade: |  (Hard) |
Route Summary:
St John's Chapel - Thatch Mires - Chapelfell Top - Fendrith Hill - Swinhope Moor - Dora's Seat - Swinhope Head - Westernhope Moor - Black Hill (Westernhope Moor) - Littlewood Farm - Brotherlee - Shield - River Wear - Weardale - The Weardale Way - Westgate - Daddry - St John's Chapel
Fellow go4awalkers who have already walked, climbed, summited & bagged Chapelfell Top
Caroline Winter walked up Chapelfell Top on July 20th, 2022 [from/via/route] Lay by at cattle grid on Swinhope head. First walked Westernhooe moor, then fence line to Chapelfell Top. [with] Solo [weather] Warm & humid. - Fence line passing ski lift, & then at trig, right along fence to reach the top. Hot weather meant no boggy sections to negotiate. Hopped over corner of fence to find highest point, by a ditch. One of the rare days here that there isn't a drop of wet ground underfoot, so used GPS, then decided to pace from fence. Also, made my way to a stick in the ground, but this appeared lower.
Kevin Foster climbed Chapelfell Top on September 15th, 2018 [from/via/route] Walk du145 from Saint John's Chapel. [with] Henry. [weather] Sunny to start but then clouded over. - The walk begins with a direct but very pleasant approach to Chapelfell Top via a lane immediately behind the Golden Lion pub. After the lane is left the going does get tough for a while but eases a bit when the man made gulley cut through the peat hags directs you to the small summit cairn itself. This gutter which is very wide in places is then followed to a shallow col & a slight rise of barely 50 feet to the next top, Fendrith Hill,which has The nicest views of the whole walk into Teesdale. The second half of the walk over Westernhope Moor & the descent over Black Hill is a bit of a slog but the return along the river Wear to the starting point following the Weardale Way more than compensates for it.
Darren Mortimer bagged Chapelfell Top on July 21st, 2018 [from/via/route] Road side [with] Dermot Palmer [weather] Overcast & warm
Mark Davidson hiked Chapelfell Top on May 25th, 2007 [with] Alone [weather] Sunny, warm & dry - just lovely
Christine Shepherd summited Chapelfell Top on September 14th, 2016 [from/via/route] Walked from St. John's Chapel using walk du145 but as the weather was deteriorating I went back to Swinhope Head after Westernhope Moor & went down the road. [with] On my own [weather] Warm but the sun never burnt the mist off which swirled around me all day. - With the mist swirling around the peat hags, I missed the narrow gully to Chapel Fell Top but after retracing my steps, after a feeling that I had overshot the summit, I was pleased to find I was only about 20 metres or so from the cairn. From then on, the gully & then the fence made route finding easy. Very, very boggy though.
Ray O'hara conquered Chapelfell Top on February 4th, 2013 [weather] 60 MPH winds, ground frozen, small amounts of lying snow. - Probably would have been boggy in a few places, but the ground being frozen made it quite pleasant.
Patrick Rogozinski, Kate Colbrook, Paul Booth and Trevor Williams have all walked, climbed & bagged Chapelfell Top.
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