Lovely Seat

Lovely Seat, originally known as  Lunasett until being misnamed by map makers some time in the twentieth century, is a fell in the Yorkshire Dales National Park in North Yorkshire, England. It reaches a height of 675 metres (2,215 feet). It is situated at grid reference three miles (five km) north of the town of Hawes, and is part of the high ground which separates Wensleydale from Swaledale. It is the highest point of Abbotside Common. The fell is separated from its neighbour to the west, Great Shunner Fell, by the Buttertubs Pass which carries the minor motor road between Hawes in Wensleydale and Thwaite in Swaledale. The name Lunasett derives from the Norse dialect moon pasture; Commoners of Abbotside still use the original name.

The fell is very rarely climbed directly from the valley and is usually ascended from the top of the Buttertubs Pass in conjunction with nearby Great Shunner Fell. The latter is climbed first from Hawes or Thwaite using the Pennine Way, after which it is a short walk to descend to the top of the pass and then climb to the summit of Lovely Seat following a fence which helps navigation in bad conditions.

The summit is adorned by a fair-sized cairn and a stone-built chair, and gives good views of the Yorkshire Three Peaks to the south. 300 metres west of the summit are a series of stone cairns which are clearly visible on the skyline when the fell is viewed from a distance.

Footnote

 * 1) Lovely Seat was added to the list of Marilyns in 1998, but was resurveyed in May 2010 and found to lack the required 150m prominence to qualify for inclusion and therefore has been removed from the list.