Dunmallet, sitting at the foot of Ullswater, Seen from Arthur’s Pike. Note the Ullswater steamers landing stage.
Summit: The Dunmallet chapter has just one summit, at 775’ above sea level. Note that on OS maps and the signposts, the hill is called Dunmallard Hill — though Wainwright insists that ‘Dunmallet’ is how it is known locally.
Volume: Book 8 (The Outlying Fells)
Date bagged: First visit: 28th June 2014 (walk 84). Second visit: 6th February 2017 (walk 124).
The woods of Dunmallet. Somewhere round here is the summit.
Bagged as number: First round: 262 of the 330. [ << Heughscar Hill (261) (263) Stainton Pike >> ].
Second round: 88 of 330. [ << Rossett Pike (87) (89) Little Mell Fell >> ]
Route of ascent and descent: The only place one can climb from or return to is Pooley Bridge town centre. There are options for varying the journey from the one depicted on page 215 of Wainwright however: plenty of paths mean the hill can basically be ascended and descended anywhere from the ‘circular route’ indicated on the signposts and which encircles the fell’s base (though is not a level walk by any means).
What Mr Wainwright says (from page 214 of volume 8): “Dunmallet is the prominent hill at the foot of Ullswater, wooded from tip to toe and looking not at all suitable for a fellwalking expedition. Nor is it, the only attraction being a pleasant woodland path and, for a learned few, the remains (barely distinguishable) of a fort that probably dates from early Celtic times when the hill was a bare rocky mound, and is thought to have been abandoned when Dacre Castle was built.”
Dunmallet, with the Pennines behnd
What I say: With a review like that one wonders why Wainwright saw fit to include it in volume 8 in the first place. There is not even the reward of a view at the summit, this beating even Raven Crag or Claife Heights as “summit of a Wainwright with the most trees on it”. However, though one might become a bit grouchy about having to temporarily forsake the fleshpots of Pooley Bridge below, in order to bag this afforested mound, I guess it isn’t a bad walk. It can be done up and down in 25 minutes and the woods are pleasant enough. However, the summit is undeterminable with any certainty.
The 214 Wainwright fells: without a car 
[…] walk took me to two of the remaining Outlying Fells, Heughscar Hill and Dunmallet, but also to three of the summits in Wainwright’s volume 2, namely Bonscale Pike, Loadpot […]
[…] could start and finish fairly early. It took me from Pooley Bridge at the foot of Ullswater, over Dunmallet, Little Mell Fell and Great Mell Fell: not particularly exciting walking, but what I needed, and […]