The largest notch has had part of its floor filled in by a small lake and swamp and is a dramatic gritstone boulder-strewn feature.

These notches are thought to have been cut by meltwater flowing south-west from the area of Littledale, along the side of a glacier which occupied the Quernmore valley.

Clougha can be reached from the west, by a pleasant path that travels up its slopes by Rowton (spelt variously) Brook and then diagonally up the final steep broken rock section.

On a clear day views from Clougha Pike extend to Snowdonia, the Ribble Estuary, the Isle of Man (directly behind Barrow-in-Furness), the fells of the Lake District and many of the Pennine hills.

Clougha Pike was one of the lowest of the 100 hills included in Trail magazine's 2007 list of "Britain's Greatest Mountains".