Hoad Hill

Hoad Hill and the Hoad Monument: quick facts

Hoad Hill is the grassy hill that rises directly above the market town of Ulverston in Cumbria, on the edge of the Lake District. On its summit stands the Sir John Barrow Monument, known locally as "the Hoad". It is a 100-foot tower built in 1850 in the style of the Eddystone Lighthouse, so the walk up is often called the Ulverston lighthouse walk.

Question	Answer
How long is the Hoad walk?	4.2 km (2.6 miles) with 120 m of ascent, starting and finishing in Ulverston town centre
How long does it take?	1.5–2 hours, including time at the monument
How hard is it?	Graded Easy: a short, steep pull up the front of the hill, with a gentler track for the descent
What is the Hoad monument?	A memorial to Sir John Barrow (1764–1848), the Ulverston-born Second Secretary to the Admiralty and a founder of the Royal Geographical Society. It looks like a lighthouse but has never held a light.
Can you go inside?	Only on occasional open days, run by volunteers when a flag flies from the tower. Check locally before you go.
Where do you park?	Pay-and-display car parks near Coronation Hall (LA12 7LZ), such as Brewery Street; Ulverston railway station is a short walk away
Is it dog friendly?	Yes, on a lead: sheep and cattle graze the hill
What can you see from the top?	Morecambe Bay, the Leven estuary and the southern Lakeland fells

Looking for more walks near Ulverston? See our Ulverston & Furness walks, or follow the new Westmorland & Furness Way, which passes through the town on its way to Furness Abbey.

Who was Sir John Barrow?

The monument on Hoad Hill honours one of Ulverston's most remarkable sons. Sir John Barrow was born in 1764 in a small cottage at Dragley Beck, on the edge of the town, the son of a tenant farmer. After a spell on a Greenland whaling ship and time as a tutor and diplomat — including an embassy to China and years in South Africa — he became Second Secretary to the Admiralty, a post he held for around forty years.

From the Admiralty, Barrow championed British exploration, promoting expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage through the Arctic and to chart the interior of Africa. His name lives on across the map, from Barrow Strait in the Canadian Arctic to Point Barrow in Alaska. He was a founder of the Royal Geographical Society in 1830, and he also wrote a bestselling account of the mutiny on HMS Bounty. His birthplace cottage still stands at Dragley Beck.

A lighthouse without a light

The monument was built in 1850, two years after Barrow's death, and paid for by public subscription. Its design is based on Smeaton's Eddystone Lighthouse off Plymouth — a fitting tribute to a man of the Navy — and at around 100 feet tall it is visible for miles around the Furness peninsula and across Morecambe Bay. It has a lantern chamber at the top but has never shown a working light.

The monument is cared for by a local trust and opened by volunteers on selected days; the flag flying from the top is the traditional signal that it's open.

Stan Laurel's hometown

Ulverston's other famous son is Stan Laurel, born Arthur Stanley Jefferson on Argyle Street in 1890. A bronze statue of Laurel and Hardy stands outside the Coronation Hall, where this walk begins, and the Laurel and Hardy Museum in the town is a treasure trove of memorabilia and film clips — a great rainy-day stop, especially with children.

More to explore in Ulverston

• Ulverston Canal — opened in 1796 to link the town with Morecambe Bay, it's often described as the shortest, widest, deepest and straightest canal in England. Its level towpath makes an easy, pushchair-friendly stroll.
• Swarthmoor Hall — just south of the town, this Elizabethan manor is regarded as the birthplace of the Quaker movement; George Fox stayed here with Margaret Fell in the 1650s.
• Birkrigg Common — a breezy limestone common above the bay with a small Bronze Age stone circle, often called the "Druids' Temple", and big views across the sands.
• Festivals — Ulverston calls itself a festival town, and its calendar includes a lantern procession in the autumn and a Dickensian Christmas festival. Check the town's events listings before you visit.

Morecambe Bay: beautiful but dangerous

From the summit of Hoad you look out over the vast sands of Morecambe Bay, which at low tide form one of the largest areas of intertidal mudflats and sand in Britain. They're beautiful, but notoriously dangerous: the tide comes in faster than a person can run, and quicksand and shifting channels have claimed many lives. Never walk out onto the sands on your own. Cross-bay walks are led by the official King's Guide to the Sands, a role dating back centuries, and are the only safe way to experience them.

Getting there and where to go next

Ulverston station is on the Furness Line between Lancaster and Barrow-in-Furness, a short walk from the town centre, and regular buses link the town with Kendal and Barrow. Ulverston also marks the start of the Cumbria Way, the 70-mile long-distance path to Carlisle, which climbs north through the Lake District via Coniston and Tarn Hows, Great Langdale and Borrowdale. For a much longer trans-Cumbria adventure, the Westmorland & Furness Way passes through the town on its way to Furness Abbey.

For more short, view-packed climbs, try Gummer's How above Windermere, or head into the fells for the Old Man of Coniston, about half an hour's drive north.

Guide last updated 2 October 2026.